Something about sugar

by George M. Rolph

The next noteworthy attempt was made at Chatsworth, Illinois, in 1863 by the brothers Gennert, who came from Braunschweig, Germany, and who were familiar with the methods of beet-sugar making. They formed the Germania Beet Sugar company, planted a thousand acres of land in beets and sent to Europe for machinery, but their highest extraction of sugar from the beet-roots was only 5.5 per cent. Weather conditions were unfavorable and the soil they selected was not suited to beet culture, so six years of effort ended in failure and the loss of more than a quarter of a million dollars. The plant was removed to Freeport, Illinois, where the final result was disaster.

Otto and Bonesteel, two Germans, established a factory at Fond-du-lac, Wisconsin, in 1866,[31] and during the two following years they achieved some measure of success. Subsequently, they moved to Alvarado, California, where they began operations in 1870. They managed to keep their factory running for a few years, but finally gave up the struggle in 1876.

In 1872 the state of New Jersey passed a law providing that all capital and property employed in the raising of sugar beets should be free from taxation for ten years. New ventures were undertaken in California, Delaware and Maine, and these states stimulated the industry by bounties, or tax exemption, or both. A factory was built at Hartford, Maryland, in 1879, but it was afterward abandoned, and the only going concerns engaged in the manufacture of beet sugar east of the Alleghanies during recent years were the small plants in New York at Rome and Lyons. Dismantled in 1905 and 1911, respectively, part of the machinery of the former was moved to Visalia, California, and the latter plant in its entirety to Anaheim, California.

All of these failures were traceable to the lack of practical knowledge of beet culture and the making of sugar from beet-roots. Then, too, the agricultural lands at first selected were unsuited to the purpose and the seed used up to the year 1890 gave beets of a low sugar content, from 6 per cent to 8 per cent. The development of the Western states gave the beet-sugar industry a permanent place in California, and a little later in Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

BUILDING IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, IN WHICH THE FIRST BEET-SUGAR MACHINERY BROUGHT TO THE WEST WAS INSTALLED

E. H. DYER. THE FATHER OF BEET SUGAR IN AMERICA

The California Beet Sugar Manufacturing company was organized by E. H. Dyer and C. S. Hutchinson in 1869 with $250,000 capital and a factory was erected at Alvarado on Mr. Dyer’s ranch. Otto and Bonesteel were induced to leave Fond-du-lac, Wisconsin, and come west to assume the management. Operations were begun in 1870 and on November 17th of that year the first beet sugar was made in California. The factory and equipment cost $125,000; the daily capacity was fifty tons of beets and one hundred and twenty-five men were employed. Between one thousand and fifteen hundred acres were planted in beets, the factory paying $3.50 per ton for them. The finished product cost about ten cents a pound, while the market price ranged from twelve to fifteen cents a pound. The first year’s output was 250 tons, the second 400 tons, the third 562 tons and the fourth 750 tons. Then financial troubles came and the plant was closed. The machinery was sold to a new concern, which built a factory at Soquel, Santa Cruz county. This enterprise failed in 1876, but the plant was put in operation again in 1880, when 150 tons of sugar were produced. That was the end of the Soquel venture.

In 1879 Mr. Dyer bought the buildings and land of the old California Beet Sugar Manufacturing company, and, with O. F. Giffin, formed the Standard Sugar Manufacturing company, with a capital of $100,000. Subsequently a reorganization was effected under the name of the Standard Sugar Refining company and the capital was increased to $200,000. The machinery and diffusion batteries of a plant built at Brighton by some Sacramento people about eight years previous were purchased and installed at Alvarado in buildings newly erected for the purpose. While it is true that in the operation of this company there was a constant struggle to overcome obstacles and difficulties, it is nevertheless a fact that it achieved success from the beginning. In 1884 the capacity of the mill was increased to 100 tons of beets per day, but disaster overtook the concern toward the end of 1886. Two of the boilers exploded, making it impossible to operate during the season of 1887-88.