AGRICULTURAL MANUFACTURES. 463 
AGRICULTURAL MANUFACTURES. 
* BY S. COPLAND. 
(From the Journal of Agriculture, July, 1861.) 
The discovery of sugar in the plants of Europe is of modern 
origin, dating not farther back than the middle of the last century. 
It was in 1747 that M. Margraaf, a Prussian Chemist, made this 
discovery in analysing the Silesian beet-root, and the fact was com- 
municated by him to the scientific world, as one of the curiosities 
of nature, but not as likely to lead to any beneficial practical re- 
sult. It made some noise at the time amongst men of science, 
and without any immediate important action. Like the discovery 
of steam power, the electric telegraph, and many other useful inven- 
tions, it was kept in abeyance for half a century, and only brought 
out into public notice and utility through a political necessity. 
About the close of the last century, France had been denuded of 
most of her sugar colonies. Domingo, the principal one, had be- 
come free by the insurrection of the slaves, who had cleared the 
island of their former masters, and would no longer make sugar. 
This alone deprived France of a supply of upwards of 150,000,000 
pounds per annum of that condiment; other of the colonies had 
been wrested from her by the British, and so low was the supply 
of sugar reduced, that the French chemists were directed by the 
Government to investigate the subject of indigenous sugar, and see 
whether the discovery of Margraaf could not te turned to national 
advantage. One of the chemists thus employed, M. Achard, also 
a Prussian, stimulated by the high price of sugar on the Continent, 
and by the proposed rewards of the French Government, directed 
his attention solely to this subject. He published a treatise on the 
cultivation of the Silesian beetroot, and the mode of manufacturing 
sugar therefrom. Such, however, was the imperfection of the pro- 
cesses then used, that not only was the product so small as to amount 
to only 33 per cent, but the quality of the sugar was such that no- 
thing but the necessity of the case would have tolerated its use. 
From this period the attention of the people of continental 
Europe was directed to the subject. In France, the Government 
ordered that 100,000 hectares should be devoted to the cultivation 
of the sugar or Silesian beetroot, and the highest encouragement 
was held out to those who should most promote the native industry. 
