76 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND 



life. Their enlarged means place within their reach 

 many hitherto unattainable luxuries. 



The industry also calls into existence many estab- 

 lishments for the manufacture of agricultural tools. 

 It gives employment to chemists and engineers ; to 

 machinists, founders, carpenters, blacksmiths, cop- 

 persmiths, wheelwrights, and plumbers ; to woollen 

 and linen manufacturers for the sacks it requires. It 

 is a large consumer of coal, of iron, and of other 

 metals, products of the mine. It contributes largely 

 to the support of railroads and canals. It adds its 

 quota to the extension of commerce. Finally, it 

 pays to government an excise tax on sugar and al- 

 cohol of more than $27,000,000 per annum, without 

 taking into account other taxes, state and local, that 

 are assessed on the $45,000,000 that it has invested in 

 buildings and machinery. 



It has not only added immensely to the extent of 

 arable land, but has largely increased the productive- 

 ness and value of that already cultivated. It has 

 enabled France to produce more corn at less cost than 

 she ever did before, and kept down the prices of all 

 grains, of beef, and of mutton. At the same time it 

 produces for man sugar, meat, bread, alcohol, potash, 

 and soda ; it furnishes nutritious food for cattle, sheep, 

 and swine, together with hay and grain for the horse. 

 In the opinion of eminent French statesmen, it has 

 twice, within fifteen years, saved France from a 

 famine. 



The historian Thiers has called it " the Providence 

 of the empire." 



