BEET SUGAR

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 169, 19 July 1920, Page 6

BEET SUGAR

x\.MERICAN AUTHORITY ON ITS

GKOWIH

CULTIVATION BY CEASELESS HAND LABOII.

The cultivation of sugar beet and the manufacture of sugar therefrom in New Zealand has been suggested on more than one occasion, both as a commercial enterprise ol' much promise and as a. means of lowering the current price of cane sugar. TausMg, an American authority, in his book, "Some Aspects of the Tariff Question,'' an official American publication, says, in referring to the growing of sugar beet.—

''All the manuals and pamphlets insist on the need of elaborate preparation, ininni!' ?are-, much labor directly in the lieicls. Tho planting of the feed does indeed take place by drills, rlia plants coming up iv continuous rows. But after this first-. operation, painstaking, manual labor in called for. When the young shoots ciiinc up, they need nrst to bo blocked, then thinned. 'Blocking' means that most of tho beets- in the row are cut by a hoe, only small bunches being ■ left, about ten inehec-; apart. Ibese bundles are then thinned: every plant is pulled oub by hand except one, the- largest and the healthiest. Great care 'hould be exorcised in this work, and by careful selection all the inferior plants should be removed. When thinning it, is a. good idea to give the ground a thorough hand-hoeing. Throughout the growing period the beets must be cultivated, partly with a horsedrawn cultivator, partly with a hand-hoe. The. cultivator and the hoc- should be used alternately until the beets .ire too large for horse cultivation without injuring them. Raud laborers r-hould continue to go ever the beet field, pulling the weeds and- giwjscs thai) may have persisted. I'lstt-entinlry the same situation appears when harvesting is re-ached. Tho besfc-s may first be loosened by & ]»lough and by a. lifter, but each individual beet must be pulled out by hand. Then they are knocked together gently to remove the adhering dirt. Finally they are 'topped,' that is, the neck and leaves are cut off with a large knife. The removal of the tops is a tedious process, which in Europe is performed by women and children. Constant supervision is necessary in this work.

"iN'o' machiinery has yet been devised that serves to dispense with tho large amount of hand labor called for. Several attempts have been made to construct a mechanical device by which the beets can be topped, thus saving a large expense, and perhaps a successful device of Ihe kind may some day be- invented. So faa- as is known at the present time, this process has not been successfully accomplished by machinery,. and the topping must still be done by hand. In 191.3 the Department's report again had to confess that 'a really successful be-et topping and harvesting machine had yet to be devised, and that at present all operations of pulling, topping, and loading were done by hand.'

"It follows that the .successful growing of sugar beet calls for a large amount of monotonous, unskilled labor. No small part of it :s labor that can be done by women and children, and tempts to their utilisation. Not only does the typical American farm and farm community la.i-k the number of laborers required; the labor itself is. of a kind distasteful to the farmers Thinning and weeding by hand whilst on one's knees is not. a. work or a posture agreeable to the average American farmer. Bending over the rows and crawling; along them on one's hands and knees all day long a.rp- things that the contracting farmer is sure to object to as drudgery. Our farmers rido on their stirring ploughs, cultivator,-:, and other implements. As was remarked by one witness at a tariff hearing, the thinning and topping of the beets it is pretty hard to get our American fellows to do, and they prefer to hire the labor and pay for it. . . Almost everywhere in the beet-sugar districts we find laborers who are employed and contracted for in gangs; an inferior class which is utilised by a superior. The agricultural laborers in the beet fields are usually a. very different set from the farmers. Ori the Pacific slope they are Chinese or Japanese, except in Southern Californa, where the Mexicans are near at ha.ad. Most of tlio woik is done by Japanese, under contract, there being usually a head contractor, a sort of sweater, who undertakes to furnish the men. In recent years Hindus (brought from British Columbia.) have also appeared in the boeb fields of California. In Colorado immigrants 'from old Mexico compete with Now Mexicans, Russians, and Japanese. Indians: from the reservations have been employed in Colorado. At ono time ccnvict labor was usixl 'n Nebraska.. In some parts of Colorado, Montana, and at the beet fields of the single factory :'n Kansas, refugees from German' colonies established long ago in Russia, are employed. In Michigan the main labor supply comes front the Polish ami Bohemian population of Cleveland, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh. The sugar manufacturers who buy the. beets play a largo part in bringing this labor into the fields. Indeed, they piny _a. large part in every phase of the industry, on its agricultural as well as its manufacturing side. They supply seed, give the fa.rmw elaborate instructions on method of cultivation, .employ supervisor.? to visit the farms

tlio beets at the factory, and pay acctj'ding to the sugar content. . . The variety of boot suitable for sugar-milking flourishes in a. cool cliniate, but needs plenty of sun. Abundar.c-e of su'ir;hine is nece&sary to the highest development of sugar in the beet. Otlu?i" things being equal, it may be sm'd thnt the ric-h----ihss of the beet will bo proportionnl to the amount—not intensity—of thr> •sunshine. Evidently the" cool region of cloudless sky in tho arid west ireets this condition perfectly."