26 NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



The manufacture of beet-root sugar is at present receiving great atten- 

 tion in some parts of Europe, and in consequence of some valuable 

 improvements in evaporation and purification recently effected, its manu- 

 facture lias greatly extended, accompanied with a reduction of prices. 

 In France, especially, this branch of industry is increasing beyond prece- 

 dent. The following statistics were recently published officially in the 

 J\floniteur. The factories at work in France on the 1st of December iu 

 1851, were 254, and on the 1st of December of 1852, they numbered 335, 

 an increase of 81. The quantity of sugar made in 1851 was 10 millions 

 of pounds, while that of 1852 will not be far from 87 millions of pounds. 

 The best quality retails at 16 cents a pound. 



Beet-root sugar has also made its appearance for the first time during 

 the past year in American ports, as an article of traffic. 



The scarcity and high price of all kinds of animal oils, have within a 

 few years past called into requisition and use the various kinds of vegeta- 

 ble oils, especially those derived from rosin. The uses to which this oil is 

 already applied are innumerable, and a great number of patents for improv- 

 ments in its manufacture and purification have been grunted. A process 

 has been recently brought out, first in France, lately in the United States, 

 by which the rosin is made to yield a substance resembling tallow in many 

 respects, which can be advantageously and cheaply applied for the lubri- 

 cation of heavy gearing, and other coarse machinery. This process has 

 not yet been made public. 



Napthaline, formerly a chemicarproduct of great rarity, is now extracted 

 in considerable quantities, from the refuse coal tar of gas works. This 

 substance in external appearance greatly resembles purified stearine, 

 and the use to which it is applied is somewhat curious. Put up in cakes, 

 and enclosed in waxed cloths to prevent evaporation, it is sent to California 

 and other distant regions, where dissolved in weak alcohol it furnishes the 

 best of burning fluids, a great saving being thus effected in freights, 

 risks, &c. 



American Madder, grown in the valley of the Connecticut, has been in- 

 troduced to some extent during the past year into the Merrimac Print 

 Works, and found to be superior in some respects to the best foreign 

 article. The introduction of madder as a staple production of the United 

 States, is greatly to be desired, and that it can be raised profitably and suc- 

 cessfully by the agriculturalist, is beyond a doubt. 



The preparation and manufacture of flax-cotton, introduced in 1851 by 

 Chevalier Clausscn, and from which so much was anticipated, is generally 

 regarded as a failure. The most serious objections to the plan proposed 

 seem to be these: it has for its object the conversion of a superior article 

 into an inferior one, or in other words, the changing of the long and strong 



