BEETROOT SUGAR IN FRANCE. 2G1 



age that had not been awarded to Margraff. In 1789 he grew 

 beetroot on an estate named Caulsdorff, near Berlin ; in 1796 

 lie took under his care another estate, Kunern, in Silesia. 

 The produce of these two estates having furnished results 

 which were satisfactory at the time, two others were put 

 under beetroot cultivation, from which time the manufacture 

 of beetroot-sugar took a firm stand in Germany. 



In 1797 Achard published the results of his labours, and 

 two years later he sent a letter to the Annales de Chimie y 

 containing farther particulars. In this letter he made full 

 communication of the processes followed ; he enlarged on the 

 general advantages of the scheme; he drew a favourable 

 account of profit. In short, the purport of his letter was so 

 satisfactory in every way, that it caused a great sensation 

 amongst the French. Every French newspaper of importance 

 gave extracts from the memoir. Political circumstances at 

 the time favoured the occasion. The Institute organised a 

 commission of inquiry to go through Achard's experiments, 

 and check his results. 



This plan of proceeding is one that will not recommend 

 itself to practical Britons. In this country the usage is, for 

 operations commercially conducted to be adduced to check 

 the laboratory experience of chemists : the French proceeded 

 in reverse order, and with an unsatisfactory result. The 

 French chemists forgot altogether or at least ignored the 

 fact that Achard had been for many years a beetroot manu- 

 facturer on the large scale. He came before them, not in 

 his capacity of chemist, but of f abricant ; and they had yet 

 to learn that the difficulties of beetroot-sugar extraction are 

 the more considerable as the quantities operated upon are 

 less. French chemists came to the conclusion that Achard 

 must have made some mistake in his calculations of expense ; 

 that instead of the cost of manufacture being sixty francs the 

 kilogramme, as represented in his memoir, it must have 

 amounted to at least eighty. Two beetroot factories were, 



