BEE 



160 



is K i: 



Regent's Park was forming, a part which hail been trcnchcc 

 was sown very thick with mangel wurzel seed, anil -m-! 

 the produce, that it was sold l>y auction, in loU, to ti 

 keepers in the neighbourhood, at the rate of 80/. per 

 acre. 



It is said that the cows fed entirely on beet become too 

 fat, ninl i-i.- loss milk; but this would be no objection \vitl 

 tl.r cow-keepers who unite the fattening of their cows \\ ill 

 tlu- milking, and like to have them ready for the butcher as 

 soon as they are nearly dry. For bullocks they an 

 lent ; for horses Swedish turnips arc preferable. The pro 

 portional value of hay, potatoes Swedish turnips, and BMJ 

 in feeding cattle, according to Einhof, whose statements 

 Timer hits found to agree with his experiments, is as fol- 

 lows : 18 tons of mangel wurrel arc equal to 1 5 tons of ruta 

 ! '.M, or "4 tons of potatoes, or 3J tons of good meadow 

 hay, each quantity containing the same nourishment : but 

 the roots may be grown upon less than an acre, whereas 

 it "ill take two or three acres of good meadow- land U 

 produce the equivalent quantity of hay ; and of all 

 those root crops the least exhausting for the land is tin 

 beet. The white beet has been chielty cultivated for tilt 

 extraction of sugar from its juice. It is smaller than the 

 mangel wurzel, and more compact, and appears in r 

 ture to be more like the Swedish turnip. Wo have <;i\cn 

 it to cattle, and are satisfied with the result; but we havi 

 not made sufficiently accurate experiments to decide which 

 sorl is the most advantageous. It will probably be found 

 that the nature of the soil will make the scale turn in favoui 

 of the one or the other ; but for the manufacture of snu 

 the smaller beet, of which the roots weigh only one or two 

 pounds, are preferred by Chaptal, who, besides being a cele- 

 brated chemist, was also a practical agriculturist, and a 

 manufacturer of sugar from beet-root. 



This manufacture sprung up in France in consequence ol 

 Bonaparte's scheme for destroying the colonial prosperity ot 

 Great Britain by excluding British colonial produce. It 

 having been found that from the juice of the beet-root a crys- 

 tallizable sugar could be obtained, he encouraged the esta- 

 blishment of the manufacture by every advantage which 

 monopoly and premiums could give it. Colonial sugar was at 

 the enormous price of four and five francs a pound, and the 

 use of it was become so habitual, that no Frenchman could do 

 without it. Several large manufactories of sugar from beet- 

 root were established, some of which only served as pretexts 

 for selling smuggled colonial sugar as the produce of their 

 own works. Count Chaptal, however, established one on his 

 own farm, raising the beet-root, as well as extracting the 

 sugar. We here give a brief account of the process, taken 

 chiefly from his own publications, especially the work en- 

 tilled La Chimie appliqtiee u I' Agriculture, 2 vols. 8vo, 

 Paris, 1829. The first operation is to clean the roots: 

 some effect this by washing, but Chaptal prefers scraping; 

 and paring them with a knife, although by this meai; 

 sixth part of the root is wasted, as the scrapings mixed 

 with earth cannot be safely given to cattle, and cv> n the 

 pigs cat but little of it ; but it adds to the manure, and is 

 therefore not altogether lost. Six tons of beet-root are thug 

 reduced to five, which are next to be rasped and reduced 

 to a pulp. This is done by a machine consisting of a 

 cylinder of tinned iron, two feet in diameter, and eighteen 

 inches in the axis, on which it is turned by machinery. 

 On the circumference of this cylinder arc fixed, by means of 

 screws, ninety narrow plates of iron, rising three-fourths of 

 an inch from the surface and parallel to the axis, at equal 

 distances all round ; the outer or projecting edges of these 

 plates are cut into teeth like a saw ; a slanting box is fixed 

 to the frame on which the axis of the cylinder turns, so that 

 the roots may be pressed against these plates. The cylinder 

 is made to revolve rapidly, and the roots are thus scraped, 

 the pulp falling into a vessel, lined with lend, placed below. 

 When two such cylinders arc made to revolve 400 times in 

 a minute by a sufficient power, whether water, wind, or 

 horses, two and a half tons of roots are ground down in two 

 honrv It is necessary that this operation should proceed 

 rapidly, or else the pulp acquires a dark colour, and an in- 

 cipient fermentation takes place, which greatly injures the 

 future results. As the pulp is ground it is put into strong 

 <ss bags, and placed under a powerful press to squeeze 

 out the juice. The residue is stirred, and subjected to a 

 second and third pressure, if necessary, till every particle of 

 juice is extracted. As the liquor is pressed out, it runs into 

 a copper, until it U two-thirds filled. The strength is ascer- 



tained by nn instrument similar to the saccharometet 

 by brewers, called the j'c^e-/i<]iirur of Kcauinc *, wh.cli 

 shows the - i\it\ of the liquid. The lire is now 



lighted, and by the tune the nipper is full the heat should 

 lie raised to 1 7"i J ol Fahrenheit's thermometer (6i of Kcau- 

 inui ), but no higher. 



In the mean tune a mixture of lime and water has been 

 prepared by gradually pouring as much water upmi iOlb. 

 of quick lime as will make the mixture of the consistency 

 of cream. This is poured into the cooper when the 1 

 steadily at 17* . and is well mixed with the juice by stirring 

 it. The heat is then increased till the mixture boils, when 

 a thick and glutinous scumiiM's to the .surface, 

 as clear bubbles rise through this scum, the lire is suddenly 

 put out by water poured on it or by a proper damper, 

 scum hardens as it cools, and the sediment being di-p* 

 the liquor becomes clear and of a light straw colour. 

 scum is then carefully taken olV with a skimmer having 

 holes in it, and is put into a vessel till such time as tin- 

 liquor remaining in it can be pressed out. A cock is now 

 opened al>out five inches above the bottom of the boiler, 

 and all the clear liquor is drawn off. Another cock lower 

 down lets out the remainder until it begins to appear c! 

 what still remains is afterwards boiled again with v>. 

 extracted by pressure from the .scum. The clear liqi. 

 now subjected t > evaporation in another boiler which i- 

 and shallow. The Ixiltom is but slightly covered with tin: 

 juice at first, and it b"ils rapidly. As the water c\a|< 

 fresh juice is let in. When a cutain degree of iiispissalion 

 or thickening has taken place, so as to show live or MX de- 

 grees of strength on the pett-liqueur, animal chum 

 gradually added till the liquor arrives at -JIT. One bin 

 weight of charcoal is required for the juice of 'J.J tuns ol : 

 which is now reduced to about .100 gallons. The evaporation 

 by boiling continues till the saccharorneter marks 'J.j and 

 a regular syrup is obtained. This is now strained tin 

 a linen bng, and the liquor is kept flowing by means of 

 steam or hot air, and assisted by pressure-. In two or three- 

 hours all the clear syrup will have run through. 



There are many nice circumstances to be attended to. 

 which can only be learned by experience, and an outline of 

 the process is all that we undertake to irive. 



The syrup thus prepared is ayain boiled and skimmed 

 until it is sufficiently concentrated, which is known in the 

 following manner. The skimmer is dipped into the sirup 

 and drawn out; some of the thick syrup which adheres to 

 it is taken between the thumb and fore-finger and held 

 there till the beat is reduced to that of the skin : the linger 

 and thumb are separated, and if the syrup is of a proper 

 strength, a thread will be drawn out, which snaps and has 

 the transparency of horn or rather barley-sugar : this is 

 called the proof. The fire is then put out and the syrup is 

 carried to the cooler, which is a vessel capable of containing 

 all the syrup produced by four operationsor boiling-. IK:; 

 the sugar is to crystallize : ns soon as this coninu nces the 

 whole is well mixed and stirred, and before it becomes too 

 stiff, earthen moulds, of the well-known sugar-loaf shajH-, 

 and of the size called grfnt b<i*t<ir<{*, are filled with Iho 

 crystallizing mass, ol' winch a little at a time is poured into 

 each. When they are full, they are earned to the coolest place 

 >n the premises. As the cr\ stalli/ation goes on. the crust 

 formed on the top is repeatedly broken, and the whole is stirred 

 till the crystals are collected in the centre ; it is then allowed 

 :o go on without further disturbance. In three days it is 

 so far advanced, that the prcs which were put into the 

 lolcs at the point of the moulds may be taken out and the 

 nolasses allowed to run out. In a week this is mostly run 

 )(T. While syrup is now poured on the top of the moulds, 

 which filters through the mass and carries part of t he- 

 colouring matter with it. The process that follows is ex- 

 actly that in common use in refining West India sugars. 



Although most of the operations arc nearly the same as 

 those by which the juice of the sugar-cane is prepared for use, 

 much greater skill and nicety are required in rendering the 

 uicc of the beet-root crystallizable on account of its greater 

 awness, and the smaller quantity of" sugar that it contains, 

 lut when this sugar is refined, it is impossible for the most 

 experienced judge to distinguish it from the other, either by 

 he taste or appearance ; and from this arose the facility with 

 vbich smuggled colonial sugar was sold in France, under 



Thr pjtfjiijvcvr ot He.inmr hen* rpf.-rn-r! to u an liy<lr<>nirIT. nf which 

 ' correipomli tii 1-000, the iiwcilie gwiiv t>f imrc water at 55 ot Fahren- 

 heit ; txf S5 to about IS 15. 



