4 
of Sugar in France. 535 
one and a half; but this difference is hardly to be considered, 
since the price of the seed is reduced to a reasonable rate. Be- 
sides, the advantages of this method are considerable: Ist, by 
employing this quantity of seed we are assured that all the soil 
will be covered; 2dly, as soon as the plant is well up, it is 
weeded and thinned of all the useless roots, and only those re- 
tained that are vigorous, so that a good harvest is always cer- 
tain, whatever weather it may have endured. 
On the Care that Beet-root requires during its Vegetation, 
Perhaps there is no plant that suffers more from the vicinity 
of others than the beet-root ; it remains small and without vi- 
gour, if the ground be not carefully cleared of all the plants that 
spring up beside it. 
The weeding should be renewed as often as the ground as 
comes covered with weeds: hut in general two operations are 
sufficient. It is an expense and trouble well bestowed, for the | 
produce of an acre well weeded is at least double what it would 
be if neglected. 
In general the beet is gathered in the beginning of October, 
and the operation is terminated towards the fifteenth. The time 
of gathering is not a matter of indifference; but every one knows 
that in the course of vegetation there is formed a succession of 
different products which replace each other; so that the cry- 
stallizable sugar is contained in the beet-root only at a certain 
period of its vegetation, and that this period is the time that 
must be chosen to gather it. 
In support of this opinion I can state a fact established by 
M. Daracq, whose talents and good sense are well known, and 
who formed about three years ago, in concert with the prefect 
of the department des Landes, M. le Comte D’Angos, the pro- 
ject of establishing sugar-works from beet-root. 
From the month of July until towards the end of August he 
made a trial of the beet every cight days, and he constantly ex- 
tracted three and a half per cent. of fine sugar: from these spe- 
cimens he believed himself certain of success, and from that 
time bestowed all his care on the formation of his establish- 
ment, and discontinued his weekly trials; but he was greatly 
surprised, when towards the end of October he resumed his ope- 
rations on the beet, to find it no longer possible to extract an 
atom of crystallized sugar from it. It appears, ‘that when the 
beet has terminated its saccharine vegetation, if I may so ex- 
_ press myself, it forms nitrate of potash, at the expense of the 
constituent principles of the sugar: and this formation takes 
place in the ground, when it is assisted by the heat, just the 
fame as it does in the store-houses, 
In 
