Beet Sugar Bounty

BEET SUGAR BOUNTY

Report of a Washtenaw Legislator on in Sixty Years.

The beet Sugar question is not entirely new in this state. In 1839 Samuel A. Chapin, of Ypsilanti, as chairman of a legislative committee, reported in favor of the state loaning $5,000 to a small beet sugar factory built at White Pigeon. It covers four pages. The number of inhabitants in the estimated price of sugar are of interest at the present day.

"The select committee," says the report, to whom was referred the petition praying for a loan of money to forward operations in the manufacture of sugar from the beet, report that the committee is well satisfied that there have been erected large and substantial buildings and procured a large amount of expensive machinery." The committee said: "The amouut of money annually taken out of the state for this one article (common sugar,) and paid in a foreign market, is immense." The committee's estimate of the annual consumption of foreign sugar in the state, computing the number of inhabitants at 22,500, and the average amount of sugar consumed by each person at 30 pounds, making a total of 4,500,000 pounds, which, estimated at 16 cents, cost $720,000. This number in the report is printed in italics.