Sugar 



103 



important commercial plants of the world, is a variety of the common wild beet, Beta maritima, 

 which occurs on our own shores, and around the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas, in the Canary 

 Islands, Persia, and may range as far as India, although there is some doubt, as to whether 

 it is actually wild in that country. The wild plant is not uncommon in Great Britain and in 

 Ireland on the sea-shore, growing in sandy tracts, in crevices in cliffs, etc., with long, straggling, 

 weak stems, and thick fleshy leaves. The root in the wild plant is fleshy, but nothing like 

 the size of the cultivated varieties, perhaps one inch or a little more in the thickest portion is 

 about the average. 



From this wild stock have been derived, under cultivation, the table beet with its red, 

 fleshy root, the mangold wurzel, and the sugar-beet with a white root. 



The white and red kinds have been known for a very long time, and were in cultivation before 

 the Christian Era; now a very large number of varieties have been raised. Although the 

 plant has been known for so long it is only recently that it has been employed as a source 

 of sugar, and the development of the industry is one of the most striking examples of successful 

 results attained by welding science and practice that the world affords. 



Historical Account 



The occurrence of sugar in the beetroot was noticed as early as 1590, when Oliver des Serres, 

 in recording that the red beet had not long been introduced into Europe, adds that "the juice 

 yielded on boiling is similar to sugar syrup." Previous to 1747 the beet was cultivated mainly 

 as a vegetable for table use and as cattle fodder. In this year Marggraf , a member of the Berlin 

 Academy of Sciences, conducted a series of researches on a large number of plants to ascertain 

 their sugar contents. His results were communicated to the Berlin Academy in a paper in 

 1747, in which he urged the importance of the beet as the source of a possible industry. It 

 is true that Marggraf's methods were only suited to the laboratory ; moreover the price of 

 sugar from tropical colonies did not warrant the sinking of a large amount of capital in such 

 ventures. 



The idea of a sugar industry founded on the beet lay dormant for half a century. 



TRANSPORTING BEETROOTS TO THE FACTORY BY AN ELECTRIC TRAIN 



