BEETROOT SUGAR IN FRANCE. 269 



top-dressing. They are rich in potash salts, and their manure 

 value is seen in the vigorous crops of wheat grown on those 

 lands. The beets when drawn are accompanied with 5 or 6 

 per cent of earth; which being removed at the factory, together 

 with small roots, mixed with scum, &c., and returned to the 

 land, have a farther fertilising influence. Neither as a valu- 

 able constituent of manure must spent bone-black be for- 

 gotten. Animal charcoal, as it is generally called, but more 

 properly bone-black (seeing that about 20 per cent of the 

 material is not animal charcoal), is an important aid to the 

 beet-sugar manufacture. From time to time this bone-black 

 is revivified and brought to a proper condition for manufac- 

 turing use; but this cannot be done indefinitely, and so a 

 considerable quantity of this material finds its way into the 

 mass of general manufacturing refuse, and eventually as 

 manure to the land. 



Reference has already been made to the importance of 

 alcohol as a collateral result of beetroot manufacture, and 

 to the high importance of giving heed to this part of the 

 case previous to any large expenditure of captal on beetroot 

 cultivation for sugar-extraction in this country. The source 

 of alcohol from beet in the sugar-factory is twofold ; a por- 

 tion being obtained from the fermented refuse, while another 

 portion results from the fermentation of beet molasses, or 

 treacle. Some idea of the importance of alcohol as a beet- 

 root collateral product may be gleaned from the following 

 comparative statement of total French alcoholic produce for 

 the year 1865-6 : 



hectolitres. 



Alcohol from wines . . . 1,010,166 

 beetroot . . . 283,022 

 molasses . . . 307,409 

 other sources . . 178,877 



1,779,474 



Any statement of economic particulars relative to beet-sugar 

 manufacture would be incomplete that failed to include the 



