SUGAR-BEET INDUSTRY.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 313, 12 July 1898, Page 3

SUGAR-BEET INDUSTRY.

The following letter, addressed to Mr Craig, of San Francisco, has been handed to us by Mr W. A. Graham for publication : Referring to the letter of April 12th, IS9S, addressed to you by Mr W. A. Graham, of New Zealand, it would be difficult to give him in a letter such specific and detailed answers to his questions on the growing of sugar beets and the manufacture of beet sugar as to enable any person without some experience to pass definite judgment on the matter. Outside of California there are but two factories (in Nebraska) and one in Utah, where the results, as we learn, have not on an average been gratifying, therefore this State possesses the best experience in this country on the agricultural and manufacturing problem involved in the business. The writer and his friends are interested in two enterprises, one of which at Alvarado has successfully operated for several years, the other is now under construction near Santa Maria. We think we have the best chemical and mecnanical experts that are in the beet sugar business, and our manager has made several visits to Germany and France to study the farming, chemical and mechanical methods employed there. We are quite convinced that our new factory will, in point of equipment, be up to the best in existence, and, as compared with German methods of arrangement, we will be quite ahead in the practice in the economy of labour. This leads up to the suggestion that we would plan and build all the machinery here for a plant and guarantee its successful working for a fixed amount of money, and, at the expense of your friends, we could furnish a man to make the site selection, superintend the erection and start the plant. Answering now the questions : —l. The expense here for seed, ploughing, cultivating, harvesting, and delivery of beet crop is from 20dol. to 25d01. per acre. 2. We do not know of a prospectus in existence. 3. We advise the following of our most recent decision to put up a factory building capable of holding machinery for 100 U tons beets per day, but to equip it at first for 500 tons. The same number of men will handle 500 tons as will be required for 300 tons, and the original cost of plant is not in the direct ratio of capacity. •1. The machinery of a 500 ton factory would cost about 300,000d01. This does not include factory buildings and site. The cost of these would depend upon the character and cost of the material used, whether iron, stone or brick. Our estimate for the factory referred to in 3 above was 50(),000dol., completed in all respects and ready for operation, including detached boiler-house and boilers, lime kiln and house, pumps, beet sheds, etc. 5. Our experience is that according to the quality of the beets we get from 10 to 14 per cent, white sugar, oO per cent, pulp, 8 to 10 per cent, lime scums, 3 per cent, molasses. 6. We pay 4dol. per 20001 b. for beets delivered at factory, 2dol. per ton for lime rock and about 7dol. for coal. 7. If you put up a plant costing r>oo,ooodol., it would be advisable to capitalize for 1,000,000d01,, half of which would be expended in a factory, say 100,000dol. for working capital and the balance to be used in purchasing suitable land, \vhereby you could control your own crop to a great extent and thus keep yourselves independent of the moods and combinations of the farmers. Experience has made it necessary that Sugar Companies should be the owners of a considerable portion of the lands upon which their supply of beets is cultivated. A factory site should have not less than 200 acres, and among other prime requisites there should be an unfailing supply of water. The best technical literature on the subject of beet sugar is in French and German, and u very voluminous. I know of none in English. If your friend contemplates pioneering in the business iu New Zealand, his best course is to adopt my suggestion of having a factory erected after American ideas with all their efforts towards labour saving, and then he will be paying nothing for the experience that has been so costly in the pioneering work here. We know that we are ahead of the European methods, which do not economize labour, because it is plentiful and cheap.—Yours very truly, John L. Howakd.