In round numbers, the county produced a quarter of a million tons of beets in 1920, for which the farmer received three million dollars, and from which the factory made about eight hundred thousand bags of refined sugar, or something like sixty-five pounds for every man. woman and child in the state. The pre-war consumption of sugar was an average of eighty pounds, but it has fallen below that since the habit of curtailing the appetite for sweets was enforced by war.

Morrill county's part in the sugar production of the North Platte valley is approximately one-fourth of the whole. While definite figures are given out by the company, there is more or less criss-crossing of the production at the different factories and between the different counties. For illustration, beets raised on the line of the Union Pacific railroad in Morrill county were in part at least reduced to sugar in the factory at Gering. Scotts Bluff county, while beet's raised in a part of Scotts Bluff county are sent to Bayard in Morrill county for reduction to sugar. Then certain portions of the syrups that cannot be treated at the Bayard and Gering factories are sent to the Scottsbluff, Scotts Bluff county, factory, which institution has a specially constructed adjunct to the mill, called a StefBns process, by which sugar can be reduced from syrups that would otherwise not be saved.

Minerals

It is a fond hope, based upon seme geological soundness of theory, that there must be mineral deposits in parts of Nebraska.