INTRODUCTION. ciii 



at a very late period in those countries where winter grain has to follow this crop is attended with 

 more than one disadvantage. Without speaking of the difficulties that are incidental to wet seasons, a 

 late seed time is generally unfavorable for wheat. To meet this difficulty Boussingault advises to take 

 up the beets at the period when it becomes necessary to prepare the land for winter seed ; that is to 

 say, more than a month before the present general harvest of the root. In doing so he relied upon the 

 interesting fact ascertained by Peligot in the course of his chemical researches, viz : that the composition 

 of the beet is identical at every age. In this premature or anticipated beet harvest a less weight of root 

 is of course gathered than would have been obtained at a later period ; but the nutritious power of these 

 roots are the same as they would ever have been. The grand questions to be determined were, 

 whether the root would keep or not, and whether the cattle would eat them from the pile as freely as 

 from the Held. All this was ascertained in the course of the winter ; the beet kept perfectly, and the 

 cattle eat it as freely as ever. The procedure to be adopted to secure a crop of beets of average weight 

 some considerable time before the usual period is simply to transplant earlier, but more closely, with 

 less space between the drills. If experience decides in favor of this method, a late and unfavorable seed 

 time for winter grain will be completely obviated. 



The beet which grows above the ground is best gathered with the hand; such as grow under 

 ground require to be loosened by running a plough along the drill. In Alsace it is the custom to take 

 away the leaves, and to trim the roots upon the ground ; the refuse thus obtained constitutes a con 

 siderable mass of manure, which it is well to plough in immediately. 



Cost of beet culture for tico anil a ftu/f drrt s iif good land in France. 



Ilent, taxes, interest $23 00 



Manure ..^i-aaas^, 26 00 



Two plouehinirs and two harrowiniw ...... i(.y~ &amp;gt; . rv.T?vv- , 17 20 



i b e o 

 Seeding /.V^. .. . .. 1 .-. , 3 GO 



[&amp;lt;-.* &quot;-9 T tf T&quot;l TJ &amp;lt;? Y ^f *&amp;lt;? &quot;J 



Weeding and delving - .,1 *i . V. i 7 00 



Digging and cartage ^ ^ 



84 00 



The production varies between sixty and ninety thousand pounds, and, consequently, the price of 

 one thousand pounds is from 95 cents to $1 40. The value of the leaves used as food for cattle saves 

 some accessary expenses. The leaves falling during the vegetation and the small roots left in the 

 ground represent about 9,600 pounds of manure. The leaves taken from the root vary from thirty to 

 thirty-six thousand pounds. These products are worth from $10 to $12. 



In France the product of each 110 pounds weight of beet is estimated at 4.56, or somewhat more 

 than four and a half pounds of white sugar. The amount of loss in the manufacture may be conceived 

 from the actual composition of the beet, which, by the process followed by Peligot to exhaust the dry 

 root by boiling it with alcohol of moderate density, appears to contain from 4 to 5, up to 9, 10, 11, and 

 nearly 12 per cent, of sugar. The analysis of Peligot has been confirmed by the experiments of Bra- 

 conriat, who found the white beet of Silesia to have a very complex composition, as the following table 

 shows: 



Water 83.5 



Sugar 10.5 



Cellulose and pectose 0.8 



Albumen, casein, and other neutral nitrogenized matters 1.5 



Malic and pectic acids, gummy and tatty matters, aromatic and coloring matters, es 

 sential oil, &c., &c 3.7 



100.0 



