PRODUCTION AND VALUE. 225 
The main result of this comparison, apart from ex- 
penses for cultivation and manufacture, may then be 
stated : 
Imphee.—Time of growth, three to four months; sugar, 
per acre, thirty cwts.; molasses equal to cane molasses. 
Beet root—Time of growth, seven to eight months; 
sugar, per acre, ten cwts.; molasses very inferior. 
This, too, is on the broad supposition that the value 
of the molasses, fodder, etc., of the one, equals that of the 
other. I venture to say that the comparative value is so 
entirely in favor of the former, that beet root culture will 
gradually be relinquished until it becomes at length 
totally neglected. 
We next turn to the sugar cane as its great rival; and 
I dare say I shall be considered very bold in venturing 
a comparison, but facts are stubborn things, and no really 
sensible man will come to a decision until he has care- 
fully weighed the evidence on both sides. 
The sugar cane is a plant too well known to need any 
description here; but there are some peculiarities in re- 
gard to it which must be recited, although they are actual 
truisms : 
1. It takes, according to circumstances, from twelve to 
‘sixteen, to eighteen or to twenty months, from the crop 
being planted to its ripening. 
2. Some very soft, juicy canes, do really contain, 
chemically speaking, only about ten per cent. of woody 
fiber; but an overwhelming majority of sugar canes do 
most certainly contain, practically, a much greater pro- 
portion, some even as much as thirty per cent. ! 
10% 
