ROTATION. 347 



in theory that should agree with practice is this, that in no case is it 

 possible to export more organic matter, and particularly more azo- 

 tized organic matter, than the excess of the same matter contained 

 in the manure which is consumed in the course of the rotation. By 

 acting upon another presumption the productiveness of the soil woulc/ 

 he infallibly lessened. 



This irrefragable condition as to the term of exportation from a 

 farm suggests some critical remarks upon sundry notions lately pro- 

 mulgated. The manufacture of beet-root sugar is an instance. 

 European agriculture may probably derive certain advantages from 

 this modern branch of industry, altliough these have been mu'^h 

 overrated by certain speculators, who contend that sugar may thus 

 be obtained through rotation of crops without lessening the other 

 produce of the domain ; so that the sugar constitutes an additional 

 source of income. This seems to me erroneous 



If an estate yields annually 100 tons of beet-root for the support 

 of cattle, their number must be diminished if the root is to be used 

 for making sugar. The organic matter of the sugar extracted there- 

 from, is just so much nourishment withheld from the cattle. To 

 assert the contrary would be equivalent to saying that potatoes grown 

 upon a couple of acres of land, and submitted to the process of dis- 

 tillation before being employed as fodder, would feed as many animals 

 as if eaten directly : assuredly, the organic principles of the potato 

 converted into alcohol are lost as regards nutrition. 



This does not imply that the manufacture of indigenous sugar, 

 and of potato spirit, is less productive than breeding and fattening 

 cattle. My sole object is to show that only a limited quantity of 

 organic matter can be advantageously exported from an agricultural 

 establishment. It must depend upon local and commercial circum- 

 stances whether this is to be exported in the form of sugar, corn, 

 spirit, or butcher-meat. 



The above statement is in apparent contradiction with generally 

 received notions. Many persons believe that the manufacture of 

 sugar, instead of injuring, is favorable to the breeding of cattle. It 

 appears, from a Parliamentary return on this subject, in 1836, that 

 in certain estates where sugar was made, the number of animals 

 was increased ; the numerical results are no doubt exact, but this 

 augmentation in cattle is rather to be ascribed to an improved mode 

 of farming than to the manufacture of sugar. In establishments 

 where the triennial rotation with fallow was pursued, a rotation of 

 four or five years with clover and weed-destroying plants has been 

 introduced ; so that it is by no means to be wondered at, that inde- 

 pendently of beet-root, there should have been a considerable increase 

 in other things. The introduction of this root, where it was not 

 formerly grown, is of itself an important melioration. But in highly 

 cultivated countries, where the most productive rotations have been 

 long followed, the extraction of sugar would not effect such advan- 

 tageous changes as those announced in the above return. If at 

 Bechelbronn a time should ever come, and at present it seems far 

 distant, when it would be deemed expedient to make sugar from the 



