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In 1888 at Watsonville, California, Claus Spreckels, Pacific Coast sugar pioneer, established the second successful
beet suga r factory in the United States. This plant was the birthp lace of the Spreckels Sugar Company, the producer
of Spreckels Honey Dew Sugar.
From this beginning, the Spreckels Sugar Company has grown until today it is one of the three largest producers
of beet sugar in the United States and the largest and most im porta nt factor in the industry in the State of California.
The state supplies approximately 22% of the beet suga r consumed in the United States. Today, the Spreckels Sugar
Company, in its plants at Sprecke ls, near Salinas, and at Manteca, near Stockton, produces approximately ha lf of the
beet sugar manufactured in the state. The Spreckels Sugar Company expends in excess of $6,000,000.00 annua lly and
affords seasona l employment for over 4,000 workers in the fields and factories.
A marked characteristic of the beet sugar industry during the recent strenuous years has been its stabi lizing influe
nce on American agriculture. While the value of some basic commodities declined as much as 67<>j0 , sugar beets
showed a decline of on ly 8~10 • The total payroll of the industry was actua lly greater in 1932 than in 1929. Commenting
on the beet sugar industry, the late President Coolidge sa id, " Here is a great home industry which at once improves
the farmer's soi l and enables him to diversify his crops and tGnds to release the American people from dependence on
the foreigner for a major item in the national food supply".
The factory near Salinas is the largest beet sugar plant in the world with an average slicing capacity of 4,800 tons
of beets per day. The Manteca plant has an average daily slicing capacity of I ,800 tons. In 1934 these two factories
produced 2,703,446 one-hundred pound bags of Spreckels Honey Dew Sugar. During the beet campaign the factories
afford employment to over I ,600 people.
The da ily water consumption of the Salinas plant is 17,000,000 gallons and the Manteca plant, 3,500,000 ga llons.
W ALTER C LINTON jA C~SON LIBRA RY
T HE U NIVERSITY OF N ORTH C AROLINA AT GREENSBORO
HOME ECONOMICS PAMPHLITS COLLECTION
Gift of Paul Hessling
The combined figure of 20,500,000 ga llons is equal to one and one-quarter times the dai ly water requirements of
the city of San Diego.
'In addition to sugar, the factories produce a by-product, beet pulp, which together with beet tops supply a lmost
as much cattle feed from an acre of land as can be secured from many crops grown for feed alone.
At Woodland, near Sacramento, California, the Spreckels Sugar Company is planning to construct a third factory
at a cost in excess of $2,000,000. Into this unit will be incorporated the most modern and efficient machinery for t he
production of beet sugar. The construction plans are based on a world-wide research by Spreckels experk
The agricultural department of the Spreckels Sugar Company acts as technical advisor and provides farm
implements for the growers of sugar beets.
The Spreckels Sugar Company pays its growers approximately four and a half mi llion dollars per year in purchase
of the beet yie ld from the 54,000 acres of land under contract. In addition to guaranteeing the grower a market
for his beet s, t hey freque nt ly fi na nce the farmer t hroug ho ut the pla nting, growing and harvesti ng seasons. As a
result many growers have rea lized a substa ntia l profit on a limited amount of capital.
There is no prod uct g rown in the St at e of C a lifornia which is more ca reful ly supervised by t rained agricult ura lists
than the sugar beet. The Spreckels Company mainta ins at Sacramento and Sa linas a staff of agricu ltura l experts
whose activities start with se lection of land for c ul tiva t ion and continue th roughout t he year unti l the crop is harvested.
Shortly aft e r completion of the factory at Sa li nas in 1899, a blight appeared which greatly reduced
the beet crop despite a ll control measu res attempted by the company's agricu lturalists and the
Government specia lists. Damage from the b lig ht increased unti l by 192 1 it was so great that several
beet companies gave up operation and had it not been for the courage and perseverance of the
Spreckels entomologists, agricu lturis ts, and others, the industry in the state might have disappeared.
The blight was found to be caused by a tiny hopping insect known as the White Fly (Eutettlx
tenellus). After years of painstaking study, the Spreckels' scientists became familiar with the habits
of the insect and found that it wintered and bred in protected canyons a nywhere between fifty
and two hundred miles from the fields. In order to survive, the insects had to feed on the green plants found only in
these canyons at that season of the year. The weak link was discovered and the battle begun.
Chemical warfare was introduced and each Fall the entomologists assembled their battery of sprayers and
attacked the congregated millions. For five years the ranks of the White Fly have been so thinned that their attacks
are today of little consequence. The spraying program has been continued each year since 1930 at a tremendous
expense to the company but has resu lted in almost complete e limination of crop damage. The White Fly also
destroyed other cultivated crops and t herefore the work of the Spreckels Company has proven of great benefit to
all agriculture in the Salinas, Sacrament o, and San Joaquin Valleys.
In 1919 the company began a selection of mother beets to provide a blight resistant seed. This work has continued
since that date in co-operation with t he United States Department of Agriculture. As a direct result growers are
now furnished enough blight resistant seed to plant 25% of California's acreage. The United States uses 15,000,000
pounds of beet seed per year at a cost of $1,750,000.00. In the past this mot;Jey has been expended in Europe; in the
future it will go to seed growing farmers in the United States.
Every step in the production of sugar at Manteca and Sprecke ls is scientifica lly controlled by a staff of expert
sugar men and laboratory technicians. The material is untouched by human hands from the moment the juice is
extracted from the beets until the granulated sugar is packed. A high and exacting standard of clean liness is maintained
in al l Spreckels factories.
The sugar, produced under these conditions, is packed in five, ten, twenty-five, and one hundred pound bags
bearing the familiar blue imprint of the name Spreckels Honey-Dew Sugar. For many years this sugar has been a
sta ndard of qua lity. It is pure, sparkling, finely granulated, and whi te as snow and is especially suited for table, can·
ning, preserving, jelly making, and other household or commercial uses.
When you buy this sugar you are supporting an American industry a nd contri buting to the welfare of American
farmers and workers. Order by name- SPRECKELS HONEY-DEW SUGAR- your grocer wi ll gladly supply it.
Home Economics and Household Collection
