466 AGRICULTURAL MANUFACTURES. 
Since that period, not only has the manufacture recovered itself, 
but it has been firmly established amongst the industrial pursuits of 
the country, as one of its most profitable branches of commerce and 
of rural economy. In 1829, Count Chaptal, who was the most ex- 
tensive grower of beetroot and manufacturer of sugar, being at the 
same time an eminent chemist and agriculturist, published his pro- 
cess in a work entitled Chimie appliquée 40 Agriculture. From that 
period the manufacture has steadily advanced; and such have been 
the improvements effected in the processes, that the quality of the 
produce now equals that from the West Indies, except that a slight 
taste of the beetroot still remains. This, however, does not apply to 
the refined or loaf sugar, which is perfectly free from any taste of the 
root. There are now in France, according to Lavergne, about 350 
sugar works, of which 150 are situated in the department of the 
Nord, to supply which 20,000 hectares (49,350 acres) of land are 
under beetroot ; producing an average of about 36 tons per hectare 
(or 15 tons per acre), which, if we reckon 14 tons of roots to each 
ton of sugar, yields about 51,430 tons of that article. 
With respect to the profitableness of the manufacture, the best 
proof of it is the vast extension it has taken, not only in France but 
throughout the Continent. For some years it was protected in the 
former country by a high duty upon colonial sugar; but since the 
year 1852, the duties on indigenous and on French colonial sugars 
have been equalized, and the manufacture has been found quite capa- 
ble of standing the competition. The following statement is the 
actual result of an experiment, made at Tournay, in Flanders, of a 
patent process, upon 120,000Ib., or 53 tons 1lewt. 2qrs. 40lb. of beet- 
root, the net produce of sugar from which was 8400lb., or 7 per cent. 
of uniform quality : 
53 tons lqr. 40lb. beetroot, at 15s. per ton........... £40 3 6 
TMawour, CORIS, iC) scieis ee sma. spiel slals senses sea nlee s 39° HG 
Rent, interest, insurance, &C .....-eeeeeeeseereees 10 0 0 
Cartage, brokerage, GC .......0.seececeseneceeens Thalia tt 
£97 tee 
Deduct 45cwt. molasses, 88 ......e.eee £18 0 0 
xt 29 * pulp for cattle, 6s....... ic 6-.0 
e 9 “ skimmings, Is.........- Coy 
— 2515 0 
Cost of 3% tons sugar, ...e.eee dvscccens): tl 6) Ot 
or £18, 7s. 11d. per ton. 
