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spective trades by the Iron and Steel Institute, the Institute of 

 Mechanical Engineers and other organizations. The English tex- 

 tile trade was sounded and the response was so favorable that the 

 work was continued and an organization perfected. The Institute, 

 in Manchester, is divided into nine sections, each devoted to a 

 department of textile work : Chemical, Cotton, Education, Engineer- 

 ing, Hemps and Jute, Linen, Silk, Woollen, Worsted. 



Sir WALTER GILBERT. Sugar beets in England. From The 

 Times, April 8, 1910. 



" I should like to offer a word of warning lest farmers be misled 

 into the belief that fortune awaits the grower of sugar beets in 

 England. 



" It is not to be denied that sugar beet has been successfully 

 grown in this country; but the success achieved has depended 

 entirely upon one particular factor, and that the most uncertain 

 one with which the farmer has to deal weather. 



" In that word lies the whole gist of the matter. Sunshine is the 

 first and indispensable condition for the successful production of 

 any plant from whose root, stem, or fruit it is sought to obtain 

 sugar. Without sunshine success cannot be hoped for; therefore, 

 our climate being what it is, to embark upon sugar beet cultivation 

 as an industry is to court disaster. 



" Numerous experiments, some on a large scale, some on a small 

 one, have been made during many years past. Within my own 

 recollection 40 years ago, a gentleman from New Zealand purchased 

 an estate not far from London on which he persevered in growing 

 beet (with the object of converting the sugar into spirit) until he 

 lost a large fortune. 



" A similar attempt to grow beet was made more recently at 

 Lavenham, in Suffolk; the result was the same. 



" These are merely examples. Some years ago, when the possi- 

 bilities of growing beet were more before the public than they 

 have been since, factories were established by companies or syndi- 

 cates in different parts of the country, in some cases to make sugar 

 from beet grown on their own land, in others to make sugar from 

 the roots it was hoped neighboring farmers would grow. 



" If any of those companies or syndicates are now in existence, 

 perhaps they will give the public the benefit of their experience. 

 I doubt much if any such remain. I do not wish to dogmatize on the 



