1837] 



F A R M E R S' R E (J I S T E R. 



875 



pressed roots, (filleen percent, ofthe whole) whicli 

 may be reckoiieil iit ei<rht centimes — so that the 

 pounil of snijar stands 1 lie manuiaciurer at the cost 

 of twenty Ibnrc.cntian's. 



The mean value of a hundred weight of sugar 

 is 55 francs, and if these were the only considera- 

 tions in the cost and produce, the profits would be 

 enormous ; but we must take into account the cap- 

 ital necessary to be embarked in the operation. 

 Now It is estimated that a factory adapted to the 

 \vorkin<i: of five millions of poundsof beets, would 

 require in the cost of land, buildings, and machin- 

 ery, an outlay of 150,000 trancs. The interest of 



not but that it will be again rejocted, as before, to re- 

 turn to winter wheat. We have never tried spring 

 wheat — because no question was entertained but that 

 it was not preferable to the winter wheat, except 

 where the climate forbade the latter standing through 

 the winter; and where that is the case, we doubt wheth- 

 er it would not be better for the spring as well as 

 winter wheat to be abandoned, and s\d)sti(uted by 

 other crops. 



''Winter wheat — is altogether hotter than it was last 

 year, yet will hardly equal the average of former 

 years. It appears far'better now than could have been 



this sum at 10 per cent, divided by the 250,000 anticipated in April or May, as the season has been 

 admirably adapted to bring forward every root that re- 

 mained alive at the close of the freezing weather of 

 spring. Should it escape the worm, we may hope for 

 a fair crop, if not a heavy one. 



Sping ivheat.—Much more of this valuable grain 

 was' sown than usual; indeed it may be said that the 

 culture of tliis kind of wheat has within two or three 

 years increased a hundred fold. Some twenty-five 

 years since it was extensively sown, but it became 



pounds of sucar obtainable from the above quan 

 tity of roots, would come to 6 centimes per pound, 

 which extends the cost to 30 centimes or 30 francs 

 the hundred. This would yield a profit on five 

 million of roots, of 60,000 francs a year; but such 

 a profit requires an extensive fabrication. The 

 advantages to those who operate on a small scale 

 are much less in proportion. Nevertheless there 

 have been, of late years, in the northern depart- 

 ments, small manufacturers, who perform the la- 

 bor wiihm themselves and do it with advantage. 

 We may cite among those who work in a small 

 way, a John Joseph Lecerp who keeps a small 

 inn at Onain near Valenciennes. By means of a 

 ver}' simple apparatus he succeeds in making in 

 one season about a thousand pounds of sugar. 

 A single room, fourteen feet^square, contains his 

 clarifying and evaporating vessels. His wife's lye- 

 tub serves lor a reli-igerator. The only decent in- 

 strument which he possesses is a rasp which makes 

 400 revolutions in a minute and which is worked 

 by his children. His sugar is of good quality, and 

 he has even obtained the medal of the Agricultu- 

 ral Society, by way of encouragement. 



The imperfect means which these small fabri- 

 cators employ, only allows them to obtain 3 or at 

 most 4 per cent, of sugar from their roots, and they 

 find this advantageous only by the exemption 

 which they enjoy from taxation. Even the show 

 of an attempt in the Chamber of Deputies last sea- 

 son to extend the tariff^, induced some of them to 

 give up, and among those was Joseph Lecerp. 

 Should such a law be passed, only rich manufac- 

 turers and very large establishments can he suc- 

 cessflil, and in this stale of things it is next to a cer- 

 tainty that foreigners would appropriate to them- 

 selves a fabrication which they have studied among 

 us, and would eventually supply us with thesuijar 

 of their production which would more than rival 

 our indigenous manufactory. 



subject to the attack of the fly, and an improved state 

 of farming gave winter wheat the preference. The 

 failure of the last on some farms for two years past, 

 has again introduced spring wheat, and at the present 

 time it appears very promising." 



SPRING WHEAT IN WESTERN NEW YORK. 



The following extract from a late Genesee Farmer 

 gives indirecL support to the warnings of "A Practical 

 Farmer" on this subject, at page 270 of our No. 5. 

 This passage is part of a statement of the condition of 

 crops in Onondaga county, a part of that region in 

 which spring wheat has this year been most promising. 

 But it would be very unsafe to judge of its value by 

 the results of a particular season — or to judge of its 

 profits by comparison with the present crop of winter 

 wheat, which suffered so greatly- by the weather of 

 last winter. It seems too, that this is not the first ex- 

 tensive trial of spring wheat in N. York — and we doubt 



From the Lexington (Va.) Gazette. 

 SPUING WHEAT. 



To the Editor: 



Dear Sir: — Your note of the 27th ult. request- 

 ing information in relation to my success in the 

 cultivation of the spring wheat, was not receivetl 

 tor several days, and my engagements sincej have 

 prevented an earlier answer to the several queries 

 propounded. I will now endeavor to answer 

 them, in the order of your note, as well as I can, 

 from an experiment on three small lots, and l()r a 

 single season. The wheat is of the beanled fam- 

 ily, with a beautiful, clear, yellow straw, the 

 meshes, I think, placed closer on the head than 

 is usual in that variety ; consequently it gives a 

 belter yield from the straw, than a careless obser- 

 ver would suppose, fi-om the length of the head. 

 The grain may be called red, and of medium size, 

 resembling very much the bearded wintei* wiieat, 

 common in our county. 



In regard to soil, preparation, and time of sow- 

 ing, I would remark, that in the experiments I 

 have made, I sowed at three times, and on difle- 

 rent soils ; first, on the last week of Febuary, on 

 a clover fallow, ploughed in the same month; 

 then on a stiff' clay, (without cover) about the 

 15th of March, ground ploughed near the time of 

 the first lot ; and last a lot of corn land, of medium 

 quality, ploughed the last week in March, and 

 sowed as soon as ploughed. The corn lot gave 

 much the best yield and best grain — standing 

 well, and free ti-om injury of any kind until ripe. 

 The two first lots gave too luxuriant a growth 

 — and the wheat fell belbre it was made — conse- 

 quently, the grain was somewhat shrivelled, but 

 the straw was clean and fi-ee fi'om rust. The 

 quantity sown was about 1 1-2 bushels per acre, 

 which I have no doubt, was one third too much, 

 and the yield near 15 for one, on all the lots to- 

 gether, but considerably more on the corn land. 

 I cut the spring wheal, the day I finished cutting 

 the winter grain; and my belief is, that in ordina- 



