AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



^ 



PUBLISHED BY GEORGE C. BARRETT, NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOI« XV. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 27, 1836. 



NO. 3. 



(From Clinplui's Agricultural Chemistry.) 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE BEET ROOT, 



AND THE EXTRACTION OP SUGAR PROM IT. 



(Continued.) 

 ON THE BEST METHOD OF KEI PING BEET ROOTS. 



Beets are affected both by cold and heat : they 

 freeze at a temperattire one degree below the 

 freezing point of water, and they germinate with 

 a degree of heat bnt httle above freezing : freez- 

 ing softens them and ilestroys their saccharine 

 principle, and they decay as soon as tliey are thaw- 

 ed. Heat developes the stalks of the necks of the 

 roots, and decomposes the juices which supply 

 their growth. During the first stages of germina. 

 tion, the alteration of the juices is only local, so 

 that if the neck of the root he cut nff, the remain- 

 der of it may be made use of without any incon- 

 venience. In order to keep beets, it is necessary 

 to preserve them both from heat and cold. 



The first care of the farmer must be, to have 

 his beets thoroughly dry before being housed. 

 The best way is to leave them in the fields til all 

 their dampness have evaporated. When, howev- 

 er, a large harvest is to be gathered in autumn, a 

 sufiicient number of fine days to effect this can 

 hardly be hoped for, and the roots must therefore 

 be stored for the winter in such a manner as will 

 be most likely to prevent decomposition. 



I have an immense barn, where I pile up my 

 beets to the height of seven or eight feet. I make 

 use of no other precaution than that of forming 

 against the surrounding walls a layer of straw or 

 broom, which rises as high as the pile of roots ; 

 when the frosts set in, I cover the pile over with 

 straw ; and in this way I have for ten years pre- 

 served my crops of beets uninjured by them. It 

 has however happened two or three times, that 

 the roots began to germinate with so much ener- 

 gy, that I was fearful they would become decom- 

 posed. In these cases, I unstacked and spread 

 the beets, and thus arrested the process of vege- 

 tation. 



Some farmers leave their beets in tlie fields. In 

 order to preserve them, they dig a trench in a dry 

 Boil, giving the bottom a gentle slope, that water 

 may flow off easily. This trench they fill with 

 the roots, and cover it over with a bed of earth a 

 foot thick ; upon this they throw heath or broom, 

 to prevent the rain from penetrating. Some line 

 the bottom and sides of the trench with straw or 

 beath. 



Instead of being put into trenches, the digging 

 of which is always expensive, the beets may be 

 preserved in the fields by forming heaps of them 

 upon a dry soil, and covering the tops and sides 

 with layers of earth ; or they may be covered 

 over with a roof like the one heretofore described. 

 This method of preserving roots may be emi)loyed 

 when there is no suitable storehouse for them ; or 

 when the means of com eying them to one in au- 

 tumn are wantine. 



ON THE EXTRACTION OF SUGAR FROM BEETS. 



I shall not here describe the numerous difficul- 

 ties that have been encountered before arriving at 

 stire methods and certain results. I shall confine 

 tnyselfto the description of the simplestand mo^t 

 advantageous processes that are employed at this 

 time ; and I will draw my examples from my own 

 practice, enligfhtened as it is by twelve years of 

 experiment and observation, I have successfully 

 executed all the known processes ; and I have 

 tried all the improvements that have been sug- 

 gested : I have myself regulated and improved 

 some of the processes ; and I shall describe only 

 such as I have proved and confirmed. 



ON THE PREPARATION OF THE ROOTS. 



Before subjecting the beets to the teeth of the 

 rasp, they must be carefully freed from all the 

 earth which they bring with them from the fields. 

 The necks, and any portion that has begun to de- 

 cay, must be cut off, and the radicles removed from 

 the surface. 



In many manufactories, nothing more is done 

 to the roots than to wash them. But this opera- 

 tion cannot be conveniently practised in all places, 

 and I have therefore dispensed with it as a pre- 

 liminary ; nor have I found any bad effect to arise 

 from the omission of it. Eight women can easily 

 prepare 10,000 lbs. of the roots in a da)'. If the 

 beets are large and retain but little earth about 

 them, the same number of women can prepare in 

 the same time from 15 to 20,000 lbs. 



ON THE METHOD OF RASPI.NG THE EF.ET ROOT. 



The beets, when well cleansed, are submitted 

 to the action of a rasp, by which their fibrous sub- 

 stance is reduced to a pulp. The rasp is worked 

 either by a horse, or by a stream of water. The 

 rapidity of its motion should be erjual to fourhim- 

 dred revolutions upon its axis in a minute. 



The rasps used by me, are sheet-iron cylinders, 

 fifteen inches in length and twentyfour in diame- 

 ter, having their surfaces furnished with ninety 

 iron plates armed with saw teeth and fixed by 

 screws perpendicularly to the axis of the cylinder 

 and throughout the whole length of it. 



The beets being pressed against the rasp, by 

 means of a piece of wood held in the hand, arc 

 immediately torn in pieces. The Jjulp falls into 

 a box lined with lead, which is placed beneath. 

 The table upon which the beets destined to the 

 rasp are placed, is so near the instrument as to al- 

 low only sufficient space between for the passage 

 of the pulp. 



The operation of rasping must be conducted 

 expeditiously, otherwise the pulp begins to turn 

 brown, fermentation takes place, and the extrac- 

 tion of the sugar is rendered difficult. By the use 

 of two rasps, put in motion by the same horse, 1 

 have reduceil 5000 pounds of beets to a pulp in 

 two hours. The pulp should not contain any 

 portions of roots that have not been acted upon 

 by the instrument. 



Compression will not in any degree supply the 



place of ras|iing. The strongest presses can nev- 

 er extract from beets more than from 40-100 to 

 50-100 of their juico, whilst the pulp, if |iroperly 

 managed, will yield from 75-100 to 80-100. 



ON THE EXTRACTION OF THE JOICE. 



As fast as the pulp falls into the box placed un- 

 der the rasps, it is put into small bags made of 

 very .strong cloth woven of pack thread. These 

 bags are placed upon the plate of a good iron 

 screw press and submitted to a strong jiressure. 

 The screws arc after a time to be loosened, the 

 places of the sack changed, the pulp which they 

 contain shaken over, and the whole again submit- 

 ted to the action of the screw. 



Sometimes the pulp is fir.st acted upon by a cyl- 

 indrical press, by which about 60-100 of its juice 

 is extracted, and the operation is afterwards com- 

 pleted by means of the screw press. But 10,000 

 pounds of beets may be pressed in a day by the 

 last alone. 



The pressure should be continued till the pidp 

 will not moisten the hand when strongly squeezed 

 in it. The juice which flows from the press, ie 

 carried by leaden pipes into the boiler, where it 

 undergoes the first operation. Of this I shall 

 speak immediately. 



If an iron screw press is not to be had, a wine 

 press, a lever press, or a cylinder press will an- 

 swer the purpose. 



The operation of the press should be complet- 

 ed nearly at the same time with that of the rasp. 

 Everything that has been moistened with the 

 juice, must then be washed so as to be ready for 

 a new operation. The utmost cleanliness must 

 be preserved, otherwise the n.sps will become 

 rusty, the juice will change, and the boiling will 

 be rendered difficult. 



The juice extracted from beets, is not always 

 of the same degree of concentration. It varies 

 from 5 to 10 , ( = specific gravity of 1.036 to 

 1.075,) according to the size of the roots, the nature 

 of the soil in which they grew, and the state of at- 

 mosphere during vegetation. 



The juice oit'the large roots is less concentrat- 

 ed than that of the small ones. The juice of such 

 as grow in a light soil, and have been exposed to 

 heat and drought, marks 11 , ( = specific gravity 

 of 1.083 ;) but there is but little of it. The great- 

 er the specific gravity of the juice is, the greater 

 is the jiroportion of sugar contained in it ; and, of 

 course, the greater is the saving of labor in the 

 extraction of the sugar. 



ON THE PURIFICATION OF THE JUICE. 



As soon as the boiler which receives the juice 

 is one third full, the fire is kindled; and as the 

 juice continues to flow, the heat is raised to 65° 

 of Reaumur, (=180 3-4° of Fahrenheit.) I have 

 worked 10,000 poumls of beet roots per day, at 

 two operations of 5,000 pounds each. The first 

 began at 4 o'clock, A. M., and the other at noon. 

 The round boiler, which received the juice of one 

 operation, was five feet and six inches in diameter, 



