150 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



The speaker thought this drain might be avoid- 

 ed by devoting our New England lands to the 

 culture of the sugar beet, and thus inducing men 

 to cultivate the beet, instead of going to the 

 rWest. He had seen much excellent land in 

 Massachusetts for this culture, lying idle, instead 

 of yielding $200 to the acre, as it might. Then 

 it would aflbrd employment to the poor classes 

 in that time of trial, the winter season. This was 

 an important consideration. It would be a com- 

 fortable and pleasant occupation, to work in a 

 beet-root sugar factory. The speaker liked to 

 see ruddy women hoeing the beet-root. He did 

 not consider it a degrading occupation, but one 

 conducive to health, and involving a principle 

 important to us all. He spoke particularly upon 

 this point, because he deemed the labor of m'o- 

 men important in connection with this culture. 



In many places in France there were small dis- 

 tilleries, which were called agricultural distiller- 

 ies, in which the farmer worked up his own crop, 

 and by which he could obtain 419 gallons of 

 proof spirit to the acre, beside 70 per cent, of the 

 cosset, or pulp. 



The capability of this country for this culture 

 Avas undoubted. They had seen the remarkable 

 result of his own experiment, before alluded to. 

 It was a fair trial. The beet was selected hap 

 hazard, but yielded an uncommonly rich juice. 

 In France it generally marks, by the saccharome- 

 ter, but 5, but here was juice marking 9. 



Some beet-root sugar was here exhibited by 

 the speaker. It appeared similar to refined loaf 

 sugar, in the purity of its taste and color. All 

 beet-root sugar that comes into commerce was 

 white, for the reason that a disagreeable smell 

 and taste belonged to it, in a less refined state 

 Calculating from the crude beet, they get 5 per 

 cent, of this pure sugar, 80 per cent, of the juice 

 and 20 per cent, of the pulpy matter. 



The specimen of sugar alluded to was grown 

 in Konisberg, Prussia, and was brought to the 

 meeting by Mr. CUNNINGH.4.M, of Boston. 



The process of making sugar from the beet was 

 next described. The juice was received into de- 

 fecators, and a quantity of finely sifted lime add- 

 ed. Steam was then let on, and its action caused 

 a skum to be thrown to the surface. When the 

 juice was quite clear, the steam Avas thrown ofl', 

 and the juice allowed to subside. The juice was 

 then k't ofi" from the bottom into an animal char- 

 coal filter. In passing through it became decol- 

 orized and deprived of all feculent matter, and 

 came out very clear and bright. If the charcoal 

 was new, the liquid would be nearly as white as 

 water. It was then passed into a conical vessel, 

 and finally into evaporators, thence into a clari- 

 fier with fresh milk and finely powdered charcoal, 

 and then submitted to another filtration, by 



which the juice was made quite white. It was 

 then put into the vacuum pan and boiled down 

 into a granulating syrup. A ton of animal char- 

 coal was used to a ton of sugar, and would be 

 ery expensive but for its capability of being re- 

 burnt and restored to its original power. 



^Ir. French, of Braintree, had never found 

 but one instance where the beet could be grown 

 successively on the same soil with profit. The 

 crop should be alternated. He believed that the 

 culture might be profitable. With reference to 

 the labor of women, alluded to by Mr. Wray, he 

 hoped never to see women in the field, or any 

 other out-door work, unless in that of the culti- 

 vation of a flower-garden. 



He would not undertake to grow beets after 

 beets or peas. It was an old adage that where 

 our fathers lived we could live, and if it could be 

 grown in the old country successfully it might be 

 done here, and by the work of men. He believed 

 the culture would ultimately be introduced. 



Mr. BUCKMIXSTER, of the Ploughman, would be 

 glad to have a class of females about the cities, 

 getting a livelihood by sewing and selling candy, 

 work at the manufacture of sugar. He was also 

 glad to be rebuked 1 y ^Ir. Wray or the national 

 practice of going abroad for that which we might 

 grow, with so much facility, at home. 



Mr. Wray was asked as to the law of succes- 

 sion in the culture of the beet, and replied that 

 the law of the exhaustion of soil applied to the 

 culture of tliis root, as well as other crops. It 

 draws from the subsoil its potash, and that re- 

 turned to the soil, of course enriched it. He 

 would recommend the use of the subsoil plow, 

 and rotation of crops. 



Mr. Brooks, of Princeton, wanted to know 

 how the soil could be exhausted if the residuum 

 of the beet which contained the potash of the 

 plant should be returned ? He has raised beets 

 for seven or eight successive years, by plentiful 

 manuring the same soil. 



Mr. Wray said they did produce in France beets 

 year after year on the same soil, but they were 

 full of salts, and contained comparatively but 

 little saccharine matter. It was only by highly 

 artificial means that beets could be produced in 

 this manner. It takes the great body of its pot- 

 ash from the subsoil, and was rapidly exhaustive 

 of the soil. 



Mr. French could not see how the soil would 

 be exhausted if the fructifying properties in the 

 beet were all returned. 



Mr. Wray said that Liebig assured us that 

 every plant leaves its excrement in the soil, and 

 this was an argument in favor of the rotation of 

 crops. Plants would be injured by their own cx- 

 crcmeutitious matter. 



