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THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY. 
Mr. Edward L. Cull, of Toronto, Canada, furnishes the Department 
a second article on the beet-sugar industry. In this he especially urges 
upon the attention of farmers the advantages arising from the conversion 
of the beets into crude sirup upon the farms where raised, and, in that 
shape, transporting to the refiner, rather than the beets themselves in 
bulk. With the view of facilitating the process, and of bringing it 
within easy reach as to cost of appliances, he suggests and describes 
certain desirable machinery. The considerable attention being paid/in 
some parts of the country to the subject of sugar-beet production will 
continue to excite still further discussion concerning the cheapest and 
more available methods of cultivation and conversion into commercial 
sugars and sirups. Mr. Cull writes: 
Allow me to suggest to the Department that the best possible method of helping 
forward the manufacture of beet-root sugar would be the establishment at the various 
schools of agriculture and of technology in the country of a rough-and-ready set of 
utensils such as a farmer on a large scale, or the small manufacturer, is accustomed to 
use. If the sirup is made in accordance with the instructions concerning the use of 
such utensils, which I have already given in a pamphlet entitled ‘‘ The Whole History 
and Mystery of Beet-Root Sugar,” it will be fitted for the operations of the refiner, 
and will, under his treatment, yield without difficulty the maximum of sugar, as also 
of potash and other salines, all of which are equal in value to the sugar, at least, 
weight for weight. Sirup can be prepared on farms and in their immediate neighbor- 
hoods to much greater advantage by the farmer or the small manufacturer than by 
proprietors of large refining-works, the latter requiring, to do business on a profitable 
scale, the products of a far larger amount of roots than can be grown within hauling 
distance of the refinery. The refiner must carry on his business from one year’s end 
to another—perhaps night and day ; and by so doing will refine many hundred tons of 
sugar in the course of a year. Ilis business is quite complicated enough without 
including the growth and reduction of the roots, the feeding of cattle, and the pro- 
duction of the general crops, which are required on all land devoted to the raising of 
one principal crop, inasmuch as all land, however good, requires the amelioration 
afforded by extra tillage and the careful application of the elements which go to the 
support of cereals. Even if the refinery is fully supplied with the rough beet-sirup, 
it must embrace several distinct branches of manufacturing: first, the production of 
refined sugar; secondly, the production of alcohol from the molasses produced, which 
is too full of saline particles and other impurities to be profitably used without this 
elimination ; thirdly, the production of salines, such as potash and soda, from the 
wash, after it has given up its aleohol by the processes of fermentation and distilla- 
tion. These three processes convert the rough sirup into three separate and distinct 
articles of great commercial value, and are quite sufficient to engage the attention of 
the capitalist. On the other hand, the farmer produces the reot as one of his ordinary 
crops, excellent in carrying out a system of rotation. Conversion by himself of the 
roots into rough sirup would afford him occupation during the winter, and supply a 
most valuable auxiliary food for his cattle during the time he is fattening them, as 
well as a highly nutritive aliment for his milch-cows and young cattle and sheep. If 
he can produce more of this food than required for these purposes, he stores his cakes 
of pulp for summer use to help his stock over the droughts of summer and the failure 
of the pasturage with which our American climate is so often afflicted. The leaves of 
the beet not only afford him a valuable food for his cattle during the time he is storing 
his roots, but also an excellent coat of manure for the succeeding crop. The farmer 
need not be over particular about getting the last drop of juice from his rocts—it is 
this which requires powerful machinery; if he does not get the last drops his cattle do, 
and there is no waste ; whereas, in the hands of the great manufacturer who grows 
his own roots, the whole of the juice must be extracted, even that remaining in the 
pulp being washed out with water; otherwise the loss becomes ruinous. 
The farmer would grow more roots than he now does if he could get an immediate 
and profitable return for them; but, as now too often situated, few only can com- 
mand sufficient capital to procure the necessary cattle for the food at hand. Could 
farmers feel sure that the sugar-beets they might grow would not only provide a means 
of feeding their cattle, but also produce in sirup from $45 to $65 to the acre of roots 
produced, they would very soon put a different face on their farms, and the increased 
returns, including the manure increment, would enhance the fertility of the land, and 
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