1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



523 



gettled down at 12 cents a pound, and raw at 7. 

 Siill, to the surprise of all, two beet suijjar manu- 

 (actories did survive the shock of this tremendous 

 reverse, more useful to this industry, and to man- 

 kind, than all its preceeding piosperity; because 

 it demonstrated, what never could have been done 

 under the unnatural stimulus ofthe "continenialsys- 

 tem," that there was an intrinsic value in the new 

 industr}', rendering it capable of independent ex- 

 istence, and raising it out of the reach of accident, 

 political enmity, or caprice. The establishments 

 which survived were at Arras, in the Department 

 of the Pas de Calais, and at Pont a Mousson, 

 near Nancy, in the Department of the Meurtbe. 



After the retirement ofthe allied troops, in 1S18, 

 the government began to turn its attention to the 

 encouragement of an industry, which had sirug- 

 gled meritoriously and successfully to preserve a 

 boon to the trench nation. JMany eminent and 

 public spirited citizens raised up establishments, 

 more perhaps to give the benfit ol" experiments to 

 their countrymen, than with a view to profita- 

 ble investment. Men of genius aud profound re- 

 search occupied themselves with elaborate experi- 

 ments, and published their results. Among the 

 most important were the Count Chaptal, who de- 

 tailed, in Memoirs, on the subject, and in his 'Ag- 

 ricultural Chemistry,' the experience of many 

 years as a cultivator of beets and manufacturer of 

 sugar; and M. Dombasle, who did the same, with 

 admirable clearness and precision, in his work en- 

 titled ' Facts and Observations relating to the Ma- 

 nufacture of Beet Sugar.' The latter, with a 

 prospect of many more years of usefulness, is still 

 at the farm school at Roville, near Luneville, in 

 Lorraine, devoted to agricultural and chemical 

 studies, and imparting the results of his long ex- 

 perience, fertile genius, and assiduous application, 

 through his publicaiions which go to all parts of 

 the world, and to pupils who come Iroin every na- 

 tion. As an intelligent and industrious operative, M. 

 Crespel Delisse, of Arras, is worthy of honorable 

 mention This gentleman was originally a laborer. 

 He became the foreman ofthe first beet sugar ma- 

 nufactory at Arras. The proprietor,who had invest- 

 ed an immense capital, sank in the general wreck of 

 1814-15. M. Crespel suceeded him, with the 

 great advantage of having his fixtures at about^ 

 one-fourth of their real value. This was one of 

 the two establishments which survived, and it con- 

 tinues to this day to be one of the most extensive 

 and successful in France. M. Crespel is interest- 

 ed as part or sole proprietor in seven or eight oth<^r 

 farms and factories. He has received the gold 

 medal ofthe Society for the Encouragement of Ag 

 Ticulture, at Paris, and the honor? of knighthood 

 (i-om ihe French and other European sovereigns. 



The method in general use in France is to crush, 

 or grind, the beet with an instrument called nrasp, 

 though its lunctions would be better described by 

 the word grater. It is cylindrical, and revolves 

 four hundred or more times in a minute. This 

 reduces the beets to a very fine pulp. They are 

 then pressed in hydraulic presses of great power 

 and the juice defecated, evaporated, boiled, and fil- 

 tered, in very much the same manner as the cane- 

 juice in the colonies. The great diflerence is, that 

 the beet sugar machinery has been rapidly im- 

 proved, and the cane planters have begun to avail 

 themselves of the improvements. There is, how- 

 ever, another method of extracting the saccharine, 



which dispenses altogether with grating and press- 

 ing. This is called maceration. It was first proposed 

 by Dombasle, and has been tried in various forms 

 with more or less success. M. Martin de Rodin- 

 court, originally a captain of engineers, is the in- 

 ventor of an ingenious and valuable machine for 

 performing this operation. The beet is first cut 

 into ribands, about one line in thicknees. They 

 are then plunged into boiling water, which is ad- 

 mitted into the machine at regular intervals, in 

 regular doses. The ribands remain passing through 

 the circuit of the machine during one hour, and 

 steam is occasionally admitted to keep up the heat. 

 In this time, the sugar contained in the ri- 

 bands is dissolved, and remains in solution in the 

 water, while the ribands, now called pulp, are 

 discharged on the side of the machine opposite to 

 that where they entered it; the liquor containing 

 the saccharine, flows ofl" in another direction to 

 the defecating pans. 



This method is employed to a considerable ex- 

 tent in France, but by no means so generally as 

 the rasp and the press. Its advantages are, that 

 it gives rather more and a rather belter product, 

 and requires a great deal less labor. Its disad- 

 vantages are, that it takes a great deal more fii- 

 el, and does not leave the pulp in so good a state 

 for feeding; there being too much water in it, and 

 less saccharine, than in that which comes from 

 the press. It might be subjected to pressure, by 

 which a little additional liquor would be obtained 

 for the pans, and the pulp made vastly better for 

 feeding. This, however, would require so much 

 power of the press, and so much pains, that the 

 French generally feed with the pulp just as it 

 flails fi'om the machine. We have little hesita- 

 tion in giving the preference to this method in 

 a country where fuel is cheap and labor dear. 

 The immense establishment commenced in Lon- 

 don two years ago, but abandoned in conse- 

 quence of the excise of 4^ cents a pound, which 

 the government hastened to impose in order to 

 guard the West India interest, was upon this 

 system. On the other hand, the only other beet 

 sugar manufactorv, upon a seals of any impor- 

 tance, in Great Sritain and Ireland, which is 

 near Dubilin, has adopted the rasp and press. 

 The former establishment delivered for consump- 

 tion a considerable quantity of refined sugar, which 

 was so completely undistinguishable from refined 

 cane sugar, that the government issued an extra- 

 ordinary notice, that any fraud in the exportation 

 of it with the benefit of drawback would, if de- 

 tected, be punished with thr; utmost severity. 

 Whether the establishment in Ireland still exists, 

 we are not informed. It is, however, the opinion 

 of persons skilled in the manufacture and refining 

 of sugar, and who have had small experimental 

 beet sugar factories near London, that the busi- 

 ness cannot be sustained under a duty of Ah cents. 

 Others are confident, that, in consequence of the 

 application ofthe fibre to paper making, by which 

 the value of the pulp is enhanced lourlbld, the 

 business will yet get a permanent footing in Great 

 Britain. We do not think a fair experiment has 

 yet been made in that country. The original pre- 

 judice auainst the pretensions of the new manu- 

 jiictare,Tbrced forward by the odious machinery 

 of the "continental system" and the power of the 

 empire, to become a rival of their colonial indus- 

 try, was of course virulent and obstinate. That 



