THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1913. BEET SUGAR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 17 January 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1913. BEET SUGAR.

I The possibility -of the establishment of the beet sugar industry .in New Zealand -has long teen under discussion, but private enterprise' ha£ not vet made a definite move in the mat* ter. Experiments in the cultivation of cthe sugar beet have been successfully conducted in various parts of the Waikato .district, and, there is-reason to tiiinlc that, with prudent management, the beet sngflr, industry,.wwM be made a source of very-;t»a.sidjeral>m revenue to the farmers of ".!.>> Donre ion. It is interesting to note that the of England are turn- 1 ing their attention to sugar beet. A large factory ha* been established in Norfolk by a Dutch coin? ar.y, under the management of M. vai Rossun. Contributions to its activity, say* the "Daily Mail," camo in from all parts of England, from Lincolnshire, \orkshire, JKewbf ■" and from people as far as the small bolder and tho Dutco of Bedford " By iar the most of the material.is supplied, however, by Norfolk O'SS" Suffolk farmers, who have so far* supplied 35,000 tons of sugar beet. The factory, the machinery of which is of the newest design, has a capacity of turning out 150 tons of sugar a day, and doaling with the produce of 10,000 acres in one "campaign" or hundred day'< 4 activity. This factory is only a tentative beginning. "J have come over," M. van Rofsun says, "not to start one factory but a. number, and for this factory I want not 3500 of beet but 10,000.A dozen suggested factories are waiting on the result of the Norfolk pioneers. Germany, it may be noted, is less suitable for sugar than England, but yet suceeds in producing over two million tons of beet, it remains to be seen whether this attempt will suceed in reducing the £21,000,000 which England gives yearly to the foreigner for her sugar. The result depends on the English fanners. Sugar beet is ono of the tnost difficult crops to harvest, and in this it differs widely from the mangold, turnip and swede. "Your fanners.'' the Dutch manager told a Daily Mail representative, "are clever fellows. They do not like to work too bard. Still, the Norfolk roots have so far provided at least as good a -proportion, of sugar as any foreign roots, and the yield i-s over 10 tons per acre. There is every likelihood that the Dutnh. who years ago drained what are now the most fertile parts of Eastern England, will prove .England's benefactors in this aecnnd vers two."