CULTURE OF THE SUGAR BEET. 133 



dered to its lower part. In the center is a pump cylinder in -which slides a piston, 

 the rod of which passes through the summit of the bell and communicates motion to 

 a safety-valve. The air rises to the summit of this purger about the pump-cylinder, 

 aud gradually exercises a sufficiently strong pressure upon the piston to cause it to 

 descend and open the escape-valve. A large portion of the air is thrown out, the 

 piston rises, closes the valve, and so on. 



It is indispensable to verify the condition of the juice on its arrival at the factory. 

 A small f -inch iron tube, with a stopcock, should be arranged to deliver ab libitum 500 

 to 600 cubic centimeters in which to determine the proportion of lime added. Hereto- 

 fore lime has not been used in a sufficiently exact manner. A large vat of juice badly 

 limed may occasion serious trouble in the work. Let us admit a vat of 400 hectoliters 

 (8,800 gallons). Such a volume of juice introduced to a conduit of 10 centimeters 

 (3.9 inches) diameter would occupy a length of 5,000 meters (5,458 yards), i. e., it would 

 fill the entire pipe of certain rasping-works. It is thus possible, on the one hand, to 

 cover the entire interior surface with a viscous stratum, which in fermenting would 

 considerably reduce the quality of the juice to follow, even supposing a somewhat 

 better liming, and, on the other hand, arriving at the factory its mixture with the 

 other juices render the work difficult and often bad for several hours. It is of the 

 utmost importance to watch this danger. 



Rasping-works seem to be a source or great expense, but this is certainly a delu- 

 sion. One may be convinced of this by carefully examining the conditions of their 

 operation. They may involve no surplus of expense, and simply be a source of profit 

 when placed in such a way as to increase the capacity of the factory, without taking away 

 any part of ii. The rasping-works furnish the factory with supplies of beets that 

 would otherwise be inaccessible, and in quantity sufficiently large as not to increase 

 the net cost of the juice. This end is easily arrived at by the numerous advantages 

 of the rasping- works, of which we shall present a succinct resume'. 



One of the greatest of these advantages is to obviate the possibility of arrivals of 

 beets above a certain limit on the same day. Thus the arrival of 200 tons would re- 

 quire an average of 50 to 100 carts. But in the first days, when each one is hurried, 

 or when it is necessary to secure supplies, 4, 5, 6, 20 times this number may arrive, and 

 it is easy to understand that their reception would be impossible. Subterranean 

 transport removes these difficulties ; it is possible to receive enormous volumes of 

 juice with no other inconvenience than to provide the necessary recipients. 



In transportation by means of wagons the roads are subject to such degradations 

 that the administration causes the manufacturer to pay, under the title of manufac- 

 turing grants {subventions industrielles), for all the injury caused on account of beets, 

 with no distinction between the manufacturer and the grower, so that the grower, 

 whose beets are not received by the factory by default of quality, has left him the 

 right to carry them home at the cost of the manufacturer. One factory has paid 

 32,000 francs (about §6,400) in a single year. Manufacturing grants are suppressed by 

 the rasping-works and pipe-lines. All. that remains is the insignificant cost of the care 

 of the ground in which the conduit is buried, and in place of a sort of antagonism 

 between the manufacturer and the administration, there is complete harmony by 

 reason of the convergence of otherwise opposing interests. Another serious advan- 

 tage is the non-concentration of the entire personnel in the factory. Division of labor 

 is always of highest interest. Rasping and pressing, especially with hydraulic 

 presses, employ the most numerous portion of the workmen. The requirements of 

 the rasping-works alone are therefore often beyond the possibilities of the local pop- 

 ulation. Added to this is another and stronger reason, that several rasping-works of 

 the same power is an absolute impossibility in the factory. It is an easy thing to 

 leave the laborers at home, where they may remain, by putting the rasping-works in 

 the distant villages. 



The farmers of certain localities may not be able to grow beets on account of their 

 special situation. Removed, not by real distance, but by too pronounced accidents 



