76 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Europe. The extraction of the sap is effected generally by hydraulic 

 pressure ; the juice is purified with lime and animal charcoal ; excess 

 of lime is removed by carbonic acid, and the purified and decolourised 

 juice is evaporated in vacuum-pans, with a view to prevent the 

 extensive conversion of the crystallisable sugar into treacle. The 

 production of beet-sugar needs less labour than that of cane-sugar ; 

 also the harvest is obtained in so short a time as eight months. The 

 beet has shown itself subject neither to fungus-diseases nor to exten- 

 sive attacks of insects. It is mostly grown in extra-tropical zones, 

 while the sugar-cane is confined to tropical and sub-tropical latitudes. 

 Beet-culture, by directly or indirectly restoring the refuse, amelio- 

 rates the soil to such an extent, that in some parts of Europe land so 

 utilised has risen to four-fold its former value. It is considered 

 advisable to grow beet only every sixth or eighth year. This rather 

 long interval is necessary, not because beet is an exhaustive crop, but 

 to prevent the increase of nematoid worms [South African Agricul- 

 turist]. The beet furthermore affords one of the most fattening 

 stable-fodders ; and thus again an ample supply of manure. In the 

 beet-districts of Middle Europe about one-sixth of the arable land is 

 devoted to beets, yet the produce of cereals has not been reduced, 

 while the rearing of fattened cattle has increased. Notwithstanding 

 a heavy tax on the beet-sugar-factories in Europe, the industry has 

 proved prosperous, and assumes greater and greater dimensions. In 

 Central Europe the yield of sugar-beet is from 10 to 14 tons per 

 acre, the average return of sugar about a ton, without the molasses 

 [Meyer's Lexicon]. In 1865 the sugar consumption of Europe 

 amounted to 1,583,825 tons, one-third of which had been locally 

 supplied by the beet, from over one thousand factories. Treacle 

 obtained from beet is distilled for alcohol. For establishing remunera- 

 tive factories on a large and paying scale, it has been suggested, that 

 farmers' companies might be formed. For ascertaining the percentage 

 of sugar in the beet, saccharometers are used. In Germany some 

 scientific periodicals are exclusively devoted to the fostering of this 

 industry. In 1875 the total production of beet-sugar amounted to 

 1,318,000 tons [Boucheraux]. In 1882 fully 38 per cent, of the 

 world's supply of sugar was derived from the beet. The beet-sugar 

 crop of 1886 in all Europe was estimated at 2,500,000 tons. During 

 1886 the import of unrefined beet-sugar into Britain was 333,590 

 tons, valued at 3,988,534, irrespective of the import of refined. 

 The present production of beet-sugar amounts to over 3^ million 

 tons. Germany produced in 1890 in about 400 factories from 

 9,825,039 tons of beet 1,260,950 tons of sugar. 



Betula alba, Lhm. 



" White Birch/' The common Birch of Europe and Extra-tropical 

 Asia and North- America. With some Willows approaching nearer 

 to the North-Pole than any other woody vegetation, but ceding in 

 milder regions before the Beech, when occurring mixed. It attains 

 a height of 80 feet, and a stem-girth of 16 feet, and would, when 



