3 6 



BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND 



Assuming that the cost of cultivating an acre of 

 beets would be even as high as sixty dollars per acre, 

 which is from fifteen to twenty-five dollars more than 

 the cost of an acre of sorghum, that the crop pro 

 duced would be as great as that of a fair yield in 

 France, or say twenty tons, then at four dollars per ton 

 the crop would produce eighty dollars, leaving a direct 

 net profit of twenty dollars per acre a sum nearly 

 as great as the gross receipts average at present, as 

 shown by table on page 32. 



I have said a direct net profit of twenty dollars per 

 acre, because it has been found in Europe that there is 

 also an indirect profit on the beet crop in the large 

 increase of crops succeeding it, and in the cattle sup 

 ported upon the pulp ; experiments having conclusively 

 proved that lands now yield from two to three times 

 as much grain, and support from eight to ten times as 

 many cattle, in the beet-growing districts as they did 

 before the beet was introduced. The great beet-pro 

 ducing districts of France are the grain districts, and 

 cattle districts also. The three branches of agriculture 

 always co-exist. 



David Lee Child published, in 1840, a book, to 

 which further reference will be made hereafter. He 

 cultivated sugar beets in Northampton, in this state, in 

 1838-9. He stated, as the result of his observation in 

 France in 1836, that " the crops of beets in that country 

 averaged about thirteen tons to the acre," * and that 

 the result at Northampton was about the same. The 



* Since Mr. Child's visit, cultivation has not only largely in 

 creased the production per acre, but it has considerably improved 

 the saccharine properties of the beet. 



