COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE AND PROTECTION 185
comparative advantage in corn growing. This grain is peculiarly
adapted to extensive agriculture. It also lends itself readily to
the use of machinery; corn can be “cultivated” between the
rows by horse power. It is a substitute for root crops, and can
be rotated steadily with small-grain crops. It is a direct com-
petitor with the sugar-beet for cattle fattening. The advocates
of beet raising always lay stress on the value of the beet pulp, the
residue at the factory after the juice has been extracted, for cattle
feeding. But corn is at least equally valuable for the purpose,
and the typical American farmer raises it by agricultural methods
which he finds both profitable and congenial. One man can grow
forty acres of corn; he can plant only twenty acres of beets, and
these he cannot possibly thin and top. In Iowa “the farmers are
progressive, successful, and satisfied. In fact, this has been the
main obstacle to installing the sugar industry there. The farming
class of the state is accustomed to the use of labor-saving imple-
ments in the fields.” This passage, taken from a publication of
the Department of Agriculture, is one among many of similar
tenor, all of which make propaganda for protection to beet sugar,
and all are quite innocent of any understanding of the economic
principles illustrated by their statement of the facts.
In the far West, where most of the beets are grown and most of
the beet sugar is made, other factors enter. In two respects, the
conditions are peculiarly favorable to beet growing: the climate,
and the special advantages of irrigation. Physical causes are pres-
ent which serve to give, in part at least, a comparative advantage.
The variety of the beet suitable for sugar making flourishes in a
cool climate; but it needs plenty of sun. “Abundance of sun-
shine is essential to the highest development of sugar in the beet.
Other things being equal, it may be said that the richness of the
beet will be proportional to the amount — not intensity — of the
sunshine.” The cool region of cloudless sky in the arid west meets
this condition perfectly. The irrigated regions of Colorado, Utah,
[daho, Montana supply just the right combination of climate and
moisture : cool temperature, abundant sunshine, moisture exactly
as needed, absence of moisture when harmful. California, where
