194 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



tiful gifts which the Divine munificence has awarded 

 to man upon the earth, affirming that not only sugar 

 could be produced from it, but also tobacco, mo- 

 lasses, coffee, rum, arrowroot, vinegar, and beer. 

 The Institute of Paris, however, did not sympathize 

 with Arhard, for in 1800 a committee of that body, 

 having gone through a series of most careful expe- 

 riments, reported that the results were so unsatis- 

 factory that it would be unwise to establish any 

 manufacture of sugar from beet. In 1809 Bonaparte, 

 endeavouring to destroy the colonial prosperity of 

 Great Britain, passed a decree prohibiting the 

 purchase of West Indian produce in Prance, and 

 sugar being an article of the first necessity to the 

 French, this law caused much dissatisfaction to the 

 public, aud Napoleon had to consider how the 

 wants of the people could be supplied without 

 foreign commerce. M. Deyeux, a member of the 

 committee appointed to consider this question, 

 turned his attention to the beet-root. His experi- 

 ments were more satisfactory than those of the 

 committee of 1800, probably because the necessity 

 of producing sugar at home was more pressing. 

 An imperial manufactory of sugar was forthwith 

 established at Ramboulet, imperial schools were 

 instituted for instructing pupils in the process, &c, 

 and by 1812 the manufacture of beet-root sugar was 

 considered prosperously set on foot. 



Tiie root from which sugar is extracted is the 

 white variety {Beta vulgaris campestris alba). There 

 are now several large manufactories of this article, 

 botli in Prance, Belgium, and other parts of the 

 Continent, and its production is increasing in 

 Australia and Tasmania. Dr. Ure states that he 

 has obtained 5 per cent, of good sugar from white 

 beet grown near Mitcham, in Surrey, and during 

 the last few years the experiment of cultivating beet 

 for the purpose of manufacturing sugar and alcohol 

 therefrom has been successfully carried out in some 

 parts of England, and it is probable that it will 

 become 'a profitable and important business. The 

 refiued sugar from the beet-root looks extremely 

 well, but is not so sweet as the less-refined article 

 from the sugar-cane. One ton of beet-root is reck- 

 oned to produce 55 lb. of refined sugar. As long 

 since as 1837 there was a manufactory for refining 

 beet-root sugar established at Chelsea ; and at the 

 present time' in France there are more than 400 

 factories for making this article : and each year it is 

 brought to a higher state of perfection. There are 

 three or four journals published in that country 

 entirely devoted to this subject. A white variety 

 of beet is now extensively cultivated as food for 

 domestic animals under the name of Mangolds, 

 formerly known by the German name Mangel wurzel. 

 The first seeds of this plant were sent to England 

 from Metz by Thomas B. Parkins to Sir Richard 

 Jebb, in 1786, who presented some of them to the 

 Society of Aits, and by them were distributed to 



several parties ; but the first cultivators of this root 

 on a large scale for agricultural purposes were 

 Sir W. Jerningham and Sir Mordaunt Martin, of 

 Burnham, in the county of Norfolk, about 1790. A 

 Mr. Newby introduced its cultivation into Cam- 

 bridgeshire in 1812. He published an interesting 

 pamphlet upon the subject. Dr. Lettson also 

 wrote a small work on the introduction of this root 

 into this country in 1787. 



When the Regent's Park was forming, a part 

 which had been trenched was sown very thick with 

 mangold seed, and such was the produce that it was 

 sold by auction to cowkeepers in the neighbourhood 

 at the rate of £80 per acre. 



This plant is now very largely cultivated by agri- 

 culturists, and may be considered the most important 

 crop next to the turnip. Of late years there have 

 been several varieties of mangold introduced fitted 

 for field cultivation. Year after year are exhibited 

 some enormous roots of this plant at the various 

 agricultural shows. At the Agricultural Hall at 

 Islington, Christmas, 1874, might be seen some 

 single roots of Messrs. Sutton's " Mammoth" man- 

 gold, grown upon poor dry soil in Suffolk, weighing 

 40 lb. and upwards. Perhaps one of the largest 

 crops of this plant on record is that which was 

 grown on the sewage-farm of the Earl of Warwick, 

 near Warwick. This crop reached the extraordinary 

 weight of 82 tons per acre. {Vide Chamber o/Agric. 

 Jour., 30th Nov., 1874.) 



There appears to be three species of beet, from 

 which have sprung the several varieties now in 

 cultivation. 



Matthiolus, in his " Commentarii," published in 

 1565, has given some beautiful wood - engravings 

 considering the early period they were produced, of 

 three kinds of beet, which he calls Alba, Nigra, and 

 Rubra. 



Gaspard Bauhin, whose " Pinax " was published 

 in 1623, enumerates nine species, six of which he 

 calls minors and three majors. Linnseus reduced 

 these nine, in " Species Plantarum," to two, viz., 

 Beta maritime/, and B. vulgaris ; but in the four, 

 teenth edition of his " Systema Vegetabilium " the 

 Beta alba of Bauhin is admitted as a species under 

 the name of B. cicla. Thaer's opinion is that the 

 field beet, or mangold, is a hybrid between the 

 red garden and white sugar beet. 



Beta maritima, or sea beet, is a herb growing 

 wild on our shores, as at Dover and other places. 

 It is also found in abundance on the west coast of 

 Ireland. The leaves are used as an early substitute 

 for spinach, and are considered an excellent dish, and 

 peifectly wholesome. It is called by the people 

 living on the coast Coliff Spinach. According to 

 Bentham, the white and red beet of our gardeners 

 and the mangel-wurzel of our agriculturists are the 

 cultivated varieties of this species; but opinions 

 differ, as in most things, and other botanists consider 



