SUGAR BEETS.
A number of vegetables contain a noticeable amount of sugar. The onion is one of these Peas and corn are sweet. Stalks of corn yield sugar. Fruits of many kinds have a high per centage of sugar. Grains and root vegetables , must also be counted, and the sap of many species of trees.
But the world's supply of sugar depended from the beginning of civilization, and probably long before, upon the sugar-cane of the Tropics. It is not strange that the more progressive peoples of temperate regions came to feel a fear that this important foodstuff might fail, in time, to supply the growing demand. Tropical agriculture is not scientific. Coolie labor produces the crop of cane, and the overseers are not men who would direct a fight against a new disease or insect enemy of the cane as men of colder regions would. What would a sugar famine mean? The question confronting the scientist and the commercial world was this: Isn't there a sugar plant of the Temperate Zones to take the place of the cane? Nobody could name one. The next question was : Cannot a sugar-producing plant be bred up to fill the great need? Germany and France furnished the trained scientists whose patience and skill solved the problem. Vegetables of various sorts were tested for sugar. Beets were found that tested as high as 3 per cent. sugar. It was decided to work for the improvement of the beet as a sugar plant.
Seed of the plants that gave the highest sugar test were saved and planted. The new crop was carefully examined, and only those saved to pro duce seed which had most promise. Again and again the process of seed selection was repeated, and very gradually the sugar content rose. The
establishing of beet-sugar mills and the perfecting of processes of extracting and refining the product did not interfere with the work of improving the strains of sugar beets. It is still practised. Every beet seed grower with enterprise is at this work, bringing the strain he sells to a higher sugar content. The average per cent. has doubled in the past hundred years. Individual beets have tested as high as 25 per cent. That means one quarter of the beet's weight is sugar. Fields have averaged 14 per cent.
Beets are furnishing to-day a large part of the sugar of the world. The amount of sugar con sumed has greatly increased within fifty years, so it is fortunate that a second source of the raw material for its manufacture has been found. Europe is far ahead of America still in the beet sugar industry. California and Colorado are the chief sugar-producing states. The natural advan tages of a mild climate with plenty of sunshine give California the advantage. The beets contain a higher percentage of sugar than those of any other country. The season lasts practically throughout the year, which keeps the mills busy, and a vast army of workers continuously em ployed.
The beets are planted in rows with a drill, and carefully tilled. They are dug by machines, but hand work is required to cut off the tops with the leaves attached. Slicing by machinery follows.
The pulp left after the sugar has been extracted is put down in silos, or fed fresh to cattle. The molasses is converted into alcohol.