456 THE MANGOLD-WURZEL CROP. 



Dr. Voelcker remarks, that while the feeding value 

 differs but slightly from the average composition of the 

 fresh root, the proportion of both the water and the mine- 

 ral substances is in excess. This would indicate that the 

 long period for which it had been kept had had an un- 

 favourable effect upon the constitution of the root, as, 

 under the ordinary conditions of storing during the win- 

 ter, the proportion of water at the time of consumption 

 in the spring is invariably less than at the period of 

 storing them in the autumn. The increased proportion 

 of inorganic matter would also indicate that this, like the 

 water, had been occasioned by changes in the organic 

 constituents of the roots, by which their proportions were 

 diminished. On examining this inorganic matter it was 

 found to contain nearly 50 per cent, of common salt, 

 which would naturally suggest the question, whether 

 mangolds generally possess the property of keeping sound 

 when stored for so long a period, or whether the keeping 

 properties of the root in question were due to the large 

 proportion of chloride of sodium it contained. Dr. 

 Voelcker appears to incline to the opinion that the char- 

 acter of the manures which are used for mangolds has a 

 material influence on their composition, which no doubt 

 must affect likewise their keeping qualities. 



Some idea of the importance attached to the mangold 

 crop on the Continent, may be gathered from the enor- 

 mous consumption of mangolds and of the sugar-beet for 

 sugar and distilling purposes. From the official returns 

 for the past year (1858-9), of one country only (France), 

 we find that the make of sugar amounted to 132,651 tons, 

 the production of 359 factories, while there were, at the 

 same period, upwards of 200 distilleries at work, consum- 

 ing 2500 tons of roots in their daily operations. 1 For the 



1 In Russia (1850) the make of beet-root sugar was 35,000 tons ; in the Zoll- 

 yereiu (1851) it amounted to 43,000 tons, having doubled itself in the last three 



