Beets Stored in Bins, Montreal, Canada

Categories

Special Collections > Keystone Slides

Type

tiff scanned file from original glass slide

Description

When sugar beets are pulled, their tops are cut off, and their roots are stacked in great piles. Sometimes these piles are made in the fields where they are grown, and the beets are hauled later to the sugar factory. Such piles are to be seen frequently in Colorado, where there is little rainfall. The heaps are often higher than a man's head, and cover large areas of ground. The roots must be stored indoors before frost comes. They usually are hauled to the factory, where they are dumped into bins such as you see. The beets here have been unloaded from freight cars, into the storage shed. The bins inside these sheds are V-shaped. At the bottom of the bin are little canals through which a stream of water runs to carry the beets to a large washing drum. This drum is partly filled with water. As it turns over and over, the beets are thoroughly washed. You will observe that this pile consists of tons and tons of beets. They are larger than the garden beet, and more irregular in form. They look here somewhat like huge, pointed sweet potatoes. The channel in which the water flows is directly beneath the little valley that extends between the beet ridges the entire length of the shed. After the beets are washed they fall into a chute which carries them to the floor below. Here they drop into a huge slicer, equipped with large knives that revolve from 100 to 150 times a minute. These cut the beets into strips or slices. Different methods are used in different factories to extract the juice from the slices. In some factories the pieces are run through presses, and the juice is squeezed out the same way that cider is squeezed from apples. But there is a less expensive way shown in view 271. Keystone ID: 20941 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.

Rights

Copyright by the Keystone View Company. The original slides are housed in McConnell Library's Special Collections.