28 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND 



tracted from it, is largely affected by legislation and 

 the price of labor. In France the impost tax is laid 

 on the sugar produced ; the consequence is, that the 

 farmer strives for large crops, beets being sold by the 

 ton, and he pays comparatively little heed to the 

 quality. 



In Germany, however, the impost is laid upon the 

 beet ; the cultivator consequently strives to produce a 

 beet rich in sugar, paying greater attention to quality 

 than to quantity. 



In France labor is comparatively high, and the 

 manufacturer is contented to obtain in sugar and mo- 

 lasses within two per cent, of all the saccharine matter 

 contained in the beet, the extraction of the last two 

 per cent, being costly in labor. The remaining pulp 

 is also better for cattle than when a greater proportion 

 is extracted. 



In Germany, where wages are low, the pulp is more 

 completely exhausted, and the manufacturer is not 

 satisfied unless he obtains, in sugar and molasses, 

 within from one half to one per cent, of all the existing 

 saccharine matter. 



A crop of beets was raised in Illinois, two years 

 ago last summer, under the following disadvantageous 

 circumstances. New prairie land was broken up, and 

 the seed planted on the upturned sod a course rarely 

 pursued by good farmers anywhere ; the beet requiring 

 for its proper development a soil previously cultivated, 

 in which the sod has been entirely rotted. The sea- 

 son was extremely dry, and the yield averaged from 

 ten to twelve tons only, to the acre, of beets contain- 

 ing about twelve per cent, in sugar. The total cost. 



