135 



seeds therein deposited, aud the earth replaced and gently pressed with the back of 

 the hoc. The sowing by hand is considered to have scvci\il advantages. The plants 

 then growni) in a small bush, thereby easier penetrating the crust which may have 

 been lbrin(>d by lieavy showers of rain, and protecting each other in case of rough 

 weather during the early period of vegetation. The rows can then bo made narrower, 

 which is considered favorable to the development of the sugar, but it requires a great 

 dpal of labor; but during the last few years, having found it more diflicult to supply 

 the necessary lahor to the largo breadth cultivated, we have largely, and with very 

 good success, made use of machines both for sowing and hoeing. In sowing by hand 

 the plants generally have a distance of 12 inches each way, but in sowing l)y machine 

 the rows have a distance of 16 to 18 inches, and the distance between the plants in the 

 rows *J to lU inches. We principally use Ganet's common drill nuichinc, not having 

 Ibuud the Diiiblo machines qiute practical. The quantity of seed used per tunnland is 

 18 to 20 pounds with hand sowing, and 22 to 2o pounds when sown by machine. 



"The beet-root requires rather a long period of growth for getting fully ripe. The 

 laud, having been plowed deeply in the autumn, is prepared in the sjiring as early 

 as the state'of the weather will permit, by us generally in the early part of April, and 

 the sowing performed during the latter half of that mouth, or, uuder less favorably 

 circumstances, in the early part of May. The crop is not ripe before the early part of 

 October. • The harvest comes on in the course of that month, being hardly finished 

 before its close, or the lust days in November. 



" I am not aware of any important improvements in the art of manufacture during 

 the last two years, but I believe that several mixior improvements have been introducd 

 in the manner of working the new system of extracting the juice by diffusion with 

 water, a system which, during the last few years, has excited a great deal of attention 

 on the part of manufacturers of beet-root sugar, and apjiears on the whole to give great 

 satisfaction. 



"The method of analyzing the juice in general practice is the same which is gen- 

 erally adopted in Germany. It is weighed at a temperature of 17^*^ C. by the saccha- 

 rometerof Brix, and then polarized by the instrument of Soleil-Wartzke, with improve- 

 ments by Dr. Scheibler, to arrive at the proportion of crystalino sugar contained in the 

 Juice. The dilierence between the degrees observed on the saccharometer and those 

 on the ihstrument of polarization is considered as impurities, and is called 'no sugar,' 

 and the proportion in which the latter degrees stand to the former is decisive of the 

 quality of the juice. Thus, if the saccharometer marks 14^ and the polarization gives 

 a result of ll'-'.G, the dilfereuce, 2^.5, is ' no sugar,' and the quotient being b2.14, indi- 

 cates the relative quality of the juice for sugar-making purposes. The beet-root crop 

 of this year has not turned out quite so abundant as last year, chiefly owing to the cold 

 and uupropitious weather iu the spring, by which field operations and vegetation 

 were very much retarded, but the (quality of the beet is considered superior to that of 

 last year's crop. 



" There is at present a very active movement in this country with regard to the beet- 

 sugar business, and a very remarkable thing is that this activity appears to have been 

 stin-ed into life by the impending taxation of the manufacture. For a number of 

 years our factory was the only one in the country, but as soon as a proposal had been 

 luade in the Diet of ldG7 to [)ut a duty on indigenous sugar, a proposal which, iu a modi- 

 lied form, was ultimately carried in the Diet of 166^, a new vigor seems to have been 

 infused in the business, and, besides ours, there are now at work one factory iu Stock- 

 holm, one near Malmo, one at Halmstad ; and two are in course of construction, one at 

 Wadstena, which is expected to get to work iu January, and one near Ystad, which 

 will not commence operations before next autumn. The factories at work will jjroba- 

 l)ly this year consume 700,000 to 750,000 centners, Swedish, of beet-root, (say 30,000 

 English tons,) and 1 think a rapid increase in this quantity may be looked for. A 

 great advantage to those who now establish factoriei is that they can profit by the 

 long, dearly bought, and vvadely extended experience of other countries, aud construct 

 their works according to the most approved system. 



"Possibly Sweden enjoys a certain advantage over some of the interior and Noi-th- 

 westeru States of the United States, in being able to receive shipments direct by sea 

 of colonial or West India sugar, the refining of which occupies the factories while they 

 are not engaged on beet-root sugar. 



"The Diet three jears ago provided that a tax should begin to be applied to white 

 beet sugar iu 1872, at the rate of 2 ore per skalpund, (about one pouud,) at which rate 

 it is to remain foi- three years ; the next three years following it is to be 4 ore per skill- 

 pund ami so on increasing 2 ore per skalpund every three years until it reaches 8 (ire 

 (say 2J cents) per skalpund, at which amount it is to remain ; which is four-fifths of 

 the present duty per skalpund on colonial raw sugar up to No. 18, Holland staudard. 



"1 have several times visited the factory at Stockholm, and every facility for ac- 

 quiring information as, to its oi>erations has always been courteously afibrded to me. 

 It was established iu 1809, with a capital of $111,000, (gold,) which paid for some land. 

 3 



