"PRODUCTION AND VALUE. 223 
ash can only exist in these roots by reason of the excess 
of saline matter in the soil whereon they are grown. In 
the great majority of cases this injurious excess of saline 
substance arises from the quantity of manure administered 
to the soil, with a view of obtaining a very large and 
heavy crop of beets—a result certainly realized, but ata 
great sacrifice of saccharine matter in the beets. 
Viewing all these products, however, in the most favor- 
able light possible, still no reasonable being can maintain 
for one moment that the produce obtainable from one 
acre of beet root is any way equal to that derivable from 
an acre of imphee, namely 13 tons of fair sugar, and its 
proportionate quantity of molasses, equal in every respect 
to the cane sugar molasses. 
The next point of comparison is the expense of culti- 
vation and manufacture; and I am firmly convinced that 
these are entirely in favor of the imphee, for, at the pres- 
ent moment, the practice 1s almost universal on the con- 
tinent of sowing the seed, in the first instance, in a seed 
bed, or nursery, from which they are afterwards drawn 
and planted out in the fields. I do not say that this 
common practice is imperative, nor do I object to it on the 
‘score of economy or any other grounds, but I merely state 
that such is the usual custom. The period from sowing 
the seed to harvesting the beets, varies, according to my 
information, from seven to eight months, a space of time 
just double that required for the perfect maturity of the 
imphee. 
This prolonged period naturally requires a correspond- 
ing addition of labor in the cultivation over and above 
that demanded by the latter. 
