APPENDIX. 149 



The works are owned by the Germania Beet Sugar Com- 

 pany, located as above, and are under the management of the 

 Messrs. Gennert, the original projectors of the enterprise. 



They commenced operations for the season of 1866, by 

 planting four hundred acres of land, mostly fresh prairie, 

 from which they have raised a crop of more than four thou- 

 sand tons of fine beets, at a cost, according to their estimate, 

 of less than four dollars per ton. 



The beets are of the White Silesian and Imperial varieties, 

 and both have done well. At the time of harvest, Messrs. 

 Gennert tested the roots from all parts of their farm, and 

 found the juice to contain from nine to thirteen and a half 

 per cent, of sugar, by the Soleil Polariscope. The average 

 of all the tests showing twelve per cent. 



This result is confirmed by the investigations made by 

 direction of the Belcher Sugar Refining Company of St. 

 Louis ; the tests they made, showing an average of twelve 

 per cent, of sugar in the juice, and in some cases as high as 

 fourteen per cent. 



At the time of my visit (Jan. 29th, 1867), I obtained what 

 I considered fair samples of the beet roots, and found them 

 to contain from nine to eleven per cent, of sugar (in the 

 juice), with foreign substances amounting to about five per 

 cent. ; not a very undue proportion, considering the fact that 

 the roots were principally grown in fresh prairie soil, and 

 that the fall season was a wet one. My analysis of the juice 

 fully confirmed the results obtained by the Messrs. Gennert 

 and the Belcher Refining Company three months previously, 

 at the time of harvest, and when the process of sugar manu- 

 facturing should have commenced. 



The quality of beets, shown by the foregoing experiments, 

 would yield 7^ per cent, of raw sugar, in color equal to fair 

 refining, but intrinsically much superior; or it would yield 

 5'i per cent, of sugar equal in every respect to New York re- 

 fined "B." 



The beets raised by the Messrs. Gennert, if successfully 

 and rapidly worked up, would have produced not less than 

 450,000 pounds of refined sugar. 



