DIGEST OF STATE REPORTS. . 473 



lactiireofsugarin the United States, the undertaking, .ifter many years of expeiiiuents, 

 disappointm'euts, and difficulties at Cbatswortli, was forever abandoned, and the ma- 

 chinery and apparatus moved to Freeport, where Baiin, Eoseusteii & Co. are erecting 

 another factory, and iu which, if they are successful in solving the problems of, first, 

 securing a crop of beets grown by the farmers and purchased by the ton, and, secondly, 

 of getting 7 per cent, of sugar of a first-class quality from those beets, the sugar-beet 

 manufacture" may be looked on as having got a permanent foot-hold in the St.ate. 



A general impression seems to prevail that sugar cannot be made from beets grown 

 in Illinois. This is a mistake. 



The sugar made from the last crop of beets was sold in the Chicago market, and 

 was of as good a quality and brought the same price as the same brands of refined 

 cane sugar ; and the beets grown at Freeport this past year were pronounced, by ex- 

 perts, as fully equal to the beets grown in any part of Europe in the percentage of the 

 sugar which they gave on strict chemical analysis. The sources of failure arose from 

 other causes, aniong which was the want, from first to last, of a full supply of water. 

 Coal had also to be transported a lonjr distance at great cost, the supply failing at 

 the most critical times ; the need of irrigation in the hot summer season, and the 

 drowning of the plants in wet seasons; the costly and troublesome eflbrt to grow, every 

 season, several hundred acres of beets, instead of purchasing them from the farmers, 

 by the ton. And the greatest difliculty was in securing, at any rate (^compensation, 

 skilled employds, practically acquainted with the mechanical wants of the concern, or 

 possessing the requisite skill and practical information demanded for the conversion 

 «f the juice of the beet into first-class merchantable sugar. 



Next to the manufacture of iron, there is no other undertaking, combining field cul- 

 ture, stock-feeding, and a highly valuable manufactured and profitable article, which 

 can be embarked in by our people, and which holds out such brilliant prospecte of 

 success, as that of converting the juice of the beet into sugar. Tliat it can be done in 

 this State, and done with large profit to the farmer and the manufacturer, does not 

 admit of a doubt in the minds of those who have made themselves familiar with its 

 history and cultivation in Europe, and of its failure in this State. In Europe the av- 

 erage yield of the roots, in the district where it is cultivated for sugar, is from 15 to 

 20 tons to the acre. Thje yield of first-class sugar is 7 per cent., or 280 pounds to the 

 acre, of 20 tons ©f roots. Allowing that our crops in Illinois yield only 10 tons of 

 beets to the acre, this would give, at 7 per cent, of a yield, 140 pounds to the ton, 

 which would net in market, at present, at 15 cents the pound, .$21 to the ton, or $210 

 to the acre ; and as a factory would work up 50 tons of roots each day, the value of 

 the daily work would be $1,050. At these figures the factory could very readily pay 

 ^5 a ton, which would leave a balance in favor of the factory of $800 on each day's 

 work of 50 tons ; or, at $10 the ton, it would leave a daily balance of §550, or a mar- 

 gin sufficient to cover aU the expenses of manufacturing such as the manufacture of 

 on other commodity can exhibit. 



After contrasting the difiference iu the profits of sugar-beets at from 

 $75 to $100 per acre, and com at 30 cents per bushel, or $9 per acre, 

 Mr. Dwyer closes his reference to this promising new industry as fol- 

 lows: 



The present effort to establish this interest at Freeport should be regarded as highly 

 praiseworthy, but it must be confessed that a failure would be almost fatal, for the 

 next twenty-five years, to the sugar-beet business in this State, and for this reason 

 other experiments should be tried, and that extensively, in different parts of the State, 

 so as to make a test of the soil, climate, yield per acre, and percentage of sugar. 

 Were the State of Illinois part of the dominions ot the King of Prussia, there is not a 

 county in the State but would have been tested as to capability for producing sugar 

 from the beet ; and long ere the present day the smoke ascending from the chimneys 

 of hundreds of sugar-beet factories would be visible all over the State, retaining more 

 wealth, now expended by us for foreign sugars and establishing an outside trade, than 

 any other agricultural interest can ever hope to do, because of the ability of sugar, 

 irom its great compactness, to submit to a rate of freights that would be impracticable 

 with our grains, meats, and other bulky products. 



There has been some objection to the European larch, and its cultiva- 

 tion in artificial forests has been discouraged, but it is highly com- 

 mended for various reasons in a paper contributed by Mr. H. J. Dunlap. 

 This gentleman says : 



No tree excels the European larch in rapidity of growth, strength, and durability. I 

 need not recount the many other uses to which this wood is adapted, but will consider 

 it merely as a wind-break, for vineyard stakes, posts, and ties. As a grower, the tree 

 is uprigiit, symmetrical, and strong. Two-year old plants I consider best for planting. 



