TO THE READER. 



As I am conscious I owe some apology to my Readers 

 for the crude compilation I am about to offer, I must beg 

 to be allowed a very few words in explanation. Having" 

 a property near Paris in 1830, it was my intention to.de- 

 vote it to the culture of the Beet, and there to establish a 

 manufactory of indigenous sugar, these undertakings were 

 already generally successful in France, and I then was, and 

 I still am, fully persuaded, that this eminently important 

 discovery, must sooner or later prove of inestimable value 

 to our country ; and that the experiment I was about to 

 make, might prepare me to assist at some future time in 

 its introduction. With these views, I collected such in- 

 formation from books and otherwise as I could ; but before 

 my project was matured, a Revolution suddenly burst upon 

 France ; every thing became unsettled there, and any 

 thing but encouraging for anew undertaking; I immedi- 

 ately renounced my intention, and determined to return 

 home. The project which I was forced to forego has ever 

 remained a favorite one, and nothing but an occasion was 

 wanting to induce me to call the attention of my country- 

 men to the subject of the following pages ; that occasion 

 has now arrived, a just sense of the advantages France is 

 gathering from her Indigenous Sugar manufactories is 

 fast gaining ground with us, information is eagerly sought, 

 and I am desirous (for want of better) to impart what little 

 I have been able to collect. In this town, the matter has 

 lately been taken up in the most spirited manner: some 



