Letter from Arthur Stayner, 26 October 1889
Salt Lake City, Utah,
Presidents Woodruff, Cannon & Smith
Dear Brethren:
The Committee appointed by the Sugar Company
have returned after having visited both West & East.
The digest of their report is briefly as follows:
The beetsugar Factory Alvarado Cal. cost $190,000 makes sugar 3 9/10 & per lb profit 25%
[The beetsugar Factory] Watsonville [Cal.] $475,000 [makes sugar] 4 1/8 [per lb profit] 19%
[The] Sorghum [sugar Factory] Fortscott Kansas $72,000 [makes sugar] 5 1/2 [per lb profit] nothing
We found the California Factories running on very rich
beets, the result of drouth being small crop but rich in sugar.
We found the Fort Scott Factory running on very poor cane
the result of a cold, wet, backward spring which caused replan[t]-
ing and immature cane. They are making a smaller
output this year than I used to make with my old milling
and open process, and only little more than one half
of what they got last year for the whole season's average.
Consequently as the beet manufacture is so much of a
success, and the results elicited at our late Fair are so
satisfactory with regard to the saccharine in our beets,
it is not worth while to argue for the Sorghume although
it can be plainly shown that the conditions, climate,
market, and protection by freight are so much more
