PRACTICAL BENEFITS 45 



many, for, among other things, they have opened 

 up to the farmers of that country markets which 

 they would certainly not have had without them. 

 One can hardly exaggerate the benefits derived 

 from the discoveries, for example, of agricultural 

 chemistry in regard, not only to the application 

 of artificial manures, but to the use of agricul- 

 tural products in various industries. On the 

 former point there is no need to speak here in 

 detail, but in regard to the latter there are some 

 interesting facts that can be given. 



No fewer than 14,000,000 tons of beetroot, 

 representing a value of £12,600,000, are used 

 in Germany in the course of a year in the manu- 

 facture of sugar, and the production of these 

 supplies for an industry that is the direct out- 

 come of scientific research is a valuable set-off 

 against possible depression in other branches of 

 agriculture. But still more remarkable are the 

 enormous crops of potatoes grown in Germany, 

 and the various purposes to which they are 

 applied. In 1901 the total production there was 

 over 48,500,000 tons, of which about one half 

 would be used for other purposes than human 

 consumption. The Germans themselves are 

 great potato eaters ; they find it cheaper to feed 

 their cattle, pigs, sheep, and poultry on raw or 

 steamed potatoes than to depend on imported 



