Sugar Beet Plant Starts – 1917
Sugar Factory Here To Start Season Monday
Great Western Plant Will Begin Grinding Beets Tomorrow
Wilson Expecting Three-Weeks’ Run
Small Crop in First Year;
Government to Handle All Output.
Missoula’s sugar beet plant, which has just been completed by the Great Western Sugar company at a cost of $1,500,000, will begin operation tomorrow morning and will turn out the first sugar made in Missoula from home-grown sugar beets.
More than 250 men will be employed in the factory. With the exception of a few experienced sugar makers all the labor will be hired from Missoula county. The plant will run both day and night because of the urgent demand for sugar at the present time.
Expect Three-Weeks Run.
Owing to the small acreage this year the sugar beet crop was not large. F. A. Wilson, resident manager, said last night that the entire crop would probably be handled by the factory within a period of three weeks.
More than 15,000 tons of sugar beets grown in the valleys surrounding Missoula are piled high in the huge bins at the sugar plant waiting to be converted into sugar. From these beets the company expects to extract nearly 35,000 bags of sugar this year. The beets are reported to contain a high percentage of sugar.
Government to Take Sugar.
Already the government has taken over the disposal of the output of the factory. The company has been paid $7.25 a hundred for the product and as soon as the sugar is manufactured it will be turned over to the government sugar buyers and will be sold to the consumers through that channel.
The plant was practically completed several weeks ago. It is one of the finest plants in the west and is equipped with all the modern devices for the manufacture of sugar. The work on the plant has been in progress for the past six months.
Double Crop Next Year.
Although the crop was small this season, sugar beet officials believe that it will be doubled next year. Because growing sugar beets is new to most of the farmers only small acreages were devoted to the industry the past season but most of the growers have stated that they expect to double their output next season.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on December 2, 1917.
WW 1 would not end until the following year, November 11, 1918.