104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



there need not be the slightest doubt, as we shall show in a subse- 

 quent paper. But the indirect benefits to be derived from it are 

 even more weighty. Tiie scientific investigations instituted in 

 Europe, into this beet sugar question, are of wonderful interest, 

 since they were the key note to the great advances in agricultural 

 science and practice on the eastern continent. Now the industry 

 stands in the front rank among the agricultural industries of 

 France and Germany, and has gained a strong foothold in England 

 and Ireland. Wherever introduced, it has improved the general 

 agricultural condition, to a marked extent, and is said to have 

 doubled the products of French farms. It enables the farmer to 

 keep much more stock upon the same area, on account of the 

 enormous amount of fodder resulting. The pulp remaining after 

 expressing the juice from the roots, is excellent cattle food in a 

 small bulk ; likewise the tops, which may be preserved fresh, in 

 properly constructed pits. The land is continually growing more 

 fertile, for in the sugar sold no fertility is removed from the land, 

 and what little goes off as beef and dairy products, may be easily 

 replaced by means of the profits accruing therefrom. The soil is 

 improved by the deep and thorough tillage practiced, and, by the 

 rotation adopted, other profitable crops are produced. 



The earlier efforts in this country in Wisconsin, Illinois and 

 California, were failures, from a lack of capital, and inadequate 

 knowledge of the causes which govern success and failure. 

 Factories at Freeport, Illinois, and several in California, are now 

 meeting with marked success. It is stated that a movement has 

 been begun in Delaware, for the introduction of the business upon 

 an extensive scale. And for several years the question has been 

 agitated in Canada, with a view to its ultimate establishment 

 there. Now and then a pamphlet on the subject appears, and 

 occasionally an agricultural lecturer takes it for his theme. A 

 book on the sugar beet is promised before long, from the pen of 

 an able, Oswego, New York, gentleman. We look with interest 

 upon the Delaware project ; for but let success crown the elibrts 

 made in this direction in a single instance on the Atlantic coast, 

 and it will be the signal for a score of factories to spring into 

 existence in the Middle and Eastern States. There need be no 

 doubt of the success of this industry, if entered upon intelligently, 

 and with the right men controlling it. 



The investigations of Professor Goessmann, at the Massachu- 

 setts Argicultural College, in ISTO-Tl, prove conclusively that the 



