152 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SUGAR-BEET SEED BY CUTTINGS. 



Andreas Nowoczek, of Kaaden, Bohemia, has patented a process in 

 Germany for the production of improved sugar-beet seed by cuttings 

 from the mother beet. The process consists in taking the buds from 

 the axis of the leaves and cutting them out with as little as possible of 

 the flesh of the beet adhering thereto. These buds are treated with an 

 antiseptic to preveut them from decay and to prevent the ground worms 

 from eating them. The material chosen for the antiseptic is powdered 

 charcoal. These buds are planted in beds and produce beets of average 

 size which, it is claimed, have all the properties of the mother beet from 

 which they were taken. The beets as produced can be planted for seed 

 in the usual way. It is claimed for the process that the excellent quali- 

 ties of the mother beet are much better preserved by this method than 

 by the usual method of planting it for seed directly. 



LETTER FROM Mil. HENRY T. OXNARD ON THE PROSPECTS OF THE BEET-SUGAR IN- 

 DUSTRY IN TllE UNITED STATES. 



GRAND ISLAND, NEBR., 



November 7, 1891. 



DEAR SIR: I esteem it a pleasure and an honor to be able to write a few words 

 briefly regarding the development of the beet-sugar industry and the condition in 

 which it exists in the United States to-day. The beet-sugar industry has become 

 well established in Europe only within the last half century, and has become a great 

 factor in the world's sugar supply within the past fifteen years, so that to-day more 

 sugar is produced from beets than from all the other sugar-producing plants of the 

 world combined. This result has been brought about within the last fifty years by 

 the Governments of Europe, chiefly Germany and France, subsidizing and encourag- 

 ing the production of sugar to such an extent as to diminish the price of that article 

 at least one-half what it was ten years ago. The United States, as you well know, has, 

 within the past year, by a wise provision of the McKinley bill, offered a bounty of 2 

 cents per pound for a limited period for all sugar produced in the United States, and by 

 following the example of Germany and France can soon hope to become independent 

 of the rest of the world for the supply of its sugar, thereby keeping at home some 

 hundreds of millions of dollars sent abroad annually to enrich the farmers and manu- 

 facturers of foreign countries. The 2 cents given in the shape of a bounty by the 

 United States Government takes the place of the 2 cents which formerly existed 

 as a tariff' on the importation of sugar. The result of this legislation is, that the 

 price of sugar since the law went into effect has fallen 2 cents per pound, the 

 consumer paying just 2 cents less than a year ago, and at the same time the de- 

 velopment of the home industry has not been sacrificed, but encouraged, and that is 

 not the only advantage we shall derive, as each factory, similar to the one we have 

 built here, means an outlay of about half a million dollars, and the United States 

 will require about a thousand of such factories to supply it with sugar in 1900. The 

 building of these factories will start up the coal and iron mines as well as the ma- 



