152 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



I have paid some attention to refinintr, and, I 

 thinl{ when 1 return to America I sliail bring all 

 the secrets about which L******* and his friend 

 ******* made so much ado, and of which tiie 

 former claimed to be the discoverer. I ^ness 

 there was nothing but what Pedder got in Eng- 

 land and France. The feet is, that the introduc- 

 tion and rapid unprovement of the beet sugar man- 

 ufacture in France have given such an impulse to 

 invention and to chei::ical research, that it is moral- 

 ly impossible tor one single year to pass without 

 bringing forth something new and valuable in the 

 arts of making and refining sugar. I am inform- 

 ed since mv arrival here, that a great discovery 

 has recently been made by a Frenchman m firazil, 

 who has lately returned to France and patented 

 it. It consists in making and refining sugar by one 

 operation. There are as many systems of sugar 

 making here, as there are sects of Christianig in 

 America. A new one is lately introduced, which 

 is supposed to be superior to all others. It is my 

 intention to examine all, before I give a prefer- 

 ence to any. 



The most interesting aspect of the beet sugar 

 business is its bearing upon agriculture and rural 

 economy. It em-iches the land, both as an excel- 

 lent substitute for fallowing, and <as producuig an 

 immense quantity of capital maimre. It has the lat- 

 ter effect in various ways, but principally by feeding 

 a large number of cattle and sheep. The former 

 are fattened in three to three and a half months, 

 in a manner really superb. So fine specimens of 

 beef creatures are seldom seen in the United States, 

 after six months of the best pasturing and slall- 

 leeding. The sheep are fattened in six weeks.-^ 

 At the manufactory where I have been, they pay, 

 on an average, about six louis for cattle, and sell 

 them for eleven. A louis is about .^4 37. I sup- 

 pose that this branch of the business would be quite 

 as lucrative in the United States, where stock ani- 

 mals may be bought somewhat cheaper. This, 

 you see, is doublmg capital three times a year 

 with the help, however, of the pulp, or pomace of 

 the beet. This can be kej)!, good any desirable 

 length of time. It is sold here at ten cents the cvvt. 



The profit of raising the beets is very greaf, ac- 

 cording to estimates which I have fi'om the most 

 intelligent sources. I do not find it so high as 

 Mr. Pedder did. My data make ihe nett gain in 

 France, after pa3nng rent, ploughing, weeding, 

 hoeing, di<j<zing, and preservint;, 404 francs per 

 hectare. This measure is a trifle over two Eng- 

 lish acres. Consequently, the profit of cuhivatinir 

 beets on an acre will be 202 francs — about. Can 

 you wonder that land has risen from 50 to 150 per 

 cent, in the districts of the sugar manufactories? 

 The wages of labor for cultivating and manufac- 

 turing the produce of a hectare amount to ^56 81. 

 This would give for 100 acres .$2,840, nearly; and 

 for 400, which would be the quantity required 

 lor the largest establishments, .$11,830, to say 

 nothing of the profits of the proprietor or lease- 

 holder, when he and the laborer are one and the 

 same. In this case, besides getting pay for his la- 

 bor, and the rent or interest of his land, he would 

 receive .$38 profit per acre. Wages will be higher 

 in America, and the profits of the laborer and pro- 

 prietor still more encouraging. In one man- 

 ufactory which I visited, two-thirds of the hands 

 were women, who are paid much less than 

 men; but there is no reason why it should be so, 



for they do just as much work and just as well as 

 men. They do the principal part of the weeding 

 and dressing of the crop every where. 



The company ought to send out their orders 

 and funds tor purchasing seeds pretty soon after 

 the receipt of this letter. The price here is stated 

 at thirteen cents per pound, but the general price 

 for the season is not yet fixed. It is usually as re- 

 irular as that of wheat, and I presume will settle 

 down at something less than the above. The 

 transportation, to Dunkirk, a convenient place for 

 embarkation, would be three or four dollars for 

 one' thousand pounds. This would be enouch to 

 sow one hundred and sixty-six acres. A drill for 

 the sowing would cost $110, but I have heard of 

 a new instrument, which is said by some to be 

 better, and will not cost above $20. The most 

 material point in sowing is the manner of plough- 

 ing. The land must be ploughed eight inches 

 deep at least, and this ought to be done in the 

 month of August. Still fine crops of beets have 

 been obtained by breaking up grass ground in the 

 sprinij immediately before the seeding. The land 

 should be turned up handsomely, and all the grass 

 and other vegetable matter fairly deposited un- 

 derneath. Then it must be harrowed deep and 

 fine,' but the same way with the furrows. If the 

 Ihrrows be disturbed, it spoils or greatly injures 

 the crop. The seed is to be sown in rows, twenty, 

 inches apart, on the top of the furrows, and the 

 same way with them. No plough must enter af- 

 ter the sowing, but the land must be dressed two 

 to four times, according to its tendency to weedi- 

 ness, with the hand and hoe. The vegetable 

 matters decay, and give their whole nourishment 

 to the beets. I suppose these remarks may be of 

 less consequence to the propietors of rich prairies 

 of the west, than to those of the lands in France, 

 and in the northern and middle states of America. 

 There can be no doubt, however, that the decom- 

 position of fresh vegetable matter will afford a 

 more active stimulus to vegetable life than old 

 mould, however rich. The land for beets nmst 

 be good, but it may be too good. In this case it 

 will produce beets of an enormous size, but hol- 

 low and decayed, and affording less saccharine 

 than much smaller ones. Very poor land, made 

 rich by manuring, is said to yield large beets, con- 

 taining a great deal of potash and sal ammoniac, 

 but very little sugar. At the first weeding, when 

 the beets are about orie or one and a hall" inches 

 high, they must be thinned so as to leave one 

 plant to ev'ery twelve or thirteen inches of row. If 

 there be spaces where the seed has not come up, 

 some of the plants pulled up should be trans- 

 planted into those spaces. There are some other 

 considerations which it is material to suggest to 

 you at this time. The first is the necessity of 

 providing seasonably a store of good bones. In 

 the proper making, washinir, and otherwise cleans- 

 ing and reburning of animal coal, consists the 

 soul of a beet sugar manufactory. The best bones 

 are those from kitchens, meat shops, dead horses 

 and other dead animals thrown away. A French- 

 man would make his fortune out of the dead hogs 

 and dead dogs, which float every day in the East 

 River. Fresh bones are the thing. Those which 

 have been bleaching a good while in fields and 

 highways are very nearly worthless. Those who 

 intend to make beet sugar in the United States must 

 look belbrehand to the collection of bonee. If they 



