536 Transactions of the American Institute. 



The leaves and crowns of the beet-roots (harvested for sugar-mak- 

 ing) are piled close to a tub containing hydro-chloric acid diluted 

 with water to four degrees of Beaume hydrometer. The leaves are 

 placed in baskets (of such size as, when filled, to be easily handled by 

 one man or two boys), and these are plunged in succession into the 

 tub. After this immersion in the acid bath, which is made as brief 

 as" possible, the baskets are placed on wooden supports over an 

 inclined channel or trough, which conducts the excess, of liquid, as it 

 drains from the leaves, back to the tub. After a short time the leaves 

 may either be taken direct to the trench where they are to be buried 

 for preservation, or placed in a heap for further and subsequent atten- 

 tion. To wilt the leaves, they are laid in heaps as soon as they come 

 from the acid bath, each heap containing about a wagon-load, and are 

 allowed to lie for two or three days before removal. They are then 

 closely packed in a trench or pit, care being taken to heap them so 

 compactly that air shall be excluded from the interstices between 

 them. The heap in the pit is then closed over with earth, tightly 

 beaten down. In treating the leaves in the field there exists, of 

 course, the necessity of transporting the acid and water, but this 

 causes less trouble than the carrying of the unwilted leaves. The 

 quantity of water required may be materially reduced if, instead of 

 making the heaps for wilting on the ground, use is made of a plank 

 platform or floor so arranged as to cause the liquid draining from the 

 heaps to return to the soaking tub. This draining should be allowed 

 to continue for two or three days, the same as when the heaps are 

 made upon the ground. As a portion of the moisture natural to the 

 vegetation is drained oif with that originally derived from the bath, 

 it dilutes the latter, so that it is necessary to add more acid. When 

 this plan is adopted, the bath should be kept at a strength of about 

 six degrees of Beaume hydrometer. While the draining is in pro- 

 gress, the pits or trenches may be dug, and as soon as the surplus 

 liquid has passed oif, the pits should be filled and closed in. If this 

 is delayed, it will become more difficult, and it is always essential to 

 exercise great care in the work, for the reason that air allowed between 

 the leaves has always a hurtful effect upon them. The quantity of 

 acid used has been about one and one-half per cent of the weight of 

 the green leaves, 2,500 pounds of leaves requiring from thirty-seven 

 to thirty-eight pounds of acid, which costs in France about twenty- 

 five cents. As concerns the labor involved, two men and two boys 

 can work 20,000 pounds of leaves per day. Estimating the wages 

 of a man at forty cents and that of a boy at twenty cents per clay, 



