SU(;.\K I5KET IX SOl'TH AFRICA. 169 



ber, 1912. showed 16.70 per cent, of sucrose, while one collected 

 in December yielded only 7.58 per cent. 



The last sample from the Eastern part of the Cape Province 

 was taken in March. 191 4, and yielded 10.3 per cent, of sugar. 



There has been a fair amount of mangold cultivation in 

 South Africa, and in the success or otherwise of this in any 

 locality we have already an index to the suitabilit\- of the local 

 conditions for sugar beet cultivation. C. A. Hawkes, in a con- 

 cisely written article on " The Beet Sugar Industry,"* says : 



It will he well to remember that the sugar beet and the mangold 

 iH'long to the same species {Beta 7'ulgciris) and that the characteristics, 

 re(|uirements, and treatment of the two crops are very much alike. The 

 ideal sugar beet soil is a nice deep friable loam, but successful crops can 

 be obtained on almost any soil that will produce a fair crop of mangolds, 

 providing there is snlficient deptli. It is characteristic of beet cultivation 

 that it greatly improves the fertility of all soils, particularly those of a 

 poor quality, such as very light sands. 



It may therefore he instructive to record here the results 

 of some analyses of mangolds that were performed in the 

 Grahamstown Laboratory during 1913 and 1914. The plants 

 were grown at the Government Agricultural School at Groot- 

 fontein, and the 1913 set had been collected about three weeks 

 before the analyses were undertaken. They represented the fol- 

 lowing varieties :— 



1. Golden Tankard. 



2. Yellow Cdobe. 



3. Orange Globe. 



4. Mammoth Long Red. 



5. Giant Half Sugar White. 



In addition, a sugar beet grown at the same time and place 

 was examined, and is numbered 6 in the following table of the 

 analytical results obtained from samples collected in July, 191 3. 



I. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 



Water % 86.24 88.19 86.91 85.20 87.11 67.11 



Ash % 1. 41 1-57 1-28 1.24 1.55 1.63 



Fat % .078 .108 .052 .041 .046 .048 



Crude Fibre % 75 .78 .74 .76 .85 1.46 



Proteins % 1.69 1.76 2.01 1.54 1.84 2.80 



Carbohydrates, exclud- 

 ing Crude Fibre, %.. 9.83 7.59 9.01 ir. 22 8.61 26.95 



The percentage of sugar in No. 6 w-as 18.28. This sample 

 showed an exceedingly low j^roportion of water. The average 

 percentage in sugar beet, according to analyses conducted in 

 other parts of the world, appears to be 81, and the extreme 

 limits of variations recorded are a maximum of 88 and a mini- 

 mum of 75. t The Principal of the Grootfontein School of 

 Agriculture was unable to account for the low percentage of 

 water in the sugar beet, but pointed out that, unlike No. 6 o<f 



*Journ. Chem. Technology (iQiS). 2 [3]. 109. 



t Average of 76 analyses. Konig : " Cheniic der menschliclien .\alir- 

 ungsmittel ■' (1903), 1, 761. 



