

BEETROOT SUGAR IX FRANCE. 2G7 



abundance of labour and coal at a cheap rate. To this region 

 it was long restricted. The rapid establishment of railroads 

 and canals which followed lowered the cost of transport, and 

 in some measure altered this state of things. Still, however, 

 the north of France is, and, through its specialties of soil and 

 climate, must remain, the principal seat of French beet-sugar 

 produce. 



We come now to consider the agricultural statistics of 

 beetroot cultivation in France. In 1857 only 52,000 hec- 

 tares were devoted to this crop. Ten years later there were 

 no fewer than 110, this being about the two-thousandth part 

 of the entire French territory, of which the arable land may 

 be considered as amounting to 26,000,000 hectares. 



ItHom this statement it will be seen that twice or thrice 

 the breadth of land now under beetroot cultivation might 

 be devoted to that crop without interfering with national 

 sustenance from agricultural produce. This is on the sup- 

 position that the growth of beet for any particular region 

 must necessarily displace a proportionate amount of corn ; a 

 supposition not borne out by experience. In proof of this 

 take the following example. * 



In 1854 the number of hectares under wheat-culture in 

 the arrondissement of Valenciennes was 14,804, but in 1867 

 there were no fewer than 16,000; nevertheless the land 

 cropped with beet for the corresponding years was 6,963 hec- 

 tares against 9,035. The crops which have ceded to beet 

 in the district of Valenciennes are barley and colza. The 

 meadow-land taken under culture is considerable. Woods 

 have been reclaimed, and the system of fallow has in the 

 north of France been wholly abandoned. In respect to wheat, 

 it has been found that a beet-crop conduces to a subsequent 

 heavy wheat-crop, of which the agricultural records of Valen- 

 ciennes again give proof in the following returns. In 1861 

 this arrondissement yielded 23 hectolitres of wheat per hec- 

 tare, which was considerably above the rate for other parts 



