State Agricultural Society. 4G3 



time and the feasibility of the manufacture of sugar from the beet hav- 

 ing been established, the Emperor soon set himself at work to extricate 

 his empire from the sweet dilemma in which he found it placed through 

 his aggressive warfares. Consequently, on "the twenty-fifth of March, 

 eighteen hundred and eleven, he ordered that thirty -two thousand hec- 

 tares of land should be devoted to the culture of the sugar beet, and one 

 million francs were placed at the disposal of the Minister of the Interior 

 for encouraging this industry, and under date of January fifteenth, eigh- 

 teen hundred and twelve, he issued a new decree establishing live Schools 

 of Chemistry, where the processes used in this manufacture should be 

 taught. This act of the great Emperor was one of the crowning acts of 

 his life and was characteristic of the man — quick to perceive the situa- 

 tion and prompt to act in such a decided and positive manner that all 

 obstacles that had hitherto prevented the successful prosecution of this 

 great industry vanished like the wind, and the historian will do well to 

 remember that this man of genius is well entitled to the honor of being 

 the first permanent founder of this great agricultural industry. We 

 find also from the crop of eighteen hundred and twelve there were 

 two million kilogrammes or nearly four million pounds of raw sugar pro- 

 duced in the four imperial factories. The political crisis, however, of 

 eighteen hundred and fourteen was a terrible blow to this new industry, 

 and caused the temporary suspension of all the manufacturers but one. 

 Government again came to the assistance of the industry and it revived, 

 since which time it has made rapid strides — doubling in France every 

 ten years since eighteen hundred and forty. In eighteen hundred and 

 sixty-five the average annual consumption for each person was fourteen 

 pounds, the beet sugar manufacturers supplying sufficient for that 

 amount. 



AMOUNT PRODUCED. 



The total amount of sugar produced from the beet on the continent 

 during the year eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, was over six hundred 

 and eleven thousand tons, from eighteen hundred manufactories. Of 

 this amount France produced three hundred thousand tons, which, at 

 six and a quarter cents per pound, amounted to thirty-seven million 

 five hundred thousand dollars. It is further estimated that the mo- 

 lasses available for distillation of spirits is valued at two million five 

 hundred thousand dollars, making the saccharine product of the coun- 

 try forty million dollars. The cultivation of the sugar beet and manu- 

 facture of sugar therefrom in our own country has not made that 

 rapid progress which we could wish; but after a series of preliminary 

 disappointments and failures, such as embarrass almost every new and 

 valuable industry, the economic difficulties of the beet sugar culture 

 seem to have been measurably overcome. Much still remains to be 

 done; but from the results already obtained, capital finds fair induce- 

 ments for more extended investment, and more especially so in our own 

 State, whose soil and climate are unsurpassed for the growth of the 

 sugar beet and the high per centage of saccharine matter contained 

 in them. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE INDUSTRY. 



It has been well said that the rapid growth and development of this 

 industry throughout Europe forms one of the most interesting specta- 

 cles of the present century; and the economic, social, and industrial 

 questions to which it has given rise have attracted the attention and 



