SECRETARY'S REPORT. 359 



like processions towards the black and smoking mills where the 

 sugar is manufactured. 



" How long have you been so extensively engaged in making 

 sugar from beets ? " 



" Oh, for half a century or so. A man by the name of 

 Margrafif first discovered that the sugar found in the beet-root 

 could be crystallized, and a German by the name of Achard soon 

 suggested the extensive cultivation of this plant as a means of 

 obtaining sugar by somewhat the same processes as from sugar- 

 cane. When these facts became known to Napoleon the First, he 

 made a decree which really prohibited the importation of sugar 

 to any extent into France and the other countries which he at 

 that time controlled, and this gave a tremendous impulse to the 

 cultivation of sugar beets and the manufacture of sugar. It was 

 made in a rough way at first, but necessity led to many 

 improvements till now we think the processes of making sugar 

 from beets are more perfect than those of the sugar-cane. It 

 was a subject for the investigation and ingenuity of scientific 

 men, and the application of scientific principles." 



" Don't they cultivate any other varieties than the Silesian, 

 for this purpose ? " 



" Yes, several varieties have been used for this purpose. 

 One is a long red, which is very different from the Silesian, 

 which is white. Then there is the mangel wurzel, which is 

 probably a cross or hybrid between these two. That is a field 

 beet. Don't you raise it in America ? " 



" Oh, yes, we raise that, and the sugar beet, to some extent, 

 but not in such vast quantities as you do here. But is the 

 Silesian so much better than the rest ? " 



" Well, we had some time ago a kind of beet with a delicate 

 rose colored skin, that was pretty popular at one time. When 

 you cut it great white and red layers or stripes, appeared to 

 run all through the inside, then there were others which 

 appeared to be a sort of cross or intermediate varieties between 

 the long red and the Silesian, but it was soon found that the 

 white Silesian gave a larger percentage of sugar, and had less 

 water and other waste substances than any other variety. And 

 then again it is not so tender and liable to get bruised in culti- 

 vating and harvesting as the others, while it stands the frost 

 and wet better. So it is more valuable for the manufacturer, 



