156 APPENDIX. 



strengthen the conviction that it is only necessary to engage 

 systematically in the culture of the root and the manufacture 

 of sugar in the United States, to insure results of the highest 

 national importance, and establish in our borders a tillage 

 that will improve our system of husbandry, an employment 

 that will give a wider scope to our energy and industry, and 

 a manufacture that will supply us in abundance with a great 

 staple of consumption, for the largest portion of which we 

 are now dependent upon other countries to supply. 



" In 1837-8 Henry Clay was actively interested in the ques 

 tion of beet sugar as a crop for the United States. He had 

 watched the rise and progress of this industry in France : 

 had made himself familiar with the details of the culture of 

 the root, the manner of extracting its sugar, the success at 

 tending it as an economical measure, and his sagacious mind 

 grasped at once the full importance of this grand national 

 resource for the great West, which he loved so well. He 

 made it a topic of his letters ; he introduced it in his speeches ; 

 his conversation abounded with allusions to it; and he has 

 left on record full evidence of the constant faith he had that 

 the West would some day be as famous for its production of 

 sugar as it has become for the production of the cereals. 

 The granary of the world, it may also be the sugar-grower 

 for the world. It is the home of intelligence, and industry, 

 and enterprise; and these forces, united to the exhaustless 

 producing capacity of the soil, will secure success in what 

 ever undertaking her farmers and her men of activity may 

 engage. 



" But it was not Mr. Clay alone whose inquiries kept pace 

 with the progress and improvements in the beet sugar manu 

 facture, and who, with a full knowledge of the qualities of the 

 root, the nature of our climate, and the capacities of the soil, 

 had full faith in the peculiar adaptation of this culture and 

 manufacture to a very large portion of the Uuited States. 



"From time to time fields have been cultivated with beet 

 root, for the express purpose of sugar-making; and in 

 numerous instances that could be cited, that are indeed 

 recorded in the pages of agricultural journals of the day. the 



