PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 7S9 



vast numbers of cattle and sheep, are required. These are pur- 

 chased from other sections, for the departments in which the beet 

 is cultivated are not grazing districts in which cattle are raised^ 

 but they are preeminently distinguished for sui^]^orting nwd fatten- 

 ing cattle. 



The improved condition of the 70,000 laborers engaged in this 

 industry, one fifth of whom are women and children, makes them 

 larger consumers of tea, coffee, meat, clothing, — of all the neces- 

 saries of life. Their enlarged means place within their reach many 

 hitherto unattainable luxuries. 



The industry also calls into existence many establishments for 

 the manufacture of agricultural tools. It gives employment to 

 chemists and engineers; to machinists, founders, carpenters, black- 

 smiths, coppersmiths, wheelwrights, and plumbers; to woolen and 

 linen raanufjicturers for the sacks it requires. It is a large con- 

 fumer of coal, of iron, and of other metals, products of the mine. 

 It contributes largely to the support of railroads and canals. It 

 adds its quota to the extension of commrrce. Finally, it pays to 

 government an excise tax on sugar and alcohol of more than ^27,- 

 000,000 per annum, without taking into account other taxes, state 

 and local, that are assessed on the $45,000,000 that it has invested 

 in buildings and machinery. 



It has not only added immensely to the extent of arable land, 

 but has largely increased the productiveness and value of that 

 already cultivated. It has enabled France to produce more corn 

 at less cost than she ever did before, and kept down the prices of 

 of all grains, of beef, and of mutton. At the same time it pro- 

 duces for man sugar, meat, bread, alcohol, potash-, and soda; it 

 furnishes nutritious food for cattle, sheep, and swine, together 

 with hay and grain for the horse. In the opinion c^ eminent 

 French statesmen, it has twice, within fifteen years, saved France 

 from a famine. 



The historian Thiers has called it " the Providence of the em- 

 pire." 



Effect of its Inteoduction into the United States. 

 The effect of its introduction into the United States would be to 

 produce results correspondingly greater than have attended it in 

 Europe, for here the consumption of sugar per capita is nearly 

 four times greater, and the value of lauds is not a quarter of those 

 in continental Europe, while they are by nature far richer and 

 more easily cultivated. The supply of coal is unlimited. The 



