‘Cause we got the beets
We got the beets
We got the beets, yeah
     - The Go-Go's, 1980

For part 1 of Sugar! see Oddsconsin 47.

In the late 1800s, the largest beet sugar factories in the US were established in states that grew the most beets. In his 1899 book, Herbert Myrick gives some examples: a factory in Bay City, Michigan, with a capacity of 350 tons of beets per day and annual production of 7.5 million pounds of sugar per year; a factory in Oxnard, California, with a warehouse for 10 million pounds of sugar; a factory in Monterrey, California, consuming 3,000 tons of beets per day and producing 450 tons of sugar per day. [1]

Other beet sugar factories were built in Minnesota, New York, Nebraska, Idaho, Utah, Oregon and New Mexico. Myrick’s book contains a map of the “Beet Belt” that covers almost the entire country except the deep South and New England. He was a strong advocate for the beet sugar industry. 

According to Myrick, the first efforts to produce beet sugar in the US took place in Illinois through the efforts of immigrants from Germany, where cutting-edge sugar beet research was being conducted. In the 1860s, the Illinois factory moved to Black Hawk, in Sauk County, Wisconsin. It later moved again, this time to Alameda, California. In 1871, another beet sugar factory was established at Fond du Lac but was later dismantled. 

Part of the problem was an often-inadequate supply of sugar beets and a lack of interest in growing them. The beet sugar industry revived in the state around 1900, with three new factories operating in Menomonee Falls, Chippewa Falls and Janesville. [2]

The Chicago-based United States Sugar Company (sometimes called the American Sugar Company) began construction of its Madison factory in 1905. It made front-page news. [3] The city’s business community was elated that the “long-hoped for” factory was finally to be constructed. The three new factories in Wisconsin demonstrated that the state was “second to none as a sugar beet state” with more beets per acre and a higher sugar content than other states.

For its time, the factory was large, complex and expensive to build. The price tag was $600,000 ($22 million in 2025 dollars [4]) including $350,000 of machinery. [5] When operations began in 1906, the factory was able to process over 50,000 tons of beets during the fall season. (The factory only operated for three to four months each year.) This gave an annual yield of 5,000 tons of sugar, which sold for 4 cents per pound, yielding a gross revenue of $400,000. [6]

What about costs? It took a lot of beets to make sugar. At the time of Myrick’s book, 100 pounds of beets typically contained 95 pounds of juice. That 95 pounds of juice contained just 11.5 pounds of sugar and processing was able to capture only 70 percent of it. The yield of sugar from 100 pounds of beets? Just 8.5 pounds. Over 90 percent of the beet harvest – soggy sugar beet pulp – was used for animal feed or dumped into the nearest creek. [7]

Beet farmers received $4 to $6 per ton of beets, which cost the factory $200,000 to $300,000 annually. [6] [8] And of course there were workers and management to be paid, repairs and maintenance, and shipping costs. There were also stoppages for unexpected events – which slowed down production rates – including the turtle that in 1906 was lured into the factory’s intake system by its “appetite for the succulent sugar-beet.” [9]

The margins were small, which meant that any slump in sugar prices could upset the balance. That’s part of the explanation for the factory closing in 1924, although that’s only part of the story. We’ll explore this in more detail next week.

Sources and Notes

[1] Herbert Myrick, 1899, The American Sugar Industry: A practical manual on the production of Sugar Beets and Sugar Cane, and on the manufacture of Sugar therefrom, Orange Judd Co., NY. 

[2] National Register of Historic Places, 2017, Garver's Supply Company Factory and Office. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/f948e49b-da61-4c12-bb88-991279562b8d

[3] Wisconsin State Journal, July 11, 1905, p. 1.

[4] According to https://www.in2013dollars.com

[5] Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 29, 1905, p. 14.

[6] Wisconsin State Journal, Aug. 26, 1906, p. 4.

[7] As early as 1915, residents of the nearby Town of Blooming Grove complained that the Madison sugar factory was “polluting Starkweather Creek by the dumping of refuse into it.” (Wisconsin State Journal, July 15, 1911, p. 4) The problem was apparently not addressed, as similar criticisms were leveled a decade later around the time the factory closed its doors. 

[8] One acre could yield 10 tons of beets, so farmers with 40 acres in beets could earn $1,600 to $2,400 for their crop. (Wisconsin State Journal, Aug. 26, 1906, p. 4.)

[9] Wisconsin State Journal, Nov. 13, 1906, p. 6.