44 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND 



The expense for labor at 3^ francs, or sixty-six cents, 

 per day (the average) was ninety-two cents per ton 

 of beets worked, being thirty-five per cent, of the cost 

 of converting a ton of beets into sugar, and 15.2 per 

 cent, of the total cost, including the price paid for the 

 beets. This, if charged entirely to sugar, would make 

 the cost of labor in a pound of sugar six mills. 



Inquiry has satisfied me that the expense of manu- 

 facturing 1,000 kilogrammes, or 2,200 pounds, of beets 

 into sugar in France, including in the expenses taxes, 

 interest on capital, and depreciation of machinery, 

 averages from eighteen to twenty francs, or $3.47 to 

 $3.87 per ton of beets. In some cases it is as low as 

 fifteen francs, or $2.88, per ton, and in others as high 

 as twenty-two francs, or $4.25, per ton. In the case 

 quoted above it was 13.75 francs, or $2.60, per ton. 



The expense for labor in the best establishments is, 

 as a rule, about twenty-five per cent, of the cost of 

 manufacturing. 



From these figures, which I know to be reliable, 

 the cost of a pound of sugar and the proportion due 

 < D labor are shown in the following table ; labor being 

 reckoned at sixty-six cents per day and the cost of 

 beets at $3.80 per ton ; yield of molasses at two and 

 one half per cent., price $22 per ton ; pulp twenty 

 per cent., price $2.50 per ton. 



