272 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



BEET ROOT SUGAR. 



DEVELOPMENT OF BEET EOOT SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



C 



This industry is exciting so much interest at this time, that we feel 

 called upon to place before the agriculturists of the State all the inform- 

 ation obtainable. We therefore make the following extracts from the 

 Report of the "United States Commissioner to the Paris Exposition on 

 this subject. It will be found valuable and interesting. "We would give 

 the process of manufacture, but it could not be rendered intelligible 

 without a large number of drawings for illustration. We are therefore 

 compelled to omit this part of the report : 



HISTORY OF THE CULTIVATION OF THE BEET FOR SUGAR. 



The history of the manufacture of sugar from the beet is one of the 

 most interesting and instructive in the annals of industrial arts. 

 Although it comprises a period of little more than fifty years, its growth 

 has been marked by rapid strides, and in many European countries the 

 manufacture of sugar, which had hitherto been considered a monopoly 

 of the tropics, is firmly established, and bids fair to become one of the 

 most stable and productive industries Founded by Napoleon a little 

 more than half a century ago, it was subjected in its infancy to the evils 

 of adverse and hostile legislation. Like other grand creations of that 

 man of genius, however, it survived his downfall; for a long time appar- 

 ently forgotten, yet still remaining, though in obscurity, in a corner of 

 France, till called to fulfil the destiny for which it was created. At last, 

 however, placed on a more secure footing, this manufacture has been 

 carried on with constantly increasing production, at a constantly decreas- 

 ing cost, till it has assumed its present proportions, and may be reckoned 

 among the most important of European industries. 



In seventeen hundred and forty-seven, Margraff, a Prussian chemist, 

 read before the Academy of Berlin his memoir on the existence of a 

 sugar in the beet identical with that in the cane. It was n,ot, however, 

 until fourteen years after this that this discovery found its first applica- 

 tion. Achard. another chemist of Berlin, republished the discoveries of 

 Margraff. and it is to Ids indefatigable industry and perseverance that we 

 owe the first practical methods used in the manufacture of beet sugar. 



From seventeen hundred and eighty-nine to seventeen hundred and 

 ninety-six, Achard devoted himself to the culture of the beet and experi- 

 ments in sugar making at his farm at Caulsdorff, near Berlin, at the end 

 of which time, with the assistance of the Government, he founded at 

 Kunern, in Silesia, a manufactory which proved to be successful, and 

 was soon followed by the erection of two other similar establishments. 

 This was the origin of the manufacture which is to-day represented by 

 so many establishments in France and in various parts of Europe. 



