SUGAR BEET BUSINESS. 329 



its products, while supplies from the usual sources are continu- 

 ally diminishing. 



In 1871, after consuming the products of our Southern cane- 

 fields, we imported and used $100,000,000 worth of sugar. 

 That year Massachusetts used $5,000,000, and the consumption 

 is increasing at the rate of fifteen per cent, a year. The culture 

 can be introduced, not really as an experiment, but as a perma- 

 nent business, all the difficulties of which have been solved most 

 satisfactorily. 



At the present time forty per cent, of all the sugar made in 

 the world is from the sugar beet, and in the temperate zone. 

 In 1871, France produced 300,000 tons of beet sugar, and the 

 cash value of its beet products was more than $50,000,000. 

 Those districts of the country which produced the most sugar, 

 also produced more grain and beef than any others, and vastly 

 more than they did before the introduction of this industry. 

 This the farmers and manufacturers of France have accom- 

 plished under very depressing circumstances, for the govern- 

 ment collects a tax of nearly four cents a pound on the sugar, 

 and draws an annual revenue from the beet crop of $16,000,000. 



Germany has met with equal success in this culture, and it 

 is commencing with highly nattering propects in Russia and 

 England. 



The universal testimony is, that besides the value of its man- 

 ufactured product, it is an invaluable adjunct to improvement 

 in every other branch of agriculture. 



To produce the beet successfully and of sufficient sweetness, 

 in a measure compels to a correct system of agriculture, which 

 results in the increased fertility of the soil and largely aug- 

 mented products of all other kinds. The soil and climate at 

 Amherst produces as sweet a beet as that of France or Germany, 

 and sugar in every respect as perfect as any ever produced in 

 the tropics. What the culture of the beet has done for France 

 it may do for the Connecticut Valley, giving greater variety to 

 our productions, making a profitable crop, and aiding to coun- 

 teract the results of our present culture. 



Tobacco requires large quantities of manure, rich in every 



element of plant-food, but especially in nitrogenous matters. 



The sugar beet will not bear nitrogenous food, and would follow 



tobacco with a very slight addition of some mineral element. 



42 



