of Sugar in France. 427 
great means of exchange happen to fail, England has the ad- 
vantage of this immense commerce. 
The fourth and last question is, from what cause have the 
greatest part of the establishments failed that were formed for 
this purpose ? 
Persons who form a superficial judgement of the arts, are per- 
suaded that the minufactories of sugar from beet cannot support 
a competition with those of the cane, and they are now con- 
firmed in their opinion by the failure of so many of the esta- 
blishments that were formed before the peace. To this we 
might reply, that it is sufhcient that some of them still remain, 
notwithstanding the importation of foreign sugar, to prove that 
our manufactories are capable of rivalling them; but I prefer in 
this place to point out the causes of the failure, and to establish 
certain principles which may serve to guide those persons who 
may in future undertake to form fresh establishments. 
When the extraction of sugar from beet-root was at first de- 
sired, the government excited the zeal of all France by the en- 
couragement it offered: every where the heet was sown, and 
numerous establishments were formed, without any previous 
consideration on the uature of the soil, the expense of the culti- 
vation, or the saccharine quality of ‘the root. Vast buildings 
were erected at a great expense, graters and presses were bought, 
the effects of which were not understood; and frequently the 
whole made ready to set to work, without the least mistrust of 
the process intended to he followed; and sometimes even un- 
rovided with a man capable of conducting the operations. 
The rational progress of a new branch of industry was not at- 
tended to, great losses were suffered, and they might have been 
expected. In some places the beet was found to contain no 
sugar when it was operated upon ; this was the cause of the fall 
of all the establishments in the south ; in others, defective pro- 
cesses were employed, and only syrup could be extracted; and 
the cultivation or purchase of the beet has cost so much, that 
the product has not balanced the expense. This inconsiderate 
mode of proceeding was necessarily the ruin of most of the un- 
dertakings ; and as every one is apt to reason from his own ex- 
perience, whether gocd or bad, a general prejudice soon prevailed 
ainst the success of this manufacture. On the other hand, 
the bad quality of the sugar which some manufacturers sent to 
market, lias contributed, in no small degree, to disgust the con- 
sumer. 
It would doubtless have been better to have sought out the 
- auses of failure, and to have studied the methods of the pro- 
sperous establishments : but public opinion is not always so just, 
it often adopts a novelty without examination, and atill oftener 
proscribes 
