The Louisiana planter and sugar manufacturer was one of three major publications which regularly covered the sugar industry in America. Much of their writings were reprints of articles and letters in local newspapers. In 1897, Gus Hansen a German immigrant living in Orange County wrote back to his old friends in Chicago, and his letter was published in the Chicago Post, a “well-known German newspaper of that city.”
Volume 19
28 AUGUST 1897 –
Beet Sugar in California.
We take the following from the Chicago Evening Post, a well-known German newspaper of that city, of recent date:
“From Anaheim, Orange county, California (about twenty-tlve miles southwest of Log Angeles), the Post has received the following communication:
” Editors Evening Post: For many years I was a resident of Chicago and conducted a wholesale business in the handling of produce until about three years ago. when I removed to southern California. I still continue to take the Evening Post. I see by its news columns that times are not any better. Since my residence here I have become a farmer, and my principal product is raising sugar beets for the new Alamitos sugar factory, which was erected last winter. In my opinion this is the very section where a man of some means can do well—a good living is assured and a small surplus can be put aside.
The cultivation of the sugar beet pays well; and the climate is of the best, there being lots of sunshine. We harvest from seven to twenty tons per acre. The factory pays $3.25 per ton for 12 per cent, beets, and for every additional per cent. 25 cents more. The beets raised by me show 16 per cent., so I will get $4.25 per ton. The price of land is $50 to $100 per acre, and beets are raised without irrigation, which give a higher per cent, than can be reached in any other locality. Beets that show 20 per cent, are plentiful, and the highest test has shown some to go 26.2 per cent. This year there was planted for the Alamitos factory 3500 acres, and for the Chino factory (60 miles from here) 4000 acres. Next year—in consequence of an increase in the tariff on raw sugar—I expect to see this acreage doubled.
‘The climate here is very pleasant, the thermometer has not shown over ’90 deg., and the nights are always cool. There are a great many Germans engaged in the cultivation of sugar beets here.
“I herewith send you a copy of the Anaheim Gazette, which contains the sugar beet test Of last week. Respectfully, Gus Hansen.”‘
The Evening Post publishes the following editorial:
In the copy of the Anaheim Gazette of July 29, which was sent us, we see an article on the harvesting of sugar beets for one week and the shipments from the stations of Anaheim, Buena Park and Benedict, averaging between 600 and 700 tons daily, and with the information that the Chino sugar factory had telegraphed that the shipments should be increased to 1100 tons daily.
The sugar test list to which our correspondent calls our attention shows that sixty-one farmers delivered beets and that the lowest percentage was 14.3. The general average was 17.5, and several beet farmers delivered beets that tested 21.2, 21.3 and 22.9 per cent. A correspondent from Los Alamitos writes that
the average at that point was 18.o per cent., and stated that one farmer who had fifty acres of new land in beets was harvesting 21 tons to the acre, and at an average price of $4.50 per ton his land would yield him $94.50 per acre. But this is undoubtedly an exception, but shows what careful cultivation will accomplish.
This is a splendid outlook that we here behold, and it can not be doubted that the neglected ‘■ corner of our country” is the best place for the cultivation of the sugar beet, and through this fact win for itself fame. The Gazette, which we quote from, also shows another interesting item in that the new tariff should further benefit the beet raiser, and further states that the Alamitos factory had contracted for beets at $2.75 and $3 per ton of 12 per cent, beets, whereas the Chino factory was paying $3.25 per ton, and asks the farmers (notwithstanding the higher tariff on raw sugar), who expected a better price, how this suits them. This paper figures out that the factory, out of a crop of 110,000 tons of beets, will manufacture 40.000.000 pounds of sugar, and at a profit of two cents per pound will clear $800,000 over arid above all expenses. A few years ago, when the price of beets was $3.50 per ton, the Chino Sugar Company sent a notice to each beet raiser, in which it stated that they would raise the price 25 cents per ton if the sugar bounty (2 cents a pound) would again be adopted.
The factory owner, therefore, offered that by the making of $800,000 on 40.000.000 pounds of sugar, out of 110.000 tons of beets, they would generously give the farmers $27,000, or, in other words, to these 600 fanners they would give $43 apiece and put the remainder of the $800,000, which is $772,500. into their own pockets. The Gazette is of the opinion that a profit of $800,000 a year is sufficient, and requesting the government to make them a present of a like amount is all wrong.
Senator Perkins is commended on his stand against the re-enactment of the sugar bounty clause, and it is hoped that it may never be heard of again. Such proof coming from the heart of the sugar beet paradise should for all time silence the cry for a sugar bounty, and should at the same time teach a low tariff on raw sugar. The tariff has been raised 95-hundredths for the very reason to assist the sugar beet raisers, and notwithstanding this the Alamitos sugar factory reduces the old price of $3.25 to $2.75 and $3 per ton for 12 per cent, beets.—Anaheim Gazette.