12 SUPPLEMENT. 



REPORT ON THE PRODUCTION OF BEET SUGAR AS AN 



AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



By Prof. Charles A. Goessmanx. 



Among the various saccharine substances, which chemistry 

 at present recognizes, are three of particular interest to the 

 agriculturist, namely, milk sugar, grape sugar, and cane sugar. 

 Milk sugar, which causes the sweetness of milk, is exclusively 

 confined to this peculiar animal secretion, and constitutes in 

 that of different animals from 3 to 9 per cent. Its application 

 in an isolated form is quite limited, and its manufacture carried 

 on mainly by the mountaineers of the Swiss Alps. 



Grape sugar or glucose, which gives sweetness to the grape, 

 is the most widely distributed of all saccharine substances. 

 Most of our cultivated fruits derive from it, at least in part, 

 their sweet taste. 



It is the only one among the sugars previously enumerated, 

 which we are able to produce by artificial means ; its commer- 

 cial importance, on account of its use for the production of 

 alcohol and alcoholic liquors, as wine, beer, etc., and of sirups, 

 is daily increasing. As our cheaper grains furnish the material, 

 starch, from which grape sugar is mainly manufactured, its 

 increasing production sensibly affects our home consumption 

 of corn. 



Cane sugar, which receives its name from its principal source, 

 the sugar cane, is the kind which we commonly employ for 

 houseliold purposes, and is consumed in enormous quantities ; 

 while the number of plants which furnish it is quite limited. 

 The sugar-cane, a few species of palm, the sugar-maple, the 

 sorghum cane and the sugar-beet, are the plants whicli are 

 turned to account for its manufacture. M. D. Dureau,in a re- 

 port on the World's Exhibition of 1867, mentions that of the 

 whole amount of sugar which has recently entered the various 

 markets, 66.47 per cent is produced from the sugar-cane, 27.87 

 per cent from the sugar-beet, 4.29 per cent from the palms, 

 and 1.24 per cent from the sugar-maple. The same authority 



