36 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND 



Assuming that the cost of cultivating an acre of 

 beets would be even as high as sixty dollars per acre, 

 which is from fifteen to twenty-five dollars more than 

 the cost of an acre of sorghum, that the crop pro- 

 duced would be as great as that of a fair yield in 

 France, or say twenty tons, then at four dollars per ton 

 the crop would produce eighty dollars, leaving a direct 

 net profit of twenty dollars per acre a sum nearly 

 as great as the gross receipts average at present, as 

 shown by table on page 32. 



/ I have said a direct net profit of twenty dollars per 

 i acre, because it has been found in Europe that there is 

 also an indirect profit on the beet crop in the large 

 / increase of crops succeeding it, and in the cattle sup- 

 / ported upon the pulp ; experiments having conclusively 

 7 proved that lands now yield from two to three times 

 / as much grain, and support from eight to ten times as 

 | many cattle, in the beet-growing districts as they did 

 before the beet was introduced. The great beet-pro- 

 ducing districts of France are the grain districts, and 

 cattle districts also. The three branches of agriculture 

 always co-exist. 



David Lee Child published, in 1840, a book, to 

 which further reference will be made hereafter. He 

 cultivated sugar beets in Northampton, in this state, in 

 1838-9. He stated, as the result of his observation in 

 France in 1836, that " the crops of beets in that country 

 averaged about thirteen tons to the acre," * and that 

 the result at Northampton was about the same. The 



* Since Mr. Child's visit, cultivation has not only largely in- 

 creased the production per acre, but it has considerably improved 

 the saccharine properties of the beet. 



