SUGAR-BEET INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES
ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUGAR-BEET INDUSTRY IN THE
UNITED STATES
In 1926, sugar beets were harvested from 687,000 acres in the
United States. The leading States in the production of sugar beets
are Colorado, Michigan, Utah, Nebraska, California, Idaho, and
Ohio. The beet-growing territory of the country is naturally divided
by somewhat distinct cultural conditions into three sections—the
Central State region, containing approximately 30 per cent of the
total acreage; the Mountain State region, containing about 60 per
cent; and the California area, containing 10 per cent. The Central
State region is almost entirely dependent upon rainfall for moisture,
while the larger part of the crop that is grown in the western region
is provided with irrigation. The total acreage of sugar beets har-
vested in the United States has increased from 530,000 acres in 1922
to 687,000 acres in 1926. During the same period exceptionally bad
weather and the spread of diseases, were influential in causing a
decrease in the acreage planted to sugar cane in continental United
States from 241,000 acres to 160,000 acres, so that the acreage in
sugar cane is now less than one-fourth that in sugar beets. A more
definite idea of the extent of the crop may be ubtained by comparing
it with other crops that are similar in acreage and in value. Sugar
beets occupy about the same acreage as buckwheat, rice, sweet
potatoes, or peanuts. A simple comparison of acreage, however,
loes not afford an adequate measure of the relative importance of
the crop. Because of its high value per acre ($72 per acre harvested
in 1925) the farm value of the sugar-beet crop, amounting to $47,-
000,000 in 1925, approximated that of the flaxseed crop, although
over 3,000,000 acres were devoted to the latter. Sugar-beet acreage
equaled in 1925 about 114 per cent of the wheat acreage but the farm
value of the crop equaled about 5 per cent of that of the wheat crop.
In Table 1 there is shown the acreage of sugar beets planted and
harvested in the principal producing States and in the United States
as a whole during the period 1921-1926. Throughout this period
the largest acreage in any of the Western States was harvested in
Colorado and the largest acreage in the eastern producing region
in Michigan. Although there was considerable fluctuation annually
in the quantity of sugar beets harvested in the individual States,
with the exception of one year the quantity harvested in the United
States was remarkably uniform, varying from 7,400,000 to 7,800,000
short tons. The total farm value of the United States sugar-beet
crop during these six years varied from $41,000,000 to $63,000,000
annually,
