exi'1-:rimkxts with iiii-: sicak bi<:I";i- in sol rii 



AFRICA. 



Hv C"ri.\RLKS iM-tKDI-KICK U'RITZ. M.A.. D.Sc, I'M.C" 



The sugar beet {Beta vulgaris), as we know il lu-da)-. con- 

 taining up to 20 per cent, of sugar, has developed entirely within 

 the last century and a half. It was in 1747 tliat Marggraf, a 

 German chemist, published the fact that the root of Beta uiari- 

 tima contained sugar. Its sugar content was then no more than 

 2 to 3 per cent, on an average, but careful cultivation has little 

 by little augmented it, and so out of the maritime beet ])lanl 

 investigated by Marggraf has grown the variety, rich in sugar, 

 which is now considered as a distinct species. V'ilmorin intro- 

 duced it from Germany into France in 1780; in 1827 it began 

 a new industry in Belgium, and then spread over the greater 

 part of Europe. More recently beet culture has been under- 

 taken in Canada, the United States, and New^ Zealand. 



Nearly twenty years ago a few samples of sugar beet, grown 

 in the Sterkstroom Division of the Cape Colony, were analysed 

 in the Cape Government Laboratories, and yielded results which 

 compared very favourably with the best yields of Germany and 

 Victoria. In 1905, in a paper read by me before Section B 

 of the British Association,* I suggested the experimental culti- 

 vation of sugar beet in some parts of the Colony where the 

 lack of lime is an obstacle to successful fruit culture. During 

 the next five years beets grown at Woodstock, Tulbagh, Wor- 

 cester, Caledon and Port Elizabeth were analysed, and although 

 in some cases the sugar content was low, in others good results 

 were obtained, practically up to the maximum (17.80 per cent.) 

 of the Sterkstroom results. Five years later, in a paper printed 

 in the Cape of Goad Hope Agricultural Journal,'^ I pointed out 

 that, few though the experiments had been, they had sufficed 

 to show- that beet containing a high percentage of sugar could 

 be grown in South Africa, and that the questions remaining to 

 be decided were: Where can w-e grow it to best advantage? and, 

 Can we produce sufficiently large crops? On the other hand, 

 from the commercial standpoint, assuming the availability of 

 the requisite acreage and capital, would not some other crops 

 be likely to shtmt the beet on account of greater ease of culti- 

 vation and more abundant profit, and. in that case, would- not 

 capital then straightway be diverted into the new channel ? 

 These questions have not yet l)een satisfactorily answered. 



In 1912 the stibject of " Sugar Beet Investigation in the 

 Cape Province " was again discussed by me,| when further 

 details were added regarding cultural experiments and chemical 



* .Addresses and Paper.s. Brit. & S.A. As.soc. for Adv. of Sc, S. Afri^k^ T.--^^. >* 

 C 1905 ), 1. 229. ,</o*^^" ^X'J^' 



i (iQio). 37 [it], 501-508. .'"^/i ■'%>-<»'^^ ^A^^ 



+ Union Agric. Janni. ( TQ12), 3 [6], 767-777. i^;!] LIBRARY 



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