406 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



in »iic;ar from tha rav l)eet-rojt. This improvement haa 

 consequently increased the product of Austrian sugar to 

 19,500,000 kiloa. (or 21,764 tona), which reprcaeuts about 

 one-third of the consumption of the empire. 



The average return of the beet-root is 25,600 kilos, (or 

 about 23?i tons) per hect., (or llj tons per acre). 13,000 

 hectares are devoted to this cultivation, and furnish the 508 

 millioua of kilos, of roots annually delivered to the sugar 

 factories. The price of the beet-root3 probably approximates 

 to 23 ff. per 1,000 kilos, (or about IQs. per ton) delivered at 

 the factory. la certain cases they have even paid from 

 30 fr. 70 c. to 36 fr. 73 c. (or from 253. to SOs. per ton). The 

 averas;e amount of the harvest will therefore be 7,205,000 fr. 

 (or £288,000 sterling), without including the leaves, the pro- 

 duce of which per hectare is about 6,000 kilos., equal to 

 1,200 kilos, of hay. 



In estimating the price of the sugar at 140 fr. the 100 kilos, 

 (or SJ-d.per lb), that of molasses at 14 fr. (or Ss. 2d. per cwt.), 

 and, lastly, the residue at 1 fr. 50 c. (or about ISa. per ton), 

 we find that the 308 million kilos, of beet-root have produced 



Sugar 19,650,000 f. 



Molasses 1,281,000 f. 



Residue 493,432 f. 



Total 21,426,432 f. 



(or £857,057 sterling), which return shows that the value of 

 the raw beet-root is tripled by its employment in the manu- 

 facture of sugar. 



The leaves of the beet-root and the residue represent together 

 a quantity of 25,670,000 kilos, of hiy, which furnishes food 

 for 6,500 middle-sized oxen. Let us add lastly, to complete 

 this accou'it, that the manufacture of beet-sugar in Austria 

 occupies nearly 20,000 workmen during four or five months of 

 winter. 



We may form some idea of the extension that the manu- 

 facture of beet-sugar is still destined to take in Austria, if we 

 reflect that Hungary, Galicia, Croatia, and Sclavonia at 

 present possess only twenty sugar works, whilst the natural 

 fertility and depth of their soil, and the cheapness of land, 

 place thera in conditions particularly favourable to the culti- 

 vation of beet-root. 



We now come to the third of the agricultural speculations, 

 which have more particularly fixed the attention and attracted 

 the capitals of the great Austrian proprietors, namely; the 

 cultivation of the potato, and its distillation for the extraction 

 of alcohol. This branch of industry has exercised over 

 Austrian agriculture a considerable influence, from which even 

 the rest of Europe has not wholly escaped. Si.ice the year 

 1817 the history of Agriculture has not had to report any 

 general scarcity ; on the contrary, good seasons have suc- 

 ceeded each other almost without intermission, the year 1830 

 being the only year in which Eastern Europe has suffered 

 under the influence of an alimentary crisis, occasioned, in 

 part at least, by the political events, of which Warsaw was 

 the theatre. 



The depression in the price of grain was the necessary con- 

 sequence of the state of things that we have pointed out ; and 

 in 1324 the market price fell to such a point that the harvest 

 did not suffice to cover tlie expense of production, and the 

 huiibandTiftn found it impossible to pay his taxes and rent. 

 It may be suppose'! that, placed in such a position, the zeal of 

 the grest proprietors for agriculture would be sensibly coded, 

 and that the majority of them would seek, in manufacture, the 

 means of making up the deficiency iii their revenues. It is to 

 theic cau«e4 that we may correctly attribute the establishment 



of a great number of distilleries and breweries, and the crea- 

 tion of numerous factories of starch, size, sugar, and vinegar. 



By its antiquity and its numerous aftiuities with agriculture' 

 the distillery was necessarily the Qrst to attract the attention 

 oi those who were anx'ous about the means of deriving advan- 

 tage from the produce of the soil, so as to secure a revenue. 



It is hence that we saw arise in central Europe innumerable 

 distilleries, of which some were formed upon an extraordinary 

 scale. The culture of the potato took an immense extension* 

 and the products of its distillation, by developing amongst the 

 populations around the fatal habit nf intoxication, struck a 

 heavy blow at their intellectual existence. 



However this may be, this revolution in the economy of 

 rural eraployraeuts was followed by a sensible improvement in 

 the incomes from land ; and some went so far as to assert, in 

 a general way, that distilleries would alone stamp a value upon 

 the laud, and enable the owners to draw a rich revenue from 

 the soil. 



Upon those domains on which the quantity of tubers did 

 not suflice to employ in a continuous manner, the action of the 

 distilling apparatus, they found themselves compelled to have 

 recourse to the peasants, and engage them to make, in their 

 culture, a large reserve for the potato. In face of the extraor- 

 dinary reduction in the price of cereals, and an absolute want 

 of openings for thera, it was not difficult to convince them ; 

 and they lost no time in banishing from their rotations the 

 beans and peas, in order to increase the extent allotted to the 

 potato, and thus furnish to the distilleries the first substance 

 they require. The manufacture of spirits then assumed fresh 

 activity ; but the distillers soon found out that the production 

 must be regulated exactly by the requirements of the consump- 

 tion, and that the benefits of the enterprise were intimately 

 dependent on the rigorous observance of this principle. 



In search of markets, they deliver at a low price brandy of 

 inferior quality, sell on credit, and, in short, agree to all kinds 

 of sales ou account, according to which the value of their 

 goods is to be reimbursed to thera in potatoes, deliverable at 

 the time of raising. At the same time other means of seduc- 

 tion were employed by brokers and agents; in a word, nothing 

 was neglected to attain the end, namely, to make the large 

 workings produce the greatest poisible amount of revenue. 

 As to the physical and moral consequences of the immoderate 

 use of braady, they may be easily guessed ; Galicia presents 

 an example of it which deserves to be studied ; and they have 

 been amply exposed in the works of authors, and by temper- 

 ance societies, who have undertaken to struggle against the 

 abuse of alcoholic bever>ices. 



Allured by the temptation of the profits the husbandman, in 

 spite of the exteaaion given to the culture of the potato, did 

 not take the trouble to calculate very exactly the quantity 

 necessary for his own use. From the small number of tubers 

 which were not sent to the distillery, they selected the best 

 for their own consumption ; eo that when the time for plant- 

 ing came, they found in the cellars or pits only a mass of small 

 tubers often insufficient to seed the surface to be planted, 

 Rud which it was thertfore necessary to cut into small pieces, 

 at the risk of failure. It is not surprising after this, when the 

 eeed-tubcrs were chosen under such objectionable conditions, 

 that niany cultivators afterwards attributed the potato disease 

 to a disorganizition of the plant or a debility in its consti- 

 tution. 



In manufacturing on a large scale, they obtain from one 

 hectolitre of potatoes Ll6a0 of brandy of 20 per cent., and 

 l72.50 of resilne (or 29 pints of brandy, and 127^ pints of 

 residue). The net coat price of an eimer (102 pints) of alco- 

 hol, without reckoning interest on capital engaged in the busi- 



