754 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



preserved from frost, by storing in ditches three feet deep and 

 three feet wide, in which the ground is pounded firmly, covered 

 with straw or boards about four inches, then with a layer of earth 

 about six inches high. At distances of six feet, bunches of straw 

 are placed in the ditches, to act as escape tubes for the vapors 

 arising from the beets. These ditches are generally made 60 to 

 120 feet long, the piles of beets reaching three feet above ground. 

 Occasionally these piles are made entirely above ground, and 

 covered Avith a laver of earth ten to tAvelve inches high. Thus 

 preserved the beets will keep until March. In Eussia, occasionally, 

 wooden sheds are used, under which, upon strips of wood or in 

 baskets, the beets are piled four to six feet high; this mode of 

 keeping is cheapest in the end, although the first cost is con- 

 siderable. 



The production of juice in a pure state necessitates the thorough 

 washing of the beet, for which purpose a drum is employed, made 

 of wooden strips, about ten feet long, and four feet in diameter. 

 The drum lies somewhat inclined to one side, in a tank filled with 

 water, into which it reaches to the depth of a foot. The beets 

 fall from a large hopper into the drum at one end, passing out at 

 the other upon an inclined plane, whence they are conveyed by a 

 large archimedean screw, traveling in an upward direction against 

 a continuous current of fresh water, until the cleaning is completed. 



After washing, the decayed portions, beet tops and rootlets, 

 parts containing juice poor in sugar and rich in salts, are removed 

 by revolving knives, and what remains is thence conveyed to the 

 crusher or rasping cylinder, revolving six hundred times per min- 

 ute, and is rapidly reduced by it to pulp, and in this condition is 

 removed to the presses. The rapidity Avith which this operation 

 is completed, corresponds to the acuteness of the angle between 

 the direction of pressure of the beet and the tangent of the cylin- 

 der at that point ; for if that angle is a blunt one, the saws will 

 simply scratch and not cut the beet, hence the pressure must 

 always be directed against the side of the cylinder. During the 

 operation of crushing, a continuous current of water cleanses the 

 cylinder, dilutes the juice, and facilitates its removal from the 

 pulp. The latter contains now forty per cent, in volume, or about 

 one per cent, of its weight of air. The cylinder and pulp box are 

 cleaned every six hours to prevent oxidation of the juice. 



The pulp, as fiist as made, is spread on cloths made of raw silk, 

 the whole being supported by perforated plates of sheet iron. 



