28 NATURE 
[MarcH 14, 1912 
engine, and the pages dealing with leakage to 
exhaust are very good. 
The testing of internal combustion engines is 
an up-to-date review of work which is being done 
by the British Association Committee, and also 
includes gas producers, the Diesel type, &c. The 
chapter on refrigeration tests is helpful, but, as the 
author would probably admit, it is very difficult to 
get all the conditions steady enough to make the 
tests as satisfactory as could be wished. The 
testing of water-turbines and pumps complete the 
book, which is the more valuable for a carefully 
compiled index at the end. As we stated above, it 
is a book which is needed, and we can heartily 
recommend every student to place it on his work- 
desk. It is comprehensive, but it deals very 
thoroughly with the most general types of engines 
and boilers. The illustrations are good and plenti- 
ful, and we conclude by congratulating the author 
on producing such a practical treatise. 
A. J. M. 
GROWING OUR OWN SUGAR. 
Sugar Beet: Some Facts and Some Illusions. A 
Study in Rural Therapeutics. By ‘“‘ Home Coun- 
ties” (J. W. Robertson-Scott). Pp. xx. +424. 
(London: Horace Cox, “Field” Office, 1911.) 
6s. net. 
HIS work is based largely upon articles pub- 
lished in The Field and The Times during the 
years rgro-1r, and is essentially an examina- 
tion of the arguments for and against the pro- 
posals to establish a beet sugar industry in this 
country. “There are those,” the author remarks, 
“who hail sugar beet as the saviour of the country- 
side; and there are those who are sure that the 
notion of growing our own sugar at a profit is 
preposterous.” For each of these classes he has 
collected a large number of “facts,” and to some 
of the former he indicates what in his judgment 
are “illusions.” 
That sugar beets can be grown here, and of as 
good quality as on the Continent, hardly needed 
demonstration. What did require investigation 
was whether, in all the circumstances, it was worth 
our while to do it. 
The author examines this question step by step. 
He describes the chief experiments that have been 
made in this country, from the Lavenham venture 
some forty years ago to the East Anglian trials 
made under Dutch auspices in 1910. In these 
trials, it may be mentioned, more than three 
hundred acres were planted with beet intended for 
exportation to Holland, and the quantity registered 
as actually exported was 3909 tons. This weight, 
however, is untrustworthy, as it includes a large 
proportion of adherent soil. The factory pur- 
NO. 2271) VOL. 89] 
chasing the roots pays upon the weight of the 
cleaned beets only; and heavy deductions had to 
be made from what the farmers supposed to be 
the weight of their crops. Probably one of the 
“illusions ” indicated in the title arose from cal- 
culations based upon a crop yield which, for the 
reason mentioned, might be over-estimated as 
much as 10 to 50 per cent. Whilst average crops 
of more than 20 tons per acre have been talked 
about in this country, the cold fact remains that on 
the Continent in 1910 the average yield ranged 
from 9:3 tons in France to 13-3 tons in Germany. 
For various reasons the East Anglian experi- 
ments were only moderately successful. The 
causes of this are indicated; and the author com- 
pares the results of these and other English efforts 
with the teachings of practical experience abroad. 
He quotes numerous reports, and generally gives 
chapter and verse for his carefully guarded con- 
clusions. These are, briefly, that a cooperative 
factory, growing its own beets, or a large pro- 
portion of them, would have the best chance of 
success; but that an ordinary factory, established 
after careful investigation, under good manage- 
ment, and with proper support from farmers in 
the vicinity, would have fair prospects; also that 
the introduction of the beet sugar industry would 
help in bringing about in rural England changes 
of some value agriculturally and sociologically, and 
is deserving therefore of sympathetic study. 
Owing, however, to the developed condition cf our 
agriculture, and also to the increasing competition 
of cane sugar, the benefit in England would not 
be likely to equal that obtained on the Continent. 
Of purely scientific interest there is very little 
in this “study in rural therapeutics”; but from 
the agricultural point of view it ought to do a 
good deal towards clearing away misconceptions. 
CaaS: 
COLLOIDS IN INDUSTRY. 
Die Bedeutung der Kolloide fiir die Technik. 
Allgemein verstandlich dargestellt von Prof. 
Kurt Arndt. Zweite Auflage. Pp. 46. (Dres- 
den: Theodor Steinkopff, 1911.) Price mk.1.50. 
LTHOUGH it is fifty years since the dis- 
A tinction between colloids and crystalloids 
was first drawn by Thomas Graham, it is only 
quite recently that the conception of colloid sub- 
stances has been extended beyond the ranks of a 
few specialists to possess some meaning for the 
public at large. Almost as recent and remarkable 
in its suddenness has been the feverish eagerness 
with which the properties and behaviour of colloids 
have been investigated. In Germany, there are 
several journals devoted entirely to colloid 
chemistry, as well as text-books of every variety. 
