392 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



YIELD OF JUICE. 



The sugar-beet contains about eighty-two per cent of water ; 

 and eighty per cent of its juice may be obtained by subject- 

 ing the crushed beet to a powerful pressure. The relation 

 of the power applied to the quantity of juice obtained may be 

 inferred from the following statement of Walkhoff : — 



By 50 pounds of pressure to the square inch, 60 per cent. 

 80 " " " " " 64 " 



400 " " " " " 75 " 



750 " " " " " 80 " 



The press-plates are made fourteen inches or more square ; 

 and twenty-four pounds of pulp for every hundred square 

 inches of press surface is considered the best proportion. 

 The roots are usually changed into a pulp by circular saws 

 fastened upon two hollow iron rollers running in opposite 

 directions. Water is added (from fifteen to thirty per cent) 

 while preparing the pulp, to reduce the amount of sugar left 

 in the press-cakes. By means of this and numerous other 

 devices, from eighty to eighty-seven per cent of the actual 

 juice in the beet-roots is secured. The profitable addition of 

 water is limited by the expense arising from the evaporation 

 of a diluted juice. 1 The extra expense necessary to procure 

 more than eighty per cent of the juice largely diminishes its 

 value : nevertheless improved methods are constantly sought, 

 and are doubtless attainable. 



The press method and Roberts's 2 modification of warm 

 and cold maceration of the fresh beets have apparently the 

 warmest advocates. 



The supply of labor, fuel, and water, the condition of the 

 sugar market, &c, so far control the choice of apparatus and 

 modes of operation, that little information could be gained 

 from a general discussion without some detailed explanations. 

 To the farmer, the vegetable refuse, as press-cake and like 

 substances, is of prime importance ; and the various modes of 

 abstracting the juice from the beet-roots affect him only in 



1 One hundred pounds of coal are required for the evaporation of five hun- 

 dred pounds of water in the course of beet-sugar manufacture. 



2 Roberts claims to secure ninety-four per cent of the juice by adding but 

 fifteen per cent of water, and carrying on the first osmotic maceration at 80° to 

 87° Centigrade, and the remainder at a common lemperature. 



