136 RURAL DENMARK 



;n, 5s. 5d., or ^56, 7s. id. for the 5 acres. Gross 

 weight of beets, 38 tons 17 cwt. ; net weight after 

 deducting tare, 34 tons 16 cwt; at 17s. per ton, 

 ^29, us. 7d., leaving a loss of ^26, 15s. 6d. on the 

 5 acres. . . . 



28M November 1910. 



Mr. Tesdorpf discussed with me this matter of 

 the growing of sugar-beet in England. He said that 

 in his opinion it would fail, and when I inquired why, 

 replied because we had not enough sunshine, without 

 which the beet could not do well. I asked him if 

 there was more sunshine in Falster island than in 

 the southern and eastern parts of England, and he 

 replied that he thought so. I am making inquiries 

 upon the point, the results of which I hope to be able 

 to incorporate in these pages. 1 



For my own part, so far as the prospects of the 

 undertaking in England are concerned, I fear the 

 assumed lack of sunshine less than the conservatism 

 of our farmers and the labour difficulty to which I 

 have alluded. If farmers will not grow the beet, no 

 sugar factory can prosper, and I doubt whether it 



1 A correspondent in Denmark writes as follows on this matter : u The 

 Meteorological Institute informs me that it has no registered sun auto- 

 graph (record) for Lolland-Falster, but that the duration of sunshine 

 calculated on the 'middle sky' (?) for thirty-six years gives 1430 hours 

 per annum of sunshine on the islands Lolland-Falster." 



On turning to the Weekly Weather Report for 1906, Appendix iii., then 

 issued by the Meteorogical Office, London, I find that the annual average 

 of sunshine for Geldeston, a place in my immediate neighbourhood, 

 calculated from records extending over the twenty-five years (1881-1905), 

 is 1621 hours ; that is 191 hours more than the average for Falster. Also I 

 find that most of the averages for places in and south of the eastern 

 counties are equal to, and often considerably exceed, that of Falster. 



It would seem, therefore, that in this particular Mr. Tesdorpf is 

 mistaken. H. R. H. 



