The control, when the old beet-tax was in force, was intended merely
for ascertaining the weight of the beet employed. Since the introduction
of the consumption-tax, it has been transformed into a complete control of the
factories, so that no sugar can be taken from 'these places without the knowledge
of the control-officials, who have to note the amount, etc., so removed.
Every raw-sugar factory and sugar-refinery works is under the immediate supervision
of a First Controller, who is assisted by a greater or lesser number of
controllers. The chief control of the sugar manufacture is exercised by the
Royal Control Board. The Royal Ordinance now in force respecting the taxation
of sugar is dated October 11, 1907.
Karpalund Sugar Factory.
The principal cause of the rapid rise of the sugar industry in Sweden is
to be found in the very considerable protective duty on the imported article.
Even after the introduction of the consumption-tax, the three sugar-
factories last erected, viz., in the island of Gland, and in the Lans of Oster-
gotland and Vastergotland, have enjoyed a certain reduction in the amount
of the tax to be paid. The establishment of new factories, too, is facilitated
by the regulation issued in 1893, that factories which are opened at a
distance of more than 30 km from another factory which is in operation,
will be considered as having a lesser yield per weight for the first five
years, and so will pay a lower tax than older factories, Altogether, four
factories have enjoyed such a reduction of tax.
Owing to the rise of a home-production of sugar, the import of this article,
which was formerly very great, has almost entirely ceased, but the
consumption has increased to such an extent that, nowadays, Sweden is
among the number of the chief sugar-consuming countries of Europe, being
surpassed only by England and Denmark.
The figures relative to this matter, both for Sweden and for other countries,
are given on page I, 171.
The economic importance o f the cu ltiv a tion o f the sugar-beet. Among
the lans of Sweden, Skâne and, more especially, Malmohus Lan, are, very
suitable for the cultivation of the beet, both as regards climate and the
soil. Malmohus Lan, for example, yields about 71 °/„ of the total quantity of beets
obtained in Sweden for the sugar industry, and the beet-harvests there are, too,
larger per hectare than in any other part of the country. The area devoted
to the cultivation of the beet, consequently, amounts to 5 % of the total cultivated
area of the lan, while in Kristianstad Lan the proportion is T* JÉ and in
the island of Gottiand, 2'8 %. '
The cultivation of the beet, is attended with considerable expense, necessitated
by the great use of artificial manures, potash salts, and superphosphates.'
The successful cultivation of the. beet requires not only à suitable climate
and Apili brit also a careful cultivation and manuring of the ground, and
continual weeding during the season of growth. For this reason, the cultivation
of the beet Has a beneficial influence''on the returns given by the other crops.
As the chemical constituents of the sugar are ■ obtained from the atmosphere
alone, a sugar-harvest does-not imply any loss of the mineral substances of the
soil; - these are found, on the other hand, in. the beet-tops and beet-substance
which are fed to the live stock, and the greater part of which is returned to
the soil in the form of manure. Without exaggeration it may be said that-the
cultivation of the' beet, thanks to its . promotion of very thorough methods
of work, the ’improved culture of the soil, anil® a - harvest which is a more
uniform and lucrative one than that of other forms of crops, has been,
and still must be, considered as one of the most powerful factors in the improvement
of agriculture/ in those tracts. where the cultivation of the beet can be
carried, on with profit. , Of the • beets that are supplied to the factories, incomparably
the greater part .(during the season of 1912/13, some 96‘6 % of
the whole),' was grown on land belonging to private landowners and not on
that of the factories. In Malmohus Lan a good third part, and in Gottiand more
than half, of all the farmers tilling their own ground devoted themselves to the
cultivation of the sugar-beet. The price paid for the beets by the factories consists,
first, of a certain fixed rate — which, of late years, has been, for beets
delivered before December 1, 2‘10 kr. per quintal, and for delivery after December
1, 2‘30 kr. per q — and also of an additional payment of 1 ore for each
one-tenth percentage of sugar above 14 %. In this manner, the average price
during 1912—13 has been as much as 2'65 kr. per quintal. With this price
for beets, the gross returns per hectare for land under beets in Skâne, amounted the
same year to 880 kr. The cost of cultivation can probably be estimated at about
300 kr., so that the net returns of beet-growing land in Skâne may be put at
almost 580 kr. per hectare, an amount that is seldom equalled, we imagine, by
any cultivated crop grown in Sweden.
The by-products from the raw-sugar factories are molasses and beet-pulp.
The former is the final mother-liquor from the raw-sugar and forms a dark-brown,
evil-smelling syrup which, in addition to water and salts contains about 50 % of
sugar, however. The sugar in this molasses, which makes up about 3 % of the
weight of the beets used, is, in some factories, precipitated by means of lime,
and the sugar-lime thus obtained is afterwards treated, in the factory, in order
to extract the sugar from the ' mass. The molasses which is not treated in this
way is either employed for the manufacture of spirits, or — and this is nowadays
the usual plan — for cattle food, either alone, or mixed with husks, peat,
fodder-cakes or beet-pulp.