124 CULTUKE OF THE SUGAR BEET. 



difficulties and vexatious disputes. Under the plan of sale and purchase 

 of the crops at a given rate per ton, as fixed in the contract between 

 them, it becomes the desire of the producer to obtain from the land 

 planted in this crop the largest possible quantity, without regard to 

 quality. On the other hand, the manufacturer, studying his own inter- 

 ests alone, and desirous to obtain the largest possible profit from the 

 material he must handle, would have only good quality, without regard 

 to the quantity that may be yielded per acre to his colleague, the pro- 

 ducer. In the pages which precede this we learn that large yields per 

 acre generally meant, in the ancient modes of culture, large roots, and 

 these large roots were found to contain much larger quantities of organic 

 and mineral matters other than sugar than roots of smaller size, and 

 that these impurities have deleterious effects upon the quantity of sugar 

 that may be extracted by the means usually employed in the factory. 

 We have also seen that there are various influences tending to the in- 

 crease of the impurities, among which we have mentioned qualities of 

 soil, depth of plowing, character of the fertilizers employed, and the 

 time and mode of applying them, the kind of seed used and mode of 

 planting it, and the treatment of the crop during growth or subsequent 

 to harvesting it ; and all these matters the manufacturer seeks to con- 

 trol, making them so far as possible the basis of the conditions of the 

 contract, to which the farmer on his part must submit. He also endeav- 

 ors to secure to himself the right to superintend, personally or by proxy, 

 the work of preparing the soil, application of manures, and sowing, and 

 to furnish at the lowest market rates the seed to be sown ; the latter to 

 be paid for by deduction from amount due the grower on delivery of his 

 crop to the factory. But, as before stated, the existence of all these 

 conditions produced innumerable disputes, involving many costly suits 

 at law, and intelligent agriculturists and honorable manufacturers have 

 endeavored to determine a means by which both the farmer and the 

 manufacturer may be free from all special conditions in the production 

 of the crop or its acceptance for manufacture, and this has given rise to 

 the system of purchase by density, or according to the quality of the 

 product delivered at the mill. In the study of the means of estimating 

 quickly and accurately the quantity of sugar existing in the juice of the 

 beet root, it was found that if the density of a sample of the juice of 

 a root be taken shortly after being pulled, there is a definite relation 

 between this density and the proportion of sugar it contains ; and it is 

 this relation that constitutes the basis of the new system. They retain 

 so much of the old system as provides for the determination of the 

 amount of tare to be allowed when the roots are delivered, however, 

 and this is effected in the following manner : The director or superin- 

 tendent of the works being present at the time of delivery, acts in con- 

 cert with another person who is employed to act on behalf of the pro- 

 ducer. Each select from one or more loads three or more beets, such 

 as it is understood he considers a fair average of those constituting the 



