FARMERS' REGISTER— BEET-ROOT SUGAR. 



G93 



in them J wliicli should be laic! across the stream as 

 low as possible, so as to allow the rising waters 

 quickly to get above it; for when that occurs, the 

 danger of losing your rack or log is greatly les- 

 sened. Swing your rack by tying it to the log in 

 at least three places. If you use grape or musca- 

 dine vines lor this purpose, do not twist them as you 

 would do a hickory withe ; if you do, tiiey will last 

 but a short lime. Your water-rack at the upper 

 water-gap, where the stream enters the field, must 

 not rest on the bottom, whilst your water-rack at 

 the lower water-gap, where the stream passes out 

 of the lield should rest on the bottom, so that the 

 rack will hang with its top a little higher up stream 

 than its bottom. It' you or your neighbors own 

 any learned hogs, drive down between the two 

 rounds of the water-rack next to the bank of the 

 stream, a stake, in size one-third less than tlie 

 space between the two rounds, tiriidy into the bot- 

 tom of the water-course, and tie it at the top to the 

 log to which the rack swings, but do not let the top 

 of the stake be any higher than the top of the log, 

 or it may stop sonie drift timber, form a raft, and 

 » away goes every thing : this stake will jjrevent the 

 hogs from pushing the rack one side and passing 

 through the gap. To prevent hogs from entering 

 your fields by raising the rack, weigh it down by 

 securing to the bottom of it a green log, but do 

 nothing to it, which will prevent the rack from 

 floating or rising as the waters rise, or it will be 

 carried away by water soaked logs, which are 

 swept along at the bottom of the v/ater-course, &c. 

 If the hogs dive under your rack where the water 

 is too deep to allow you to sink your rack sufli- 

 ciently deep to- stop them, which some become 

 sufficiently learned to do, tie a green log to the 

 bottom of the rack, and let it hang down, leaving 

 from four to six inches between it and tiie rack, 

 into which space the hogs will run their snouts, 

 become perplexed and turn back. But do not re- 

 sort either to the stake or green log unless it be- 

 comes necessary, lor the freer and lighter your 

 rack swings the better. 



A water-rack if made out of the materials 

 above directed will last very well for two years, 

 but do not trust to it the third, or you may rue it. 

 If you discover an old sinner climbing over your 

 water-rack, shoot it — shoot it, no matter whose hog- 

 it may be, for such a one is hostis humani generis. 

 Be careful after every rise of the water-course to 

 examine your water-gaps, for your hogs will search 

 it it you do not, and if they once fmd their way 

 into your fields of grain by the water-gap, it is 

 very dilFicult afterwards to keep them out. As 

 simple as all this seems, it would have been very 

 useful knowledge to me, when I first took charge 

 of an upper country plantation, and so may per- 

 haps be useful to some one else. But as 1 have 

 not yet been able to make my water-gaps perfectly 

 secure, perhaps some of your readers may know 

 how to fix them better than I do, for informa- 

 tion on which subject 1 should be thankful. 

 Yours, respectfully, tmojias pakkku. 



BEET-ROOT SUGAR. 



From [he Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 

 It is well known that, during the latter years of 

 the late war, in consequence of the French colo 

 nies having been captured by Great Britain, sugar 

 was manufactured in considerable quantities in 



France, from beet-root; indeed, nearly the whole 

 consumption was obtained from this source. Du- 

 ring the war the manufacturers flourished, but as 

 soon as the peace of 1810 took place, and caused 

 the sudden introduction of West India sugar 

 through Holland, they were ruined by the compa- 

 ratively low price at which tlie foreign sugars were 

 introduced, in consequence of the necessity which 

 the government felt ot relaxing its rigorous decrees 

 against foreign commerce. As, however, the price 

 of foreign sugar rose again after the peace of Eu- 

 rope was established, several of the old beet-root 

 sugar manufactories of France were re-opened, and 

 profitably worke 1, as the supply of the French colo- 

 nies was not adequate to the increasing consump- 

 tion; and the duty upon the foreign growth being 

 about 3^d. per pound, whilst the sugar made in the 

 French colonics was also charged with a duty of 

 about l^d. per ])0und. The manufactories are daily 

 increasmg, and it seems probable that the consump- 

 tion of sugar on the Continent will be soon entirely 

 confined to that obtained from beet-root. One 

 u^anufactory at Ai-ras furnished, 1827, one hundred 

 thousand kilogrammes of this article; and beet- 

 root sugar seems likely soon to exercise some influ- 

 ence over the commerce of Europe. The con- 

 sumption of sugar in France is estimated at about 

 eighty millions of kilogrammes annually ; and, if 

 tlie home manufiictory continues to receive as 

 much encouragement as it has hitherto done, France 

 will shortly grow upon her own soil, most of the 

 sugar she consumes. In this country, tlie beet- 

 root may be procured as cheap as in France ; and 

 as the cost of fuel for the manufacture would be 

 much less, it would seem to be a profitable article 

 of cultivation to the agriculturist, particularly as 

 the sugar imported from the British West Indian 

 colonies pays a duty of nearly 3d. per pound. Af- 

 ter tiie juice has been extracted, the pulp is used 

 for feeding cattle, for which it makes a good winter 

 food. On the continent, the farmers mix a small 

 quantity of flax-seed cake with tlie root, to make 

 it more nourishing. 



The manufacture of beet-root sugar is now per- 

 fectly established in France. In the departments 

 of the Soame and of the Pas de Calais alone, there 

 are above twenty establishments on a large scale 

 making sugar. The cultivation of beet-root by 

 the small proprietors of land for sale, to the sugar- 

 makers, is a regular and common branch of hus- 

 bandry; and, in those departments, if we are not 

 misinlbrmed, sugar is not only made on the large 

 scale by the manufacturers, but by the house-wile 

 of thefurm-house,as a matter of domestic economy, 

 requiring not more skill or trouble than cheese- 

 making or brewing. In France, raw or Musco- 

 vado sugar is not so generally used in that state as 

 in this country. It is more or less refined before 

 it comes into domestic use. 



The beet-root sugar-makers on the large scale, 

 refine their sugars, therelore, and j)roduce sugar 

 which, for whiteness and l)eauty, is unequalled by 

 the refined sugar we produce from West India raw 

 or Muscovado sugar. Bulk for hulk, however, the 

 refined West India sugar is sweeter than the re- 

 fined beet-root sugar ; but, weight for weight, they 

 are equally sweet. A lump of refined beet-root 

 sugar of the first quality is lighter than a lump of 

 equal dimensions of refined West India sugar, pro- 

 bably [jecause it is more pure and free from extra- 

 neous matter; but a pound weight of beet-root 



