CULTURE OF THE SUGAR BEET. 13 



Europe. It is sufficient for our purpose hereto make known the profit obtained by 

 Baron de Koppy from his own works at the time of the visit of M. Boudet. 



He affirms, 1st, that Baron de Koppy is very well satisfied with the quantity of 

 sugar, rum, spirits, and vinegar furnished by his beets, and with the ready and lucra- 

 tive sale he had for these different staples ; 2d, that the culture of beet roots, far from 

 diminishing that of wheat, contributed to procure for him more abundant crops than 

 be obtained before, first, because in employing for beets only the lands formerly left 

 to fallow, his wheat occupied the same area as before he thought of making sugar; 

 and, second, because beets furnish, besides their sugar, a large mass of food for cattle 

 and sheep. He was able, without enlarging his domain, to double the number of his 

 cattle, to obtain more manure, and with the aid of this manure to obtain larger quan- 

 tities of wheat ; 3d. He admitted that he owed to the existing war a large portion of 

 the profits given him by a sugar the people were obliged to use in default of that from 

 canes, but he asserted that should he in times of peace obtain from his factory only 

 the cost of cultivation of the beets and the manipulation of the sugar, he would guard 

 himself from abandoning it so as not to renounce the prosperity it had given him and 

 which it could always preserve on his domain. 



The sugar sold by Baron de Koppy was not refined. M. Boudet wished to know for 

 himself if it was snsceptible of being. The trial he made having succeeded, he thought 

 this sugar would become that of the richer classes, at least until we have the sugar 

 from grapes M. Proust had led us to hope for, the sirup of grapes having already re- 

 placed for the poor that of the cane. 



The establishment of beet-sugar factories may therefore be undertaken with confi- 

 dence throughout the empire ; but we must observe, according to the memoir of M. 

 Boudet, it is especially to the large proprietors that it will be profitable, and that they 

 should content themselves with making raw sugar to be sent like that of the islands 

 to the refineries, one of which is able to purify and convert into leaves the products 

 of twenty factories. 



As Baron de Koppy admits in bis statements to M. Boudet, the events 

 which were brought about by the political conditions of the time did 

 much to favor the success of the enterprise, for shortly after his works 

 were started — in fact, in the years immediately following — Napoleon I 

 issued his famous decrees of Berlin and Milan, establishing the famous 

 continental blockade, and excluding from the markets and consump- 

 tion all material whatsoever of English production or manufacture, and 

 particularly the products of England's colonies. This, of course, made 

 sugars scarce and dear, and enhanced the profits of the manufacture 

 that Achard and Koppy had so opportunely developed. 



The same conditions stimulated the search for products indigenous to 

 France that might be substituted for those colonial staples which had 

 become articles of daily consumption, and the deprivation of which 

 was most keenly felt, and sugar seemed to have claimed instant at- 

 tention. But the source developed by Achard seems to have almost 

 completely vanished from the thoughts of both scientists and practical 

 manufacturers. The destruction of external commerce, of course, re- 

 sulted in the downfall of the wine trade, and all eyes and all minds 

 naturally turn to the utilization of the enormous crops of grapes France 

 annually produced, and everybody seemed to look to the sugar this fruit 

 contained, both as a substitute for the wanting colonial staple, and as 

 the rescue from the ruin which appeared imminent to the proprietors of 



