1 8 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND 



know of establishments, working by improved pro- 

 cesses, where the yield is from seven and three fourths 

 to eight per cent, of superior sugar, and from three 

 to three and a half per cent, of molasses. 



There were 86,000 acres of land in cultivation with 

 beets in France in 1850, and 297,000 acres in 1865. 

 The product from this land was manufactured into 

 sugar and alcohol, 270,000 tons of the former and 

 6,000,000 gallons of the latter having been produced 

 in 1865. 



The products obtained from beets in France, in 

 about the following proportions, are, pulp, twenty per 

 cent. ; sugar, seven per cent. ; alcohol, three fourths 

 per cent. ; potash, one fifth per cent. ; soda, one tenth 

 per cent. 



The pulp is the refuse of the beet after the extrac- 

 tion of the juice. It is fed to cattle and sheep, which 

 are extremely fond of it, and are quickly fattened 

 upon it. 



It is worth from two dollars and seventy-five cents 

 to three dollars per ton at the factories, and is esti- 

 mated to be worth, for feeding purposes, one third as 

 much as the best hay. 



After the sugar is extracted from the juice there 

 remains about three per cent, of the original weight 

 of the beet in the form of molasses, from which alcohol 

 is distilled. 



The molasses, which usually sells at from fifteen to 

 eighteen cents per gallon, produces twenty-five per 

 cent, of 90 alcohol. The cost of distillation is less 

 than twenty cents per gallon of alcohol. 



After the extraction of the alcohol, there remains 



