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region. The minute and scrupulous care bestowed on the raising, dress- 
ing, preparing, and packing of the fowl guarantees fully against the or- 
dinary risks of transportation. 
Henry IV, the most popular of the French kings, promised to make 
France rich enough by the wise measures of his great minister of com- 
merce, Sully, to enable every peasant to have his chicken-roast on Sun- 
day. Nowadays this would not appear an extravagant prophecy. 
BEET AND BEET-ROOT SUGAR. 
The immediate success of the manufacture of beet-sugar on the conti- 
nent of America—and of its ultimate success there can be no doubt, now 
that public attention to the subject is thoroughly aroused—will be de- | 
pendent upon two facts: 
First. The proper selection of seed. 
Second. The reducing of the principal product of the root to such a 
‘shape as to render its easy conveyance to the great centers an easy mat- 
ter. On this latter depends the general and universal cultivation of 
the root, and until its growth becomes general and universal, the pro- 
duction of the sugar will be confined to a few localities more imme- 
diately adapted to its growth and to the easy manufacture of sugar. 
The selection of the seed is of the first importance—of the various 
kinds of best beets grown for sugar. The roots. may be classified into 
two varieties, viz., those which are slightly colored, and those which 
are white. Each class has its admirers. The red garden-beet is not 
used for sugar. In the first instance, and for a number of years, we 
shall have to rely on imported seed from the beet-growing countries of 
Europe, and therefore we shall, in a great measure, be dependent on 
the character and honesty of the seedmen importing from France and 
from Germany. Yet there seems to be no reason why we cannot grow 
our own seed when the principles of producing are understood. 
The beet, like every other plant and production of nature, is suscepti- 
ble of great and constant improvement. In its case, as in all others 
where plants are propagated by seed, “like has the greatest tendency 
to like,” and therefore we may rely on it that the roots which are rich 
in sugar will produce seed for the succeeding crop, which will also be 
rich in sugar; and by constant and careful selection, a constant, although 
slow, improvement may be depended upon. When the root was first cul- 
tivated for sugar, 5 per cent. was considered a good yield; now 10 per 
cent. of sugar in the roots is of constant occurrence, and some of the 
most favorite kinds are known to produce 15 per cent. of sugar. 
The difficulties in the way of selecting roots for seed consist in the 
fact that each root is a perfect plant, and that in order to insure im- 
provement, each root which is to be planted for seed must be tested in 
one way or in another. 
Vilmorin, the great seedsman of Paris, was a great improver of the 
root. His plan was to test every root before planting it for seed. He 
punched out a small piece of the root, reduced it to pulp, extracted the 
juice, and, by a set of very delicate instruments, he ascertained the 
specific gravity of the juice. The ropts which showed a great richness 
were planted for seed, while those under a certain average were rejected ; 
the process did not interfere with the seed-bearing power of the root. 
By this means he found that he could produce roots of even a greater 
