634 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



Ten counties produced over 100,000 gallons of sirup each, and two counties 

 produced over $100,000 worth of sirup each, while seventeen counties produced 

 each over |30,000 worth of sirup. 



The value of sirup averaged from each acre $42.65, without counting the 

 product of seed. The yield averaged 9*3 tons of cane per acre. 



For the first years of a new industry such returns can not be con- 

 sidered other than decidedly promising. That the probabilities are 

 strongly in favor of the ultimate success of sorghum as a source of 

 sugar can hardly be doubted ; but that the growth of such a vast 

 industry must be gradual, and may at times be checked by the failures 

 of untrained experimenters, is to be expected. It should be borne in 

 mind, however, that one successful trial, resulting in the production of 

 sugar in paying amounts, is of more value in estimating the possibili- 

 ties of this new industry than are many failures. The development of 

 any great industry is necessarily slow ; especially is this true when 

 manufacturers are not guided by previous experience with closely- 

 related crude materials. The perfection of the manufacturing pro- 

 cesses for beet-sugar is an illustration of this point. 



It may be interesting, in this connection, to trace briefly the history 

 of beet-sugar in France. 



In 1747 Margraff presented a memoir to the Berlin Academy of 

 .Sciences, describing the methods whereby he had prepared sugar from 

 beets, and urging the importance of his discovery. Little came of 

 this investigation until half a century had elapsed, when Karl Franz 

 Achard, a former pupil of Margraff, again drew attention to the mat- 

 ter. In 1799 he read a paper before the Institute of France, in which 

 he described his methods and results. He exhibited samples of beet- 

 sugar, and made such an impression that the French Institute appointed 

 a commission, consisting of eminent men of science, to repeat Achard's 

 work. They found about six per cent of sugar in beets, and thought 

 that refined sugar could be produced for about eighteen cents per 

 pound, or for less, if improved manufacturing methods were adopted. 



MM. Barruel and Isnard were the first to produce beet-sugar on 

 the commercial scale ; they obtained only one and a half per cent of 

 inferior sugar, at a cost of thirty cents per pound. 



In 1811 M. Drappiez, of Lille, made beet-sugar at a cost of eighty 

 cents a pound. Even this result, which would seem a disastrous fail- 

 ure to most observers, was sufiiciently encouraging to justify the fa- 

 mous decree of Napoleon " that 32,000 hectares (79,040 acres) shall be 

 planted in beets ; that six experimental schools to give instruction in 

 the manufacture of beet-sugar shall be established, and that 1,000,000 

 francs [$200,000] shall be appropriated from the budgets for this pur- 

 pose, and for the experiments in producing indigo." " The importa- 

 tion of sugar and indigo from England and her colonies was pro- 

 hibited." 



