THE BEET SIGAR INDUSTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2654, 25 January 1905, Page 11

THE BEET SIGAR INDUSTRY.

Efforts have been made from time to time to establish the beet industry in the North Island, but the results have not been quite satisfactory. Mr John Knight, a prominent settler in the Waikato, has always held that that district is admirably suited to the cultivation of beet, and from inquiries and observations during a recent visit to America, he is more than ever convinced that the industry can be profitably carried on m the Auckland distriot. He considers that the Waikato is able to produce the best beetroot at less cost than in the United States, as there is no necessity in the colony to go in for irrigation. Speaking to a Waikato Times interviewer, Mr Knight said that when a sugar factory gave £1 a ton for roots, any farmer within a reasonable distance of the factory found it profitable to grow beet. The industry could be very well combined with dairying. He visited one farmer who kept 600 head of cattle, half of them for fattening and half for dairying-, and all were thriving splendidly on the pulp obtained from the sugar factory. It could also be made into ensilage, and in that form was as good after three years as on the day it was taken from the factory. It was not fed to the cattle alone, but with alfalfa, or some other green food, and used in that way it was very valuable for dairying and fat stock. At Honolulu, on the return voyage, Mr Knight studied the production of cane sugar, and he found that the beetroot more than held its own in severai respects. The oane required very much more labour, as it grew from 12ft to 14ft high, and the stems were all more or less crooked. It produced 60 to 70 tons per acre, as compared with the beetroot's 15 to 16, but it took a crop of cane 18 months to mature, whereas the beet only occupied the ground for six months, and it could be grown in frosty climates, where cane would not live. , " The best sugar industry ought to be encouraged in New Zealand, said Mr Knight with emphasis We have thoueanch and thousands of acres of land splendidly adapted for it. X would be another cow industry and would %dd apgH&iftWj

T to the prosperity of the colony, even if we ' only produced a quarter of the sugar that we consume. The United States actually does not produce a quarter of its sugar."'