Miscellaneous Intelligence. 95 



nous are exhausting or non-exhausting, merely as they are suffered to ripen 

 llieir seeds. The bean, indeed, which is of this family, is practically held 

 to be an improving' crop, but this distinction it owes solely to the mode of 

 culture. The bean, from its firm upright stems, admits of being cultivated 

 at wide intervals, and so affords the means of tilling the ground very com- 

 pletely during its growth; but where the bean occurs in a rotation, it is 

 ^eneraliy held necessary to resort at intervals to the summer fallow. For 

 this reason, it appears that the bean, if ranked in the class of crops termed 

 ameliorating, must stand far below the bulbous or tuberous rooted plants, 

 which, on the soils to which they are suited, are a substitute for the summer 

 fallow, and render its occurrence unnecessary. The clovers are leguminous 

 plants, and the general rule referred to applies also to them. If used for 

 herbage, or cut early for food, they are in the class of plants termed ame- 

 liorating; if cultivated for their seeds, they are exhausting. Hemp and 

 flax are plants which may be termed exhausting, both because the culture 

 does not admit of any tillage of the ground during their growth, and because 

 they produce no manure; but they serve to illustrate the general rule 

 before referred to. If taken up early, they are less hurtful ; if suffered to 

 ripen their seeds, they are the most pernicious of our cultivated plants. 



The bulbous and tuberous-rooted plants, as has been said, are all in the 

 class termed ameliorating. The introduction into the culture of the fields 

 of these useful vegetables may well be held to be one of the most important 

 improvements in agriculture. It has enabled the husbandman to supersede 

 summer fallows on all the lighter soils, to multiply the number of useful 

 animals, and to maintain and increase the productiveness of the soil. One 

 of the many means by which agriculture may be improved far beyond its 

 present state, is by multiplying the objects of culture. Nature, it would 

 appear, delights in variety ; and we know not what objects of cultivation 

 may yet be presented to human research. The history of the plants in 

 question may well incite us to a diligent inquiry. The original of the po- 

 tato is thought to be a bitter little plant in the mountains of Quito; and the 

 turnip, in its natural state, is an insignificant plant, hardly distinguishable 

 by the eye from some of the weeds of our corn-fields.— lb. 271. 



Sur/ar from the Beet Foot— In the Farmer's Journal, of March 30, is a 

 letter on' this subject from Mr. Philip Taylor, an English gentleman at that 

 time in Paris, and the inventor of a mode of boiling sugar by steam, for which 

 he took out a patent in 1817. The fact that crystallised sugar could be 

 obtained from the beet root was first noticed by Margraff in 1747, but 

 excited little notice till 1790, when Achard, another German chemist, 

 directed the men of science in France to that subject. A report by the 

 Institute, about this time, states that raw sugar so produced costs about fid. 

 per English pound. In 1810, colonial sugar had become so dear, that the 

 government directed their attention to the process, but, notwithstanding 

 this, it was still so imperfect as to be given up, with the ruin of several 

 manufacturers, when the peace of 1815 admitted the free entrance to France 

 of colonial sugar. Important discoveries, among others that of Mr. Taylor 

 for boiling sugar by steam, were made in the process, and the number of 

 manufactories gradually increased, so that, at this time, 1829, there are at 

 least one hundred, from which were produced last year 5000 tons of sugar, 

 worth 601. per ton, or 300,000/., the profit of which Mr. Taylor estimates at 

 Ibl. an acre: but he adds, "I am convinced the process may be so far 

 improved, that sugar will be made in France from the bestTOOt at 261. per 

 ton, which will increase the profit to 241 an acre." After showing that the 

 beet root succeeds best in the northern departments of France, and that, 

 of course, it San be grown as well in England as on the Continent, he con- 

 cludes, that though the price of land and labour be much lower in France 

 than in England, yet that the balance of skill in favour of the latter country 

 places it on a par with France, in point of the profits to be obtained from 

 making sugar from beet. He adds, " with respect to prices of produce, the 

 advantage will probably be in favour of the English farmer'; for although 

 the price of sugar is about equal in both countries, yet it is not sugar alone 

 that, is produced from the feet root which is cultivated : the pulp of the 

 root, after the juice is pressed out, is excellent food for both bullocks and 

 sheep, and I have seen beasts which have been brought in at 5?. per head, 

 fattened upon it and sent to market in three months, and sold for III. The 



