INTRODUCTION. ci 



amount of sorghum molasses would have been produced, as there was a larger area planted than ever 

 before. The disastrous effect of the drought and early frost served to discourage many from planting 

 in 18G4 who would otherwise have engaged in the business. 



Sugar has not been made to any extent from sorghum, and thus far the difficulties in the way f&amp;gt; c 

 its manufacture, adverted to in our previous reports, have not been overcome. 



BEET SUGAR. 



Within the last three years the price of sugar has doubled, and it is not improbable that the pres 

 ent high price will be maintained for some time to come. 



Many trials have been made to manufacture an indigenous sugar, but, unhappily, the experiments 

 have not been made to any extent on the proper vegetable. The sorghum has been tried and proves 

 valuable for sirup, but the great difficulty in making sugar has not been overcome, and the high price, 

 of this article continues. 



We have been surprised that the cane has not yet been, to some extent, supplanted by the beet 

 which involves no trials for experiments, as this plant has been cultivated successfully for a long period 

 in France for this purpose, and the products obtained cannot be rivalled in beauty or exceeded in 

 quality by the product of the cane. 



The attempts which have been made to manufacture sugar from beets in this country have, as a 

 general rule, till a year or two past, proved unsuccessful, probably owing to the fact that the experi 

 ments were tried on a small scale, with the rudest machinery. In France it is found that individual 

 farmers cannot successfully manufacture sugar from the beet. It is properly a manufacturing, and not 

 an agricultural process, one requiring a larger capital than most farmers are willing to invest. The 

 better method would be to establish factories and encourage farmers to raise the beets at established 

 prices per ton. In this way, with improved machinery, and the adoption of the more recent processes 

 of manufacture, we see no reason why beet sugar cannot be produced in this country with great profit 

 and advantage both to the manufacturers and the farmers. The climate of the southern and western 

 States is well adapted to the growth of the beet, and as large crops can be grown here as in France. 

 M. de Lavergne, in his recent work on French agriculture, states that the average production of beet 

 roots in the department of the Nord (where nearly half of all the sugar made in France is produced) 

 is sixteen tons per acre. By actual trial it has been found that 120,000 pounds of beet-root will pro 

 duce 8,400 pounds of sugar, or seven per cent., and 5,030 pounds of molasses. At this rate an acre oi 

 beets of sixteen tons would make 2,240 pounds of sugar, besides molasses. 



The industry of beet sugar, so far as concerns the vegetable, is essentially agricultural, and this 

 country would appear to combine all the conditions of success. 



Beet-root sugar was formerly made in occasional instances in different parts of the northern States, 

 but never in such a quantity as to find a place in the returns of the census. Within the last two or 

 three years some attention has been given to the cultivation of the sugar-beet in Ohio and in Illinois. 

 And there seems to be no doubt that sugar can be made in this country from the beet with consider 

 able profit at present prices. 



In addition to the sugar and molasses, there is another important item of profit the leaves of the 

 beets and the refuse pulp. Both can be used as food for cattle, and it must be borne in mind that as 

 nothing is removed but sugar, all the mammal elements of the crop are left for the farm. The cultiva 

 tion of the beet-root, therefore, is one of the very best methods of increasing the fertility of the farm. 

 On this point M. dc Lavergne remarks : 



&quot;It was feared, in the first instance, that the cultivation of the sugar-beet would lessen the production of cattle and wheat 

 by occupying the best, laud. But this fear was ill-founded, at least relative to the best cultivated regions. It is now demon 

 strated that the manufacture of sugar, by creating a new source of profit, contributes to increase tin: other products of the soil. 

 The extraction of the saccharine matter deprives the root of only part of its elements. Its pulp and foliage supply the animals 



