IC-NRLF 
 
 SOb 
 

 
 REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MANUFACTURERS' COMMITTEE 
 
 OF 
 
 The Chamber of Commerce, 
 
 OF 
 
 PORTLAND, OREGON, 
 
 OX THK 
 
 BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY. 
 
 THK LKUIS & DRVDKN PRINTING COMPANY 
 PORTLAND, OR KG ON. 
 
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R E PO R T 
 
 OF THK 
 
 MANUFACTURERS' COMMITTEE 
 
 The Chamber of Commerce, 
 
 OF 
 
 PORTLAND, OREGON 
 
 ON THE 
 
 BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY. 
 
 1891. 
 
 THK L,E\VIS & DRYDEN PRINTING COMPANY. 
 PORTLAND, OREGON. 
 
PORTLAND, Oregon, Feb. 7, 1891 
 
 To the Portland Chamber of Commerce: 
 
 GENTLEMEN, Your Committee on Manufactures report upon 
 the communication you referred to them relative to the manu- 
 facture of beet sugar in Oregon, and the request of Mr. Charles 
 Grissen in same communication. Mr. Grissen is a resident of 
 McMinnville, Oregon, is well known to and highly recommended 
 by many of our leading merchants, and requests that this Chamber 
 give him a general letter of introduction to use upon his visit to 
 Germany, where he contemplates going soon, and such financial 
 aid as in their judgment this Chamber may give him, all aid so 
 furnished to be used for the purpose of gaining information 
 abroad upon the beet sugar industry there, and the possible 
 future introduction and cultivation of the sugar beet in Oregon 
 and its manufacture into sugar. Your committee, after giving 
 consideration to many facts upon this industry, which make part 
 of this report, and the possible aid that Mr. Grissen may be able 
 to give our state by the obtainment of the facts that he purposes 
 to gather, and the possibility of interesting German capitalists 
 and labor in that industry here, are constrained to ask this 
 Chamber that the first request of Mr. Grissen be granted and 
 that a general letter of introduction be furnished him, signed by 
 the president and secretary, under seal. Regarding the second 
 request, your committee cannot recommend that an appropri- 
 ation of money be made for this purpose, preferring to leave to 
 the Chamber further action in this matter, if by them deemed 
 necessary. Mr. Grissen proposes further to interest German 
 manufacturers of beet sugar in the climate and soil of Western 
 Oregon and its adaptability to this special industry. Having 
 given much attention to this subject, he well maintains that 
 there is no section in the world better adapted to the cultivation 
 of the sugar beet than our Willamette valley and the coast coun- 
 ties, and that if the German manufacturer can be induced to 
 come over here, investigate through experiment for himself or 
 
 M27695 
 
. V r S*' : \ * 4 
 
 send his 'representative to'; do so, he will soon be induced to 
 interest foreign 'capital irf this manufacture here. Your com- 
 mittee have given this matter considerable attention since it was 
 referred to them, and believe Mr. Grissen's view is the correct 
 one. From comparisons with experiments abroad ours are very 
 encouraging. In Europe, where for the past seventy years the 
 beet sugar manufacture has been in successful operation and 
 where for the past one hundred and forty years they have been 
 experimenting in its cultivation and manufacture, the present 
 average per cent, of yield of sugar from the beet is g}4 to 10 per 
 cent. In Germany, however, where this industry has been 
 carried to its greatest perfection, the per cent, for season of 1889- 
 90, according to German tables, was 12.55 P er cent. At Al- 
 varado, California, where the beet sugar industry has been 
 carried on for twenty years and in successful and profitable 
 opperation for the past ten years, the per cent, of yield is 10^ 
 per cent ; at Watsonville, California, according to report to 
 department of agriculture for season of 1888-89, from a produc- 
 tion and manufacture of over 14,000 tons beets with an average 
 polarity of 14.65, the per cent of sugar recovered was 11.65 P er 
 cent. 
 
 In Oregon, Professor Irish, of the Agricultural College at 
 Corvallis, says the following per cent, of sugar was obtained in 
 beets from the different sections of the state : 
 
 Medford, 5.50 per cent ; The Dalles, 8.40 per cent. ; Beaver- 
 ton, 8.50 per cent. ; Corvallis, 8.41 per cent. ; Oak Ridge, 9.75 
 per cent; West Fall, 9.85 per cent. ; Mink, n.66 per cent. ; 
 Fall Creek, 10.15 per cent. ; Oswego, 10.50 per cent, ; Ashland, 
 11.40 per cent. ; Newberg, n per cent. ; Independence 11.50 per 
 cent. ; Athena, 11.75 P er cent. ; Roseburg, 11.35 per cent. ; Mil- 
 waukee, 11.30 per cent. ; Vale, 11.40 per cent. ; Alsea, 12.65 
 per cent. ; Union, 13.90 per cent. ; Woodburn, 13.75 P er cent. ; 
 McCoy, 13.75 per cent. ; Toledo, 16 per cent. 
 
 W. S. lyadd, Esq., sent samples of sugar beets raised on Koin 
 Kempster Farm, three miles south of Portland, to Claus Spreckels' 
 beet sugar factory in Watsonville, California, for analysis, with 
 the result of 10.30 per cent, sugar; also from Koin Cemetery 
 Farm, two and one-half miles east of Portland, with result of 
 12.40 per cent., and from farm at Middleton, 14 miles south of 
 
5 
 
 Portland, with result of 13.40 per cent. The highest average 
 is 1 6 per cent., at Toledo, Oregon ; the lowest 5^ per cent., at 
 Medford, Oregon. The average of these twenty-four places is 
 11.24 P er cent. ; of the highest sixteen, 12.40 per cent. ; of the 
 highest eight, 13.45 per cent. ; and the highest five, 14.16 per 
 cent. The Oregon results were had by polarization. Good 
 beets should polarize not less than 14 per cent. With the dis- 
 semination and use among our farmers of knowledge pertaining 
 to sugar beet culture, this per cent, should be increased one-half 
 as much more. 
 
 The Yaquina Post, published at Toledo, Oregon, where the 
 average is the highest, estimates that there are three thousand 
 acres of land suited for sugar beet cultivation within a radius of 
 three miles from that place ; that much of this land has been 
 dyked during the last season and will be ready to cultivate to 
 beets next season, some of which has produced seventy-eight 
 tons of sugar beets per acre before dyking, and, which it is 
 believed will produce for an indefinite term of years from fifty 
 to one hundred tons of beets per acre, and which will yield from 
 15 to 20 per cent, of saccharine. 
 
 Mr. Alisky, who returned from a trip to Germany a short time 
 since, informs your committee that after investigating this sub- 
 ject while abroad and further investigation of the same matter 
 since his return home, he is well satisfied that the soil and 
 climate of Oregon is better suited to the cultivation of the sugar 
 beet than Germany or France. He says that the highest price 
 for sugar in Germany is four cents, and at that price a bounty is 
 paid to the government upon the beet produced instead as here 
 a bounty paid to the producer of sugar by the government of two 
 cents a pound. 
 
 Professor Hilgard, of California, in his Report, volume vi, 
 Tenth Census, page 665, says, ' ' I am inclined to believe we 
 have in Washington and Oregon soil and climate favorable to 
 the growth of the sugar beet of high saccharine strength. The 
 mildness of the winter is, though to a less degree than in Cali- 
 fornia, favorable to the season of manufacture. With a wise 
 and careful encouragement of the industry, I have no hesi- 
 tation in saying that the prospects for the development of an 
 indigenous sugar industry in the extreme Northwest part of our 
 
country are decidedly bright, and it is a field worthy of the 
 attention both of experimenters and capitalists. 
 
 Dr. McMurtrie, who has made a careful study of the climatic 
 conditions of the United States favorable to the production of the 
 sugar beet, says in Report No. 28, to the United States Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture, that the section of the United States most 
 favorable to beet root culture are confined to the North, in- 
 cluding New England, New York, a narrow band south of the 
 Lakes, Michigan, parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Dakota. 
 Here the line of the southern limit passes into the British posses- 
 sions and enters the United States again in Washington and 
 crossing Western Oregon passes to the coast to the extreme 
 north of California. 
 
 Mr. E. H. Dyer, of the Alvarado, California, beet sugar refinery 
 and factory, which factory last season turned out over three 
 million pounds of refined sugar at a cost of less than four cents 
 a pound, and who says that had they had a sufficient supply of 
 beets they could have turned out over five million pounds, writes 
 your committee that the beets raised in Oregon are good. He has 
 furnished Professor Irish, of the State Agriculture experiment 
 station at Corvallis, Oregon, and others, beet seed for several 
 years past, and the beets are richer in saccharine than in Europe. 
 The same gentleman, in an article published in the Oregonian 
 six months ago adds that beets can be produced in our own state 
 at actually less cost than in Germany, and that in the United 
 States there is more land suited for sugar beet culture than in 
 France, Germany and Austria combined, and either of these 
 counties produce enough to supply the United States. In the 
 same article he says, land in Oregon will be increased in value 
 by beet cultivation not less than $100 per acre, and as it requires 
 the cultivation of three thousand acres to supply the quantity of 
 beets necessary to run a plant with a capacity of three hundred 
 tons of beets per day, the increased value of this land will amount 
 to the cost of the plant, and that his company are willing to 
 furnish the skilled labor to construct a factory and the technical 
 skill to run it until your own people acquire sufficient knowledge 
 to do so for a reasonable and satisfactory compensation. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Sussman, who is interested with Claus Spreckels 
 in the beet sugar factory at Watsonville, California, visited 
 
Portland a few weeks ago, and very kindly furnished your com- 
 mittee facts of much interest on this question. Mr. Sussman 
 confirms what has already been said that there can be no ques- 
 tion of the fact that the soil and climate of Oregon are better 
 adapted to the sugar beet culture than those of Europe, that a 
 larger per cent, of sugar can be obtained from the beet here than 
 there, that our seasons for beet culture and manufacture are 
 much longer and more favorable, and adds that capital will be 
 forthcoming to take hold of this matter in Oregon as soon as our 
 farmers demonstrate that they can and will pay attention to 
 sugar beet cultivation, raise beets of the requisite saccharine 
 strength, and under contract agree to raise a quantity for a term 
 of years suincent to justify the erection of a plant with a capacity 
 for using about four hundred tons beets per day, which will cost 
 about $300,000. Man}- other authorities could be cited who 
 have given this matter particular attention upon its adaptability 
 to Oregon, and all agree that if the attention of our farmers and 
 capitalists, and particularly the farmer, will be given to this 
 question, the result will unquestionably be a success. With such 
 testimonials of the favorable situation in Western Oregon for the 
 cultivation of the sugar beet, this Board have strong reasons for 
 assisting, so far as it can, anything leading towards success in this 
 direction. The result of the beet root sugar industry in Europe 
 is wonderful to contemplate. Its value in production alone in 
 dollars amounting to $385,840,000. In Germany, which is the 
 chief sugar-producing and largest exporting country in the world, 
 and which paid an export bounty on beet sugar in 1889 of 
 $9,000,000, has three hundred and seventy thousand acres in 
 sugar beets. There are six hundred and thirty-seven factories, 
 using 13,400,000 tons of beets and producing 1,260,000 tons raw 
 sugar per annum, one-third of all the beet sugar and one-fourth 
 of all sugars produced in the world. In France there are 552 
 beet sugar factories. They turn out 775,000 long tons sugar, 
 worth over eighty millions of dollars, and give employment to 
 60,000 persons besides those in the field. In Austria-Hungary 
 there are 245 factories with a production of 750,000 tons ; Rus- 
 sia 225 with a production of 475,000 tons ; Belgium 200 with a 
 production of 200,000 tons ; Holland 32 with a production of 
 60,000 tons ; for the rest of Europe, in Denmark 2, Sweden 4 and ' 
 
Italy 3, making 1,853 beet sugar factories in Europe, with a total 
 of beet sugar production of 3,600,000 tons, or ^ of the total of 
 all kinds of sugar produced throughout the world. 
 
 In the United States the comparison is small. The profitable 
 cultivation and manufacture of beet sugar is an event of the past 
 few years. Since 1830, when the first beet sugar enterprise 
 started in Philadelphia, until a few years ago, this industry in 
 the United States has been an experimental one. Now, however, 
 enough is known of the climate, soil and machinery required, 
 to make, under favorable conditions, success in this country 
 assured. The greatest success has been in California. There 
 the average yield of the soil is about fifteen tons of beets to the 
 acre. The price is $4.50 per ton of beets delivered at the door 
 of the factory. The cost of cultivation per acre is from $20 to 
 $23, or a net profit there to the farmer of $44.50 per acre. The 
 Alvarado company, as already stated, turned out over three 
 million pounds of refined sugar last year, and according to their 
 last report to the United States Department of Agriculture, page 
 26, bulletin 27, made a net profit of 33 per cent, on the capital 
 invested. This company is now building a factory in Utah, 
 which will be in operation September i, 1891. The machinery 
 will cost $300,000, and the capacity of the works will be eight 
 million pounds of sugar each season. Providing coal is not 
 costing over $6 per ton and beets $4.50 per ton, this company 
 claim they should be able to make refined sugars for less than 
 3^ cents per pound. 
 
 Claus Spreckels, who has a controlling interest in the success- 
 ful beet sugar factory at Watsonville, California, is nearly ready, 
 your committee are informed; to erect another beet root sugar 
 factory in another part of California. The Watsonville factory 
 is an investment of $500,000 ; it turned out during the short 
 beet season of 60 days last year forty tons raw sugar from a 
 consumption of 400 tons beets per day, or for the season 2,200 
 short tons of sugar. If run for the full season of one hundred 
 and twenty days, it would have produced 4,400 tons or nearly 
 5,000,000 pounds. The factory is so built that now with an 
 outlay of about $50,000 this capacity can be increased to an 
 output of 7,500 tons, strictly number one raw sugar, if run the 
 full season of one hundred and twenty days, and then sugar 
 
9 
 
 should be produced at 3 cents per pound ; the present price is 
 3^4 cents. 
 
 At Grand Island, Nebraska, the Oxnard Beet Sugar Factory 
 has lately started with a capacity of 350 tons of beets per day. 
 At Chino, California, San Bernardino county, the owner of 
 10,000 acres of beet-producing soil offered a bonus of 2,000 acres 
 to responsible parties starting a factory there. A factory is there 
 being built with expected capacity of five hundred tons beets 
 daily. It is expected that the production of beet sugar in the 
 United States for 1891 will be at least double what it was in 
 1 890, when its estimated total product was between five thousand 
 and six thousand short tons or about 12,000,000 pounds against 
 imports last year of beet sugar amounting to 563, 206, 600 pounds, 
 or nearly fifty times as much as our own production. Germany 
 alone shipped us 512,100,240 pounds with a valuation of 
 $25,600,512. 
 
 The best cane sugar years our country ever had were 1854, 
 1859 and 1862, when the domestic yield was, in 1854, 495,156,000 
 pounds; 1859, 427,962, 150 pounds ; in 1862, 528,321,500 pounds, 
 or in these years about three-fourths of the imports, while for 
 the season of 1889-90 they were but 275,000,000 pounds against 
 importations of all sugars the same year of 2,632,4.47,440 pounds. 
 This country will never be able to raise from the cane sufficient 
 sugar to satisfy the sweet taste of her people. It is estimated by 
 one of our heaviest dealers in sugar that Portland alone con- 
 sumes and distributes over 25,000,000 pounds per annum. This 
 is nearly all cane sugar, although a little beet sugar is shipped 
 here from California and sold with as great satisfaction as the 
 other. If this twenty-five million pounds could be manufactured 
 in Oregon, it would open up to beet sugar cultivation over eight 
 thousand acres of land ; give the farmer a return of over $550,000; 
 establish five sugar factories, each having a capacity as large as 
 the one now in Alvarado, and employ several hundred persons 
 besides those in the field. There is, besides, the increased value 
 of the land to the farmer. According to Mr. Dyer, land at 
 Alvarado will rent, cash in advance, for sufficient to pay interest 
 and taxes on land worth $300 per acre. Another correspondent 
 from the same place writes that land for beet growing is worth 
 $350 per acre. Mr. Oxnard, a large American producer of beet 
 
10 
 
 sugar, says that in Europe wherever the beet is grown the selling 
 value of the land has increased in the most noticeable way ; 
 experiments everywhere in sugar beet culture prove this, and 
 the more successful the Oregon farmer proves to be in knowing 
 and practicing the methods of plant cultivating and harvesting 
 the beets, which are matters of vital importance, the higher in 
 value will be the beet he produce, the greater will be the increase 
 in the value of his land, and the sooner will a factor} 7 be built to 
 take his product. The best substitute yet for cane sugar is sugar 
 from the well-cultivated sugar beet. According to Senator 
 Paddock, in his speech before the United States Senate last year, 
 the beet sugar industry is more important than any twenty 
 others in this country. This beet can be grown to better ad- 
 vantage in our state than in any other section of the United 
 States. 
 
 Its cultivation should have the attention and encouragemnet 
 of every Chamber of Commere in Oregon, of our State Board of 
 Commerce, and our State Legislature. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 BUHL LAMBERSON, 
 EDWARD HUGHES, 
 J. FRANK WATSON, 
 L- H. PARKER, 
 G. A. MOONKY, 
 J.. E. HASELTI>;K, 
 ELLIS G. HUGHES. 
 
II 
 CANE SUGAR YIELD, 1889-90. 
 
 TONS. 
 
 Cuba_ 600,000 
 
 Java-- 310,000 
 
 Manilla, Cibu and Iloilo 180,000 
 
 Brazil - 150,000 
 
 Louisiana - 125,000 
 
 Mauritinus . 125,000 
 
 Demerare , 125,000 
 
 Sandwich Islands 120,000 
 
 Porto Rico 70,000 
 
 Trinidad _ _ 60, ooo 
 
 Barbadoes __. 60,000 
 
 British India 60,000 
 
 Guadeloupe _. 50,000 
 
 Martinique . 40,000 
 
 Egypt _ 35 oo 
 
 Peru- 30,000 
 
 Reunion 30,000 
 
 Jamaica - 30,000 
 
 Antigua and St. Kitts __. 28,000 
 
 Total 2,228,000 
 
 BEET SUGAR YIELD, 1889-90. 
 
 TONS. 
 
 Germany 1,260,000 
 
 Austria __. 750,000 
 
 France . 775,000 
 
 Russia . 475,000 
 
 Belgium 200,000 
 
 Holland __. 60,000 
 
 Others _ .^ .. 80,000 
 
 Total - 3,500,000 
 
 TONS. 
 
 Beet - 3,500,000 
 
 Cane 2,228,000 
 
 Total 5,728,000 
 
Gaylamount 
 
 Pamphlet 
 
 Binder 
 
 Gaylord Bros., Inc. 
 
 Stockton, Calif. 
 T.M. Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY