General Notices. 325 



(Parus), the tree-creeper (C^rthia familiaris), and other small birds known 

 to derive part of their food from the eggs of insects, and which abound in 

 the park, where they may be often seen running up and down the trunks 

 of trees, at once providing their own food, and rendering a service to man, 

 which all his powers would be inadequate completely to effect. 



Reaumur (ii. 106.), in certain seasons, found these patches of eggs so 

 numerous, that in the Bois de Boulogne there was scarcely an oak, the 

 under side of the branches of which was not covered by them for an ex- 

 tent of 7 or 8 ft. He informs us that the eggs are not hatched till the 

 following spring. {Ibid., p. 208. note b.) 



Sugar from the Beet Root. — In the Fanner's Journal, of March 50. is a 

 letter on this subject from Mr. Phillip Taylor, an English gentleman at that 

 time in Paris, and the inventor of a mode of boiling sugar by steam, for 

 which he took out a patent in 1817. The fact that crystallised sugar could 

 be obtained from the beet root was first noticed by Margralf in 1747, but 

 excited little notice till 1790, when Achard, another German chemist, di- 

 rected the men of science in France to that subject. A report by the In- 

 stitute, about this time, states that raw sugar so produced costs about 8rf. 

 per English pound. In 18 10, colonial sugar had become so dear, that the go- 

 vernment directed their attention to the process, but, notwithstanding this, 

 it was still so imperfect as to be given up, with the ruin of several manu- 

 facturers, when the peace of 1815 admitted the free entrance to France of 

 colonial sugar. Important discoveries, among others that of Mr. Taylor for 

 boiling sugar by steam, were made in the process, and the number of manu- 

 factories gradually increased, so that, at this time, 1829, there are at least 

 one hundred, from which were produced last year 5000 tons of sugar, 

 worth 60/, per ton, or 300,000/., the profit of which Mr. Taylor estimates at 

 15/. an acre ; but he adds, " I am convinced the process may be so far im- 

 proved, that sugar will be made in France from the beet root at 36/. per 

 ton, which will increase the profit to 24/. an acre." After showing that the 

 beet root succeeds best in the northern departments of France, and that, 

 of course, it can be grown as well in England as on the Continent, he 

 concludes, that though the price of land and labour be much lower in France 

 than in England, yet that the balance of skill in favour of the latter country 

 places it on a par with France, in point of the profits to be obtained from 

 making sugar from beet. He adds, " with respect to prices of produce, the 

 advantage will probably be in favour of the English farmer; for although 

 the price of sugar is about equal in both countries, yet it is not sugar alone 

 that is produced from the beet root which is cultivated : the pulp of the 

 root, after the juice is pressed out, is excellent food for both bullocks and 

 sheep, and I have seen beasts which have been bought in at 5/. per head, 

 fattened upon it and sent to market in three months, and sold for 1 1/. The 

 value and importance of this part of the business will be duly estimated, 

 when it is known that the pulp from each acre of beet root will fatten a 

 bullock, and that the farmer will have as much manure for his other crops, 

 as if he had grown turnips on the same land ; and, of course, the same ro- 

 tation of crops may be continued as is now found most beneficial. Dur- 

 ing the time of Bonaparte, the produce of sugar was about three per cent 

 on the root ; now, as much as five per cent is generally obtained ; and as 

 the beet root actually contains eight per cent, I think I have good ground 

 for saying that the process admits of further improvement." A paper on 

 the same subject, and to the same effect, will be found in the Quarterly 

 Journal of Agriculture for May, in which the writer concludes " it is 

 difficult to conceive that one half of the sugar consumed in Great 

 Britain, or in all Europe, will not, in a few years, be home-made beet-root 

 sugar." 



Whether it may ultimately be worth while to cultivate the beet or 

 other sugar plants on the Continent, or in the British isles, cannot at pre- 



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