230 
NATURE 
[Fan. 19, 1871 

SUGAR 
Il. 
tee Beet-root (Befa vulgaris) is a native ot the 
south of Europe, and is said to have been introduced 
into England in 1656. It is a hardy biennial plant with 
reddish purple leaves and large fleshy roots, which in some 
varieties are long or spindle-shaped like a carrot, in others 
short and thick, almost like a turnip. The colour also 
varies, some forms being of a deep purple, while others are 
of adirty white witha purple tinge. Internally the beet-root 
is of a blood-red colour. It is well known with us both 
as a pickle and as a salad plant, but it is much more ex- | 
tensively used even for these purposes in Germany and 
France than it is in England. 
Numerous varieties of the beet are in cultivation, but 
one known on the Continent by the name of Betterave 
Sucre is extensively grown as a sugar-producing plant ; and 
the trade in beet-root sugar is a very important one 
throughout France, Belgium, Germany, and Russia. The 
bulk of the sugar consumed in these countries is furnished 
by this plant. Its cultivation for the produce of sugar has 
been more than once attempted in this country, but hitherto 
on too small a scale to be successful. Latterly, however, 
more attention has been paid to it, and more spirit and 
energy shown by those who have taken up the question 
towards overcoming obstacles that were at one time consi- 
dered insurmountable; but whether the results will con- 
tinue to prove remunerative remains to be seen. So long 
agoas 1837 arefinery solely forthe manufacture of beet-root 
sugar was established at Chelsea ; and many acres of land 






LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF SUGAR-CANE, MAGNIFIED 
in the neighbourhood of London were devoted to the culti- 
vation of beet. The discovery of the presence of sugar in 
beet was made in 1747 by a Prussian chemist named 
Margraaf, but his discovery was at first considered rather 
in the light of a scientific than of a practically useful 
character. It formed the subject of a communication to 
one of the learned societies in Berlin; and for several 
years afterwards the sugar so produced was considered 
an article of curiosity, and was consequently sold at 
fancy prices. Forty or fifty years elapsed before any 
experiments were made for the purpose of putting the 
discovery into practice, with the idea of extracting the 
sugar for actual use; these experiments however did not 
succeed, owing to the imperfect manner in which they 
were carried out ; and the beet sugar manufacture would 
possibly even then have resulted in utter failure, had not 
Napoleon I., by excluding British Colonial produee from 
France, rendered it necessary for some new method to be 
devised for supplying France with sugar. Prizes were 
offered and many plans submitted. The Government, 
however, gave its support to the beet as the most likely 
source of success. Experiments were again renewed, and 
the result proved satisfactory, so that by 1812 this branch 
of manufacture was, for a time, placed on a firm footing in 
France. In 1814, however, the French markets again being 

opened, large quantities of came sugar at once appeared 
from the West Indies, and beet sugar again fell into the 
background. A system of heavy and increasing duties 
continued to be levied upon colonial sugar till the year 1822, 
when the duty became so high as actually to amount to 
a prohibition to its entrance into French ports, and again 
the beet-root factories began to flourish. At the present 
time, or rather before the War broke out, hundreds of 
millions of pounds were made and consumed. Germany 
and France produce the largest quantity, Russia following 
close behind. It is, however, feared that the 300,000 tons 
of beet-root sugar, which was the estimated produce of 
France for 1870, will have been for the most part lost, 
owing to the interruption of the harvesting of the roots, 
and the consequent stoppage of the operations of the 
sugar factories. 
Like the sugar-cane, the beet varies in quality and in 
the quantity of saccharine juice, according to the climate, 
soil, and mode of culture. 
After the roots are dug up they are cleaned, usually by 
scraping them with a knife ; they are then either sliced or 
rasped, and reduced to a pulp, which is placed in canvas 
bags and submitted to high pressure, by which means 
the juice is expressed. The pulp undergoes a second and 
sometimes a third squeezing, so as to obtain all the sac- 
charine matter. This juice or liquor is then heated in a 
copper, and filtered and boiled with lime and water. A 
scum rises to the surface, which is taken off, and the 
juice is again boiled till it becomes of a proper consis- 
tency, when it is crystallised in a similar manner to cane 

TRANSVERSE SECTION OF SUGAR CANE, MAGNIFIED 
sugar. Beet-root juice as expressed is very clammy to 
the touch, is nearly colourless, has a strong disagreeable 
smell, and contains a larger quantity of nitrogenous 
matter than cane juice. It is capable of being clarified 
and refined, so that it is made almost, if not quite, equal 
in appearance to the most superior descriptions of lump 
or moist sugar prepared from the sugar-cane. 
“ Beet-root sugar is not only identical with cane sugar, 
but much of the Dutch lump sugar is actually the pro- 
duce of beet-root. The circumstance cannot be too much 
insisted upon, that the seeming distinction between 
yellow beet sugar and yellow cane sugar depends on the 
extraneous coloured matters present. These, when elimi- 
nated by refining, leave white materials in all respects 
identical. There is positively no difference between these 
two, whether of colour or of grain. Grain or crystals 
can be developed from either to the size of the largest 
candy if desired; in fact, large white crystals produced 
from beet-root are sent in quantities from France into 
this country to compete with London, Bristol, Scotch, and 
other crystal manufactories.” ; 
As beet sugar has become of late in more general use 
in this country, so has cane sugar found its way in large 
quantities on the Continent. The mixing of these sugars 
can scarcely be considered in the light of adulteration, 
except when an inferior kind of one is mixed with a 
superior quality of another. The perfect system of 
filtering adopted in the manufacture of beet-root sugar 
causes it to be much freer from extraneous matters than 

