USA > Michigan > Bay County > History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens > Part 29
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The success of the beet crop of that year in- duced many farmers to take acreage the next two years, whose soil was not so well adapted, and many who graduated from the sawmills and lumber traffic to the farm, and hence were not so well versed in the fine culture required for the greatest success of this sensitive crop.
Hence the Bay City factory, erected in 1899, and the original Michigan both had ample acreage in 1899 and 1900, but many of the growers could not see the exorbitant profit they anticipated, and hence ceased to take acreage altogether, and moreover antagonized the in- dustry. This did not deter the erection of the West Bay City sugar factory in Banks in 1900, and the German-American factory in Salzburg in 1901, the latter being built on the coopera- tive plan by a few local capitalists and many local farmers, the latter putting in some ready cash, but providing to pay for most of their stock in certain amounts of beet acreage each year. The latter factory met with some hard- ships the first year, but the farmers kept their course steadfastly, and the campaigns of 1903 and 1904 were quite satisfactory.
It has since been claimed in the official re- ports of the labor department for Michigan, that too many factories were located at Bay City and Saginaw, quoting as a proof of this assertion the fact that this very year the mam- moth Saginaw sugar factory is being dis- mantled to be taken to Colorado. We can not agree with these labor authorities. We believe that all the industry requires for constant growth, let alone prospering as it now is, will be the earnest and intelligent cooperation of the farmer and the manufacturer.
Since the beet sugar industry has taken thousands of acres annually from the competi- tive field of other crops, the prices of all farm truck and produce have materially advanced here since 1898. Thinking farmers realize that even if there was not one dollar of direct profit, it would still pay them well to raise beets and so sustain the beet sugar industry. Their profit would then come indirectly, but none the less certainly, from sugar beets. But even if we are to accept the worst statements of land grub- bers, who find sugar beets too strenuous a crop
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year in and year out, it is still true that hun- dreds of thousands of dollars are paid out an- nually by our sugar factories to our beet growers.
Here at home the sugar factories have had "troubles of their own" in recent years. There is plenty of soil fit for cultivating the very best sugar beets, the factories have secured the very best seed, their agriculturists have been doing their very best to assist the farmers in raising a profitable crop, and yet not one of the four factories had sufficient acreage for a three- months' run in 1904. The Michigan sugar house, the first one built in Michigan, was not operated at all last fall, because of the lack of beets, and the Bay City sugar house, which sliced its own and also the Michigan factory's beets, did not then have enough for an average season's campaign. This is a deplorable state of affairs right at our doors, and much of it appears to be due to a misapprehension of facts by the farmers.
For some years the land grubbers, whose main crops are hay and corn, for obvious rea- sons have not been content to contribute noth- ing to sustain these enterprising sugar factor- ies, but they have actually done much to dis- courage their more energetic neighbors from beet culture. One of their main arguments has been met by the local sugar factories this year by offering $5 per ton flat for the beets. This will do away with fault-finding at harvest time with the findings of the weigh, tare and chemi- cal departments at the sugar factories, and yet leave the more successful farmers to sell their beets on the percentage basis as heretofore.
The farmers will this year have their choice of contracts, and as last year gave splendid re- turns for the extra care and work required by the beet crop, the acreage in 1905 is more en- couraging. If Bay County's farmers should still prefer to flood the markets of Michigan
with ordinary farm produce, in preference to the finer cultivation of sugar beets, the Michi- gan factory will next winter be moved to Col- orado, where the Saginaw factory was taken this winter, and where the farmers are more than anxious to have them locate.
The beet sugar industry is still in its in- fancy, and it almost seems as if everything and everybody was conspiring to kill it off. The ill-founded cry of Cuban reciprocity resulted in Cuban cane sugar, raised by cheap coolie labor, being admitted to this country almost free of charge to compete with the home-grown product of American fields and American labor. This was done to help Cuba ostensibly, but time and experience have shown that it primarily favored the American Sugar Refin- ing Company, which imports and handles al- most the entire sugar consumed by our people. This action of Congress is almost on a par with the $2 lumber tariff manipulation, and has been as directly and speedily injurious to Michigan, in particular! NOT ONE SINGLE NEW SUGAR FACTORY HAS BEEN BUILT, SINCE CUBAN SUGAR WAS ADMITTED IN 1903, ALMOST DUTY FREE !!
This so-called reciprocity legislation is a blot upon the record of the party in power. At the National Republican Convention in St. Louis in 1896, the party in its national plat- form went squarely on record in favor of the infant sugar industry, urging the advisability of protection of so vital an industry until we would produce enough sugar for our own con- sumption. Much of the capital invested in the beet sugar industry in Michigan in the four years from 1898 to 1902 came into the business relying upon this solemn pledge, that their in- terests would be protected. Hardly another industry in all our great land is open to more injurious competition. It seems almost treas- onable to ask American labor and American
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capital to compete with the coolie labor and the climatic advantages of Cuba, and yet this is just what Congress ordained. The result is evident in the blight of our most promising farm and factory industry. Undoubtedly many Congressmen from districts that did not have any sugar factories voted in favor of Cu- ban sugar as against our own American pro- duct, in the hope, that their constituents would at once secure cheaper sugar. Their disillu- sionment has been both swift and thorough, for the sugar prices have been rather higher than before Cuban reciprocity killed this native in- dustry. As if to cap the climax of this paro- doxical action, the powers that be are even now trying to also secure free admission to the Phil- ippine coolie-produced sugar.
And so we find our promising beet sugar business in 1905, after but six years of ardu- ous development, apparently being ground to death between two millstones,-obstreperous and short-sighted beet growers on the one hand, and ill-advised favoritism to foreign coolie labor and the sugar trust on the other. It will be for our farmers to do their share toward saving for Bay County its most prom- ising farm and factory industry. And the powers that be at Washington should think well before blighting the last remaining hopes of this infant industry. They can not plead ignorance, for Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, personally visited our beet belt and our sugar factories, and his report, sub- mitted to President Roosevelt in 1904, of which 10,000 copies were printed, was widely read and gave much vital information. That report gave Michigan 19 sugar factories and predicted "quite a number of new factories in the near future." A little investigation by the same authorities will show in 1905 that, in- stead, five sugar factories were idle last year, and three are being dismantled, with more
doomed, unless some little encouragement is held forth by our farmers, and the high pro- tection policy is allowed to offer at least a little grain of comfort to one of our most promising industries. Each farmer should raise as many acres of beets, as he can thor- oughly work and harvest with the help at his immediate command. That would solve half of the problem. Congress and the govern- ment at Washington can save what is left of our beet sugar business, by LETTING BAD ENOUGHI ALONE!
Secretary Wilson's report deals fully with the value of the by-products of the beet sugar business, particularly the manufacture of al- cohol from refuse molasses by the Michigan Chemical Company, but he does not say that even this factory has not yet been able to se- cure enough molasses for even a six-months' campaign. All these factories were built on a basis of future development of the industry, and their millions of dollars invested are now confronted by absolute ruin. He speaks of cheap water transportation, but we have never yet heard of a single ton of beets or of sugar going or coming by the river route. The fac- tories on the other hand are doing everything possible to get farmers interested, even at great distances from the plants, by providing weigh stations on the railroads, where beets can be weighed and loaded. Pulp feeding for stock-raising is becoming more generally ap- preciated, and if the beet toppings and leaves could be profitably preserved for cattle feed during winter, there would be little waste left on farm or in factory. The pulp can be fed in wet or dry form, and glue, alcohol and even charcoal can be produced from it. Secretary Wilson is confident that the beet industry will make still better uses of its refuse materials. He says but a few years ago the meat indus- try of the country was conducted locally, and
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many things went to waste. To-day the meat industry is well organized, and hair, hoofs, blood, horns and other parts of the carcass, that formerly went to waste, are being utilized, and he predicts as much progress for the beet sugar industry. The average citizen of Bay will wonder, by the way, why beef prices are so high in 1905, if the prices of cattle are so low, and all this former waste is being utilized.
But. any way, we hope these fond predic- tions will come true, and our beet sugar busi- ness receive such consideration as its great value to our farmers and laborers certainly merits. The seasons of 1902 and 1903 were bad for sugar beets, late springs, too much rain, and early frosts and freezing, all combin- ing to injure the crop's prospects. Other crops also suffered, of course, but the farmer appears to be used to off seasons for potatoes and corn, but just one bad season for his beets totally discouraged him. Potatoes were high in 1903, because most of them hereabouts rotted in the ground, hence many farmers rushed largely into potato raising in 1904, and as a result the price went down to about 25 cents per bushel. Sugar beets on the other hand have a never changing value of $5 or more per ton.
Hence it will be of vital interest to our county, for the farmer to include sugar beets in his regular crop rotation, for he is in fact a partner with the factory in the business. The culture of sugar beets caused a general revival in agriculture, and dairying has also felt the beneficial effects of this vitalizing crop and its by-products. The invention of labor-saving machinery will lighten the work of the beet growers. With proper soil preparation and good fertilizing, the value of every acre of our farms will be enhanced. For the intense cul- tivation required by the beet crop kills all nox- ious weeds, makes the soil crummy and light
to depths not before reached, and so more pro- ductive for other crops in proper rotation.
The value of the crop to Bay County and Michigan can be illustrated by a few facts and figures. The 16 factories operated in 1904-05 cost over $12,300,000, or more than $600,000 per factory, with a daily capacity of 12,000 tons of beets. Over 96,000,000 pounds of sugar were produced in Michigan in 1904, (lespite the shortage of the beet crop, while 1 13,000,000 pounds were produced by the same factories in 1903. Skilled workmen to the number 511 were employed at $3 per day, and 2,910 other laborers in the factories averaged $2.48 per day. About 59,000 acres of beets were raised last year,-a decrease, compared with 1903, of 34,000 acres and 195,- 000 tons of beets. These figures apply particu- larly to Bay County and speak for themselves. The average acreage per farmer was estimated in 1903 in Bay County at 7.1 ; in 1904 at 6.3, averaging 9.7 tons per acre each year, but with much better sugar percentage in 1904. The average price per ton in 1903 was $5.01 ; in 1904, $5.61. Thirteen pounds of seed were sown per acre, at 15 cents per pound, while the average cost per acre for raising and harvest- ing the beets was $23.29 in 1903, and $22.69 in 1904. About one-third of Bay County's beet growers hired outside help to take care of the crop in 1904, furnishing work to men, women and children, the latter profiting es- pecially by these opportunities during the sum- mer vacation season. The sugar houses only ran 59 days on the average in 1904, with aver- age daily capacity, 640 tons of beets, produc- ing an average of 6,022,000 pounds of sugar in 1904. The beets tested 14 per cent. in 1903 and 15 per cent. in 1904.
The writer in 1903 interviewed 103 beet growers for the State labor department and
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found 71 of them believed beets to be their most profitable crop on a limited acreage, and . 64 were certain the value of farm lands had advanced, while the rest thought the values stationary or did not know which. Just a look at the records of the register of deed's office in Bay County will set at rest all doubt about the increase in land values and increased demand for farm lands in recent years. And it is something more than a coincidence that this boom dates back no further than the introduc- tion of the beet sugar industry.
The banks and business houses of Bay City offer another convincing proof of the benefits conferred on Bay County by the in- troduction of the beet sugar industry. Most of the hundreds of thousands of dollars, paid out each fall in ready cash by the factories to the farmers, find their way into the various avenues of business, buying more comforts for the farm home, improving the farm property generally, lifting mortgages and opening up the rural townships. Only this very month of April, 1905, another large addition has been made to the colony of German farmers from Illinois, in Kawkawlin township, drawn hither by the fine farming country and the ready and rich market facilities. Garfield, Gibson, Mount Forest and Pinconning townships, five years ago sparsely settled, are being rapidly cleared by industrious and hardy farmers, so that ere long the entire county will come within the virile meaning of the title "Garden Spot of Michigan." The soil, climate, drainage, and fine road system are here, the muscle, brawn and brains are here; the rest must follow! The beet sugar industry has given Bay City a com- manding position in the agricultural and indus- trial aaffirs of our country, and hence has done much to increase the value of all other farm products.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.
With the advent of the beet sugar industry came the raising of chicory on a large scale, and to-day Bay County chicory has a world- wide reputation. The two local factories will increase their output from 2,500 to 3,500 tons of chicory this year, and are planning more additions for next year.
The county still holds its leading place in the production of grains, the average yield per acre and the quality being the very best in Michigan. The large gristmill and grain ele- vators of Hine & Chatfield and Bromfield & Colvin, on the East Side, and of the Franken- lust Flouring Company, together with the Au- burn grain elevator, provide a ready market for Bay County's grain supply.
The Bay City Sanitary Milk Company, Ltd., two cheese factories at Amelith, one at Arn, three at Auburn, one at Beaver, one at Bentley, one at Linwood, and one at Willard, with five institutions producing the finest dairy butter, indicate the development of the coun- ty's dairy interests.
The Beutel canning factory, on the site of the old Sage mill, uses up the product of many acres and many orchards.
The two four-story brick blocks occupied by the Harry N. Hammond Seed Company, Ltd., on Adams and Jefferson streets, are hives of a new and growing industry locally. Sev- eral hundred men and woman are employed during the season sorting and packing the seed for shipment, which is grown on the rich fields of Bay County !
A dozen large produce houses handle the garden truck of surrounding farms, with sev- eral smaller distributing plants on convenient railroad points in the heart of our farming district. Thousands of dollars worth of su- perior garden products are annually shipped
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from Bay City, principally to Chicago and the far East. This steadily increasing business de- mands at an early day the erection of a well- equipped and well-situated public market place. This much needed improvement has been long in abeyance, and should be one of the first great concerns of Greater Bay City. The 75 miles of macadamized stone roads in- vite the farmer to come here with his farm products, even from far distances. Conven- iences for marketing this product quickly and conveniently would bring still more of this business. Let us have a public market, and at once! Modern methods and experience have shown that hauling by wagon for long dis- tances is more expensive than shipments by rail in large quantities, hence more railroad facilities would also be a boon to our rural districts.
The Bay County Agricultural Society in the day of Judge Isaac Marston was a leader in Michigan. In late years it has acquired a most desirable Fair Grounds and half-mile race track par excellence, on the eastern limits of Bay City, just north of the eastern terminal of Center avenue, and within easy reach of our oldest and most advanced townships. Yet our county fairs in recent years have not been rep- resentative of our county's standing in the ag- ricultural world! Our progressive farmers and business men should take hold of the annual fair and make it what it should be, representa- tive of the highest and best in the agricultural and dairying interests of Bay County. Each progressive and public-spirited farmer's family should be able to spare at least three days once in each year, for mutual comparison, study, recreation and encouragement. The county has provided all the facilities in the beautiful Fair Grounds; but for some inexplicable rea- son, the property has been woefully neglected in the last 10 years. Eugene Fifield, of Bay
City, is president of the Michigan State Agri- cultural Society in 1905, a compliment no less to his years of devoted work for Michigan's annual agricultural fair than to the county he represents! And if a great gathering of our farmers and farm products is such a good thing for the State, why not a similar annual reunion of our sons of toil, right here at home? The results will justify the great effort now neces- sary to revive interest and zeal in our Bay County Agricultural Society and our annual fair! Let every enterprising and intelligent farmer be up and doing ! Verily our rural pop- ulation has gained much in recent years! Bay County is screened from end to end and from side to side by the wires that furnish the tele- phone right in the homes of our farmers. And our splendid road system assured us at once a complete list of rural free mail delivery routes. There is scarcely a corner of the county that does not now get its daily paper as regularly as the city folk. Surely Bay County leads in all these things, and the leadership of our farmers should be in evidence at the annual fair, in an up-to-date city market, and enough beet acreage to assure us forever the business benefits of this industry! Let the fair title "Garden Spot of Michigan" be no mere play of words. Do not leave everything to Prov- idence and your good neighbor! Work to win, and win you must!
FISH.
One of the attractions in this valley for the aboriginal Indians was the unlimited supply of fish that could be secured just for the trying. The earliest settlers never feared a famine, for the river and bay were alive with the finny tribes. The earliest settlers of Bay City di- vided their time between lumbering and fish-
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ing. As early as 1860 the export of fish from Bay City was valued at over $50,000 annually. Few people even now realize the importance of this industry. In 1905 it has resolved itself into a veritable science.
There are two kinds of commercial fisher- men,-those on the river, and those fishing on the bay,-and their methods and catches vary vastly. River fishing is best in spring and fall, when the fish seek the creeks and branches for spawning, and then the catches on the bay shore are enormous. In summer the campaign is carried on far out in the bay and lake, while in winter the spear fishermen try their luck through the thick ice of Saginaw Bay. The fish are packed in barrels in alternate layers on ice, and are shipped as far East as New York City.
Despite the efforts of the State and Federal fish hatcheries, the supply is gradually dimin- ishing, owing chiefly to the rapacity of the fishermen themselves, who block the streams where the fish go to spawn, and who, despite the strict surveillance of the State game war- dens, catch many undersized fish. Like the lumbermen who slaughtered the forests ruth- lessly and heedlessly, these fishermen may some day find their occupation gone, just for the lack of a little foresight and good business judg- ment, for the fish supply of lake, bay and river is no more inexhaustible, than was the lumber supply.
Trap nets are used on the river and bay, and gill nets on the lake. Pickerel, perch and bass are caught mainly on the river and bay, while sturgean, lake trout and white fish pre- dominate in the lake. The best season usually is April, May and June. Winter spearing through the ice is variable, the shanty village sheltering from 500 to 2,000 souls, according to working conditions and the run of the fish.
River fishing is increasing in importance, sev- eral hundred men finding it a paying pursuit.
The fishing fleets are annually growing, and bay and lake fishing are also increasing. Beebe & Company, the Trombleys, the Lourim brothers, George Penniman and Frederick W. Benson have been in this business for more than 25 years, while Robert Beutel, W. P. Kavanaugh, D. A. Trumpour Company, W. E. Fisk, Dormer Company and Saginaw Bay Fish Company are among the larger and more re- cent entries into this paying industry. Ang- ling for sport and food is open to all and is the delight of many people each season.
VARIED INDUSTRIES.
So closely interwoven are the mutual in- terests of Bay County, that an injury to either the industrial or agricultural interests is bound to injure the other. When all the homes of Bay City are filled with well-paid and con- tented people, the farmer will have a ready market for his products right at his doors, prices will be good and land values increase. On the other hand bountiful harvests mean much ready cash to our rural population, with increased purchasing power, and correspond- ing prosperity for the business institutions of Bay City. Many of our farmers find steady employment each winter in the fishing and other industries, an advantage not enjoyed by many farm communities, most of whom throughout the country can do little but sit around and eat up during the winter the ac- cumulations from the summer's work and harvests.
The ship-building industry has done much for Bay City in the last 30 years, and inci- dentally furnished employment for many farm-
GERMAN-AMERICAN SUGAR FACTORY, Bay City, W. S.
WEST BAY CITY SUGAR FACTORY, Bay City, W. S.
Field of Sugar Beets
Sugar Pans Filter Presses
Polish Women Weeding Sugar Beets
VIEWS IN A BEET SUGAR FACTORY
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ers during the winter seasons. Bay City has ever offered unrivaled facilities for ship-build- ing. Practically unlimited supplies of oak and other timber were at hand for the wooden ves- sels of a decade ago. The presence of the broad and deep Saginaw River, on which hundreds of vessels, from the smallest to the very lar- gest and latest addition to the fleet of the Great Lakes, have been launched here for 50 years, and without one single mishap, meant much to the industry.
During all those years, the local ship-build- ing plants kept pace with the growing demands of the lake traffic. The schooner "Savage," built for river traffic in 1831-37; the stern- wheeler "Buena Vista," all hold and no cabin, launched in 1848, commanded by Daniel Burns, he of State-wide celebrity as a humorist and buffoon; some fishing boats built about 1849; and the first large boats built here by H. D. Braddock & Company in 1857-58, the "Essex" and "Bay City,"-all were noted craft in their day and generation.
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