_______________________________________________________________________________________________ Michigan
Sugar
A sweet history
Michigan ’ s sugar beet industry was born in the late 1800s , facilitated by the need for a new economic driver . State and local leaders were searching for a substitute for the jobs and money generated by now-departed lumber barons . A solution was needed that could be replenished each year , bringing a stabilizing influence on the economic base of the region . Enter the sugar beet . Interest in the sugar beet peaked in 1884 , when Joseph Seemann , a Saginaw printer , happened to see how well the sugar beet was doing for the people in a region of Germany that he visited . Another trip convinced him to send a sample of the seeds to his partner , who forwarded them to Dr . Robert C . Kedzie , professor of chemistry at Michigan State
Agricultural College ( now Michigan State University ). Dr . Kedzie ’ s enthusiasm for the beet ’ s potential earned him the title “ Father of the Michigan Beet Sugar Industry .”
He imported 1500 pounds of seeds from France and distributed them to farmers across Michigan . Funds were raised by boiler manufacturer Harry T . Wickes , Thomas A . Harvey , and grain merchant George B . Morley to underwrite beet-growing tests . Invitations to farmers for seed and instructions were issued . This resulted in bringing samples of beets from 600 farms to Dr . Kedzie ’ s laboratory .
“ Three crops of beets ,” he said , “ grown in three successive years are worth as much as one crop of pine trees , which required 100 years to mature .”
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