158 AGRICULTURAL REPOKT. 



apart to admit of horse-cultivatiou, but the space between the plants 

 in the row need not exceed eight inches. After thinning the x)lauts 

 properly, the cultivation consists in keeping the ground loose and free 

 from weeds. As soon as the lower leaves begin to die, the crop should 

 be harvested, but care must be taken that the roots be not exposed to 

 air and light. The tops should be cut off and the roots covered with 

 earth so as to secure them froua tlie infmence of air, light, and frost, 

 until they- are used in the factory. 



A mistaken notion has obtained, to some extent, among farmers, 

 that the beets can be made into sugar on the farm. The profitable 

 manufacture of l)eet-sugar requires a well arranged liictory and expen- 

 sive machinery, and withal, it demands both skill and science in the 

 management of all its i)rocesses. Without these, an attempt to engage 

 in beet-sugar making will be mOvSt likely to end in a failure — with these, 

 and backed up by sufiicieut capital, the prospect of the beet-sugar in- 

 dustry in the northern portion of the United States is hopeful. 



As a sugar-producing plant, the beet cannot compare with the cane 

 of the tropics, and if it were possible to province them side by side 

 there could be no competition. There is a cm-ious law developed in the 

 comparison of these sugar-producing plants. When sugar is produced 

 and stored away in the above-ground organs of a i)lant, it is found to 

 be in the ratio of the light autl heat to which the i^laut is exposed ; 

 when found in an under-ground organ it is inversely as the light and 

 heat. Of course this law operates on both sides within the limits of 

 plant-life, that is, the capacity to endure light and heat, or the absence 

 of these. Under the operation of this law, as we recede from the 

 tropics, the cultivation of the sugar-cane becomes less and less profitable, 

 till we reach a point where it is no longer a remunerative crop ; so, in 

 passing south from, perhaps, about the fiftieth degree of latitude, on 

 this continent, we traverse the beet-sugar zone till we find a point 

 somewhere about the fortieth degree, where beet culture will cease to 

 be profitable. If we could command an ample territory within the 

 tropics for the production of sugar from the cane, the introduction and 

 fostering of the beet-sugar industry would be of questionable economy. 

 But as our entire territory lies beyond the tropics, cane-sugar becomes 

 an uncertain industry both from degeneration of the cane and the fail- 

 ure of the crop from unfavorable seasons. If we take the production 

 of sugar in Louisiana, before the war disturbed that industry, we shall 

 see how uncertain a crop sugar is in our best latitudes. The produc- 

 tion, in hogsheads, in several years, compares thus : In 1834: it was 100,- 

 000 ; in 1835 it fell to 30,000 ; in 1853 it reached 439,070 ; but in 185G 

 there were but 73,000 hogsheads produced. The increasing consump- 

 tion of sugar, and the comparatively high i)rice maintained, invites 

 competition in this field, and we see no good reason why beet-sugar 

 should not be able to maintain itself in the race. 



RYLAND T. BROWN, 



CJicmiat 



Hon. Frederick Watts, 



CommissioHcr. 



