SUGAR. 



809 



prohibited, arid that famous " continental system," 

 so wide and wild in its design, but so important 

 and permanent in its effects, was established. 

 From that tiine, 1806, chemists and economists 

 applied themselves with renewed zeal to the 

 search after an indigenous source for the supply of 

 sugar. It was thought, at one time, that the de- 

 sideratum had been attained in the production of 

 grape sugar, or sirup ; of which, in the course of 

 two years, many million pounds were made. This 

 sugar, although very abundant in some varieties of 

 the grape, raised in a southern latitude, possesses 

 only two fifths of the sweetening power of the 

 cane and beet sugar. Nevertheless, sugar being 

 at about four shillings a pound, a great number of 

 manufactories were erected, and science and indus- 

 try were tasked to the utmost, to improve the 

 processes, and to bring it to perfect sugar. 



In this state of things, it was announced, that 

 beet-sugar manufactories had been all along carried 

 on successfully in Prussia. It was declared, that 

 from 4 to 6 per cent, of sugar was obtained from 

 the beet, besides several other valuable matters. 

 Other German chemists had instituted experiments 

 and published results substantially the same as 

 Achard's. At length, in 1809 10, experiments 

 were recommenced in France, particularly by M. 

 Deyeux of the Institute, who had reported upon 

 the subject in 1800. The experiments resulted in 

 the production of a considerable quantity of sugar, 

 both clayed and refined, which, as specimens, 

 served to revive and increase the confidence of 

 France in this source of supply. No more than 1 

 to 2 per cent, was obtained ; the beets being of a 

 bad sort, and raised in the neighbourhood of Paris, 

 where a vast deal of ammoniacal manure, hostile 

 to the production of saccharine, is used. 



In 1811, M. Drappier, of Lille, worked about 

 fifteen tons of beets, from which he obtained 2J 

 per cent, of sugar. In the winter of the same 

 year, an experimenter at Paris succeeded in ob- 

 taining 4J per cent, from white beets, raised at a 

 considerable distance from Paris, and without any 

 manure. This was the first essay in France, which 

 approximated to the results of Achard. It was 

 made by M. Charles Durosne, and was detailed in 

 the Moniteur. It demonstrated how faulty had 

 be.en their selection of sorts, and the mode of cul- 

 ture. At this time, Achard had published in Ger- 

 man an extensive work, in which he had treated 

 with minuteness every department of the business, 

 from the raising of the seed to the refining of the 

 sugar. This treatise contained not only Achard's 

 experience of thirteen years, but also accounts ol 

 the manufacture of beet sugar, on a grand scale, 

 by other persons in Prussia. The result of these 

 enterprises, as reported by a commission appointed 

 by the Prussian government to investigate the 

 subject, was, that in the case presented to their 

 consideration, 60,800 Ibs. of sugar were manufac- 

 tured from 1,000,000 Ibs. of beets, which is 6 

 pounds 1^ oz. per cent., costing for cultivation am 

 manufacture threepence a pound, and selling a1 

 eightpence. The profit was stated at 136 per 

 cent., without reckoning 27,883 gallons of vinegar, 

 worth about 450 ; 155,400 Ibs. of feed for beasts 

 worth 20; and after deducting 310 for the 

 greater supposed expense of refining beet sugar. 

 This, however, has since been recognised as an 

 error ; beet sugar being in fact the most profitable 

 to the refiner, by reason of the superior strength 

 of the grain, and of the deterioration which the 



'ane sugar undergoes by fermentation and decom. 

 position during long voyages and storages, before 

 t reaches the pans of the refiners. This loss is 

 estimated, in France, at 14 per cent, on East India 

 sugar, and at 7 on West India. The British cus- 

 tom-house allows one per cent, a month for the 

 waste on bonded sugar. 



Such was the result of the operations in the 

 manufactory of the baron de Koppy at Krayn, near 

 Strehlen in Silesia. 



In January, 1812, Napoleon issued a decree 

 establishing five chemical schools for teaching the 

 processes of beet sugar making, detailing one hun- 

 dred students from the schools of medicine, phar- 

 macy, and chemistry, to be instructed in those 

 establishments, and creating four imperial manu- 

 factories, capable of making 4,408,000 Ibs. of raw 

 sugar annually. Munificent premiums were also 

 decreed to several individuals, who had already 

 distinguished themselves by a successful applica- 

 tion to this new branch of industry. A considera- 

 ble number of manufactories were immediately 

 added to those already existing in France ; and, in 

 the season of 1813, a large quantity of sugar, both 

 raw and refined, was produced. A notable im- 

 provement was introduced by M. Mathieu de 

 Dombasle, a learned and experienced cultivator 

 and chemist. It consisted in applying to the beet 

 juice the colonial process of depuration, appropri- 

 ately called in France defecation. This was in 

 fact very analogous to the improvement which the 

 Arabs effected in the oriental method. Achard 

 used sulphuric acid in this operation, and for the 

 crystallization broad dishes, not unlike those said 

 to be used in China at this day. The colonial pro- 

 cess of defecation by lime is now nearly universal in 

 France, as is likewise the substitution of the mould 

 or conical pot, for the crystallizers of Achard. 



Such was the prosperous condition of this manu- 

 facture, when the disasters of Moscow brought 

 upon it an uncertain political future, that bane of 

 all great industrial enterprises. Confidence and 

 energy gradually yielded to fear and discourage- 

 ment. A faint and fitful struggle was maintained 

 during another year, until the Cossacks, quartered 

 in the sugar-mills, and the allied artillery, seizing 

 upon the beasts that moved them, gave the manu- 

 facturers the coup de grace. The officers billeted 

 at their bouses became from curiosity their princi- 

 pal customers, being struck with the brilliancy and 

 purity of this unexpected product. After the final 

 overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo, the price of 

 refined sugar settled down at 6d. a pound, 

 and raw at 3^d. Still, to the surprise of all, two 

 beet-sugar manufactories did survive the shock of 

 this tremendous reverse, more useful to this in- 

 dustry, and to mankind, than all its preceding pro- 

 sperity ; because it demonstrated, what never could 

 have been done under the unnatural stimulus of 

 the " continental system," that there was an in- 

 trinsic value in the new industry, rendering it cap- 

 able of independent existence, and raising it out 

 of the reach of accident, political enmity, or 

 caprice. The establishments which survived were 

 at Arras, in the department of the Pas de Calais, 

 and at Pont a. Mousson, near Nancy, in the depart- 

 ment of the Meurthe. 



After the retirement of the allied troops, in 

 1818, the government began to turn its attention 

 to the encouragement of an industry, which had 

 struggled meritoriously and successfully to preserve 

 a boon to the French nation. Many eminent and 



