BEETROOT SUGAR IN FRANCE. 263 



of beetroot-extracted sugar to the then Emperor Napoleon, 

 who at once took the matter in hand, hurrying it to demon- 

 stration as he hurried battalions to the charge. On the 25th 

 of March 1811 came forth a decree that 32,000 hectares of 

 land should be put at once under beetroot cultivation ; a con- 

 siderable sum of money being placed at the disposal of the 

 Minister of Agriculture for that purpose. On the 15th of 

 January 1812 another decree was issued, establishing five 

 schools of chemistry to develop the best means of extraction. 

 In the harvest-time, as we may call it, of that same year, four 

 imperial factories were completed, ready for the extraction of 

 2,000,000 of kilogrammes of sugar. 



Private enterprise was not slow to follow in the wake 

 of imperial example. All over France an indiscriminating 

 superabundance of beetroot- sugar factories sprang up, indis- 

 criminating in the particular that neither fitness of soil nor 

 specialty of climate was heeded. The result was partial 

 failure ; nevertheless, a branch of industry had been origin- 

 ated which was destined ultimately to expand. 



Political circumstances were unfavourable. Our historical 

 record has brought us down to the year 1814, to the shatter- 

 ing of imperial rule, to the political revulsion of Germany. 

 ' I had no sooner put my fields under beetroot cultivation,' 

 wrote Monsieur Dombasle, * as one of the pioneers of this 

 new enterprise, than our army entered Moscow; and soon 

 after, when affairs turned, I found a detachment of Cossacks 

 quartered in one of my sugar-factories.' The same vicissi- 

 tudes were suffered by another pioneer in this great cause, 

 Monsieur Crespel-Delisse, one whose name is inseparably as- 

 sociated with this branch of industry. Up to this time the 

 notion that some essential distinction existed between sugar of 

 the beet and sugar of the cane was not altogether abandoned. 

 The fact was, that chemistry had not sufficiently advanced 

 to separate the last trace of beetroot impurity, and thus bring 

 the liberated sugar up to the condition of first-rate quality. 



