Cane vs. Beet 



more than twenty tons of beetroot 

 a year. 



After a number of costly experi- 

 ments had been directed toward the 

 production of grape sugar, with poor 

 results, Napoleon, in 1811, ordered 

 32,000 hectares about 75,000 acres 

 to be planted with beetroot dis- 

 tributed over the several provinces 

 and established four schools in which 

 sugar manufacture was to be taught. 

 In the meantime, he stifled whatever 

 little competition cane sugar might 

 still be offering, by forbidding all 

 further importation from the East 

 and West Indies. In 1812 the num- 

 ber of sugar schools was increased 

 and 100,000 hectares 247,100 acres 

 were planted and by that time 

 334 factories were in operation. 



The news of the new sugar indus- 

 try soon spread and Austria and 

 Germany vied with France in their 

 efforts to produce the crystals from 

 [41] 



