1836.] FARMERS' 



which only cost nine cents per pound in France. 

 Vvhen I return, I will furnish 3^ou with the sam- 

 ple. France Jast year manufactured eighty mil- 

 lions pounds." 



Had our correspondent examined our last vol- 

 ume, he would have seen that we had anticipated 

 his request. At tlie suggestion of a correspond- 

 ent in the far west, we gave a summary of the 

 mode of culture and manufacture, from M. Chap- 

 tal, than whom no one was more competent to in- 

 struct, as he conducted the business on a large 

 scale for twelve years, and was withal, one of the 

 best chemists of the age. This summary will be 

 found in pages 85, 86 and 114. — The whole pro- 

 cess is minutely dettiiled in Chaptal's "Chemistry 

 applied to Agricultiire." We stated that beet su- 

 gareould besuccessfullycultivated in France, when 

 foreign sugar did not compete with it in the mar- 

 ket at a less price than ten cents per pound. We 

 did not then consider, nor did our readers probably 

 understand, that the remark then had reference to 

 refined sugar. The fact nowseems to be this, that 

 beet sugar, equal to our double refined loatj which 

 now sells in the New- York market at eighteen and 

 twenty cents per pound, can be profitably sold in 

 France, by the producer, at nine cents per pound, 

 or at half the price of cane sugar. It follows as 

 a matter of course, for bating the difference in la- 

 bor, we can produce it here as cheap as they can 

 in France, that the culture of the beet, and the 

 manufacture of beet sugar, can be rendered a pro- 

 fitable busiiiesi in this country. Our soil and cli- 

 mate are well adapted to the beet; and in the inte- 

 rior, in particular where the price of foreign sugar 

 is enhanced by the charges of transportation, beet 

 sugar must ere long be among the staple products. 

 As^an offset to the difference in labor, we have an 

 advantage in the cheapness of land. Chaptal's 

 estimates are predicated on a rent of 40 francs 

 (iR7.60) per acre. 



Chaptal states his average product in beet roots 

 at 40,000 pounds the hectare (which is 2 acres 1 

 rood 35 perches English) ; that in his establish- 

 ment he operated upon 10,000 pounds in a day; 

 that this quantity (10,000 lbs. roots) produced of 



1 Refined susar, 187 lbs. worth ----- - 210 franos. 



•2 Middling do. 67 Ihs. ivoitli ------ 67 " .50 c. 



3 Trimmings, 1,000 kilogiaRiines, (fed) worth 2 " 50 c. 



4 Mash, Cfed to stock) 1,950, worth - - - - 30 " 



5 Molasses, 130, worth ---------12 " 



322 francs. 



equal to about §61 on the products of one-fourth 

 of a hectare, or something more than half an acre 

 of land. The expense of cultivating an acre is 

 stated at 133 fl-atics, about $25, which includes 

 40 fr. for rent, and 10 for taxes, and leaves about 

 ^15.75 for cultivating, digging, transporting and 

 storing the crop. He states the expense of culti- 

 vating and manufacturing 10,000 lbs. roots, inclu- 

 ding all charges, at 192 francs, about 36 dollars, 

 leaving as a profit on this quantity of roots, about 

 $25, say ^35 the acre, clear profit. Upon 1,200,- 

 000 lbs. of roots, the average produce of three 

 hectares, he estimates a nett profit to the manu- 

 facturer, after deductiucr interest on capital, repairs, 

 &c., of 6.650 francs, about .91,260. 



After peunino; the above, we received the inter- 

 esting letter of M. Le Ray de Chaumont, which 

 will be found under the head of correspondence, 

 showing tiie importance of beet sugar as a house- 

 hold manufacture. 



REGISTER. 



251 



ANTICIPATED CHANGE IN THE AGRICULTURE 



OF THE UNITED STATES. SII.K, AND BEET 



SUGAR. 



Some considerable time has now passed since we 

 yielded, slowly and with difficulty, to the belief, that 

 tlie introduction of silk culture in this country would 

 be extended widely and profitably: and since adopting 

 that opinion, we have made continually repeated ef- 

 forts to impress on the pEople of Virginia, and the other 

 southern states, the superiority of their facilities — in 

 better climate, cheaper land, and surplus and now ex- 

 pensive hands — for carrying on this new business, 

 over those of our northern countrymen, who have al- 

 ready proved the advantages to be derived, and are in- 

 vesting large capitals in numerous adventures for this 

 objpct. In New England, where most of these efforts 

 are making, there is no superfluity of labor. Fortu- 

 nately, every poor female, and all persons infirm from 

 either tender or advanced age, may be, and annually 

 are, employed profitably, according to their measure of 

 bodily power. Yet still it is considered profitable to 

 dii^ert much of this labor to the silk business: and that 

 too, in a climate so rigorous that artificial heat must be 

 used frequently in reaiingthe worms, and the best kinds 

 of mulberries are often greatly injured, if not killed to 

 the ground, by such severe winters as the last. In Vir- 

 ginia, there is no difficulty as to climate — thousands of 

 now unemployea and expensive hands might be given 

 to the work — and lands, now unprofitable or neglected, 

 and at very low prices, would serve as well for plant- 

 ing, as those selling ten or twenty times as high in New 

 England. Putting all views of greater pecuniary pro- 

 fits aside, if the silk culture could be established in 

 Virginia, without any absolute loss to the undertakers, 

 a great moral and political benefit would be gained, in 

 giving the bread oi independence, and of honest labor, 

 to thousands of destitute females, who have now no 

 resource but to live on the charity of others, or to 

 starve on their own ill-paid labor of the needle. 



Another new kind of industry now seems likely to 

 be introduced, and established with profit — and which, 

 in a different manner, offers great benefit to the agri- 

 culture of a large portion of the United States. This 

 is the making of sugar from beets. We readily con- 

 fess, that until very recently, we considered this 

 scheme worthless, and absurd in every country that 

 could freely import sugar produced from the cane — and 

 that this species of industry, which could not be estab- 

 lished by the iron despotism of Napoleon, and the protec- 

 tion afforded by his "continental system," could not ex- 

 ist in times of peace and of comparatively free trade. 

 But we have been forced to yield the opinion to such 

 facts as are presented in the letter of Professor Cooper, 

 and other pieces in this No. which are but specimens of 

 many that have recently appeared. If, as seems to be 

 undeniable, beet sugar can be made cheaper than that 

 of the cane can be bought, there is an end of all ques- 

 tion and doubt as to profit. There is also an agricul- 

 tural benefit to be expected from the new culture of 

 beets, for sugar, that is very important, and that is an 

 addition to all the pecuniary profit expected from the 

 sale of su"-ar, and the profits of live stock fed on thfi 



