REPORT OF THE CHEMIST. 155 



year the government not only withdrew its protection but levied a duty 

 of 15 francs per luiudred kilograms (1;| cents per pound) on domestic 

 sugars. Tliis resulted in the failure of one hundred and sixty establish- 

 ments in France. Under this reverse, the production of sugar, which 

 had risen to 49,000 tons in 1837, fell to 22,000 in 1842. From this date, 

 the history of beet-sugar industry is but the record of a struggle with 

 the cane-sugar of the tropics. From the present state of this conflict 

 it is quite evident that the struggle must terminate in the triumph of 

 beet-sugar. throughout Northern Europe at least. Except in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the sea-board cities of France, foreign sugar has entirely 

 gone out of use. The same is true of Germany and Holland. 



The manufacture of sugar from beets is rapidly becoming an estab- 

 lished industry throughout all Northern Europe, and the amount pro- 

 duced is not only supplying the demand for home consumption in those 

 countries, but beet-sugar is beginning to compete favorably with cane- 

 sugar in the markets of the world. Even England, with her commer- 

 cial facilities and her favorable relations to the cane-sugar producing 

 countries, pays annually nearly £2,000,000 for beet-sugar. In 18G9 the 

 production of beet-sugar in the states of Northern Europe is said to have 

 amounted to 02.823,115 tons, and as the increase is at the rate of 10 i^r 

 cent, annually the production now probably reaches 05,000,000 tons. 

 The steady increase in this branch of production is not only without 

 government protection at present, but under the pressure of a heavy 

 special tax. In France this tax (amounting to about $50 per ton ) is levied 

 on the sugar produced, while in Germany the tax is laid on the beets 

 raised. This is often as high as $40 i>er aere. Yet, under the influence 

 of favorable climate and soil, with the application of science and cheap 

 labor, the beet-sugar industry has established itself in these pountries so 

 firmly as to be beyond the reach of comi>etitiou, notwithstanding the 

 onerous tax to which it is subjected. The introduction of this new indus- 

 try in Europe has saved at home a vast sum of money that would other- 

 wise have been sent abroad for sugar; it has increased greatly the con- 

 sumption of that article among the middle classes in society ; it has given 

 labor to thousands during the season of the year when they would have 

 been otherwise unemployed; and it has greatly improved the agriculture 

 of the sugar-jiroducing countries by introducing a more thorough sys- 

 tem of cultivation and a new element in the rotation of crops. 



The practicability of economically establishing the manufacture of 

 sugar from beet-roots in the United States is yet an open question. The 

 earliest experiment in this direction, of which we have any record, 

 was made by David L. Child, of Northampton, Massachusetts, who in 

 the year 1838 protluced 1,300 pounds of sugar from beets grown on his 

 premises. No details of his experi)uent are preserved, further than that 

 his ground yielded 13 tons of beets per aere, at a cost of $42. From' 

 this date to 1803 no eiibrts were made to repeat the exi^eriinent of Mr. 

 Child. In that year, Gennert Brothers, from Brunswick, in Germany, 

 bought a tract (2,-100 acres) of land at Chatsworth, in Livingston County, 

 Illinois, for the purpose of entering into the beet-sugar business exten- 

 sively^. This enterprise, after struggiiug with a series of mishaps and 

 failures, owing to an ill-chosen soil, seasons of drought, inferior seed, 

 &c., yielded to the pressure of unfavorable circumstances, and in 1870 

 the establishment was removed to Freeport, Illinois, where a similar 

 experiment had been in ])rogress since 1860, and wihich is giving fair 

 promise of success, having produced in 1870 a yield of 200,000 pounds 

 of sugar of a fair quality, and at a reasonable cost. 



In 1807 Messrs. BonevSteel and Otto organized a company at Fond du 



