18.-I.J 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



571 



. dourer, one uu m.iui »^ «*» -™~ - — 

 *\rimilant of strong drinks, and winch, m its 



^^t moisture and W^^!?!. ^j^SI 



^i a man 1 

 jBle, if » n "> 



X of for a 



T2njnon assertion tliat nunger aoes not so soon come 



% C °fflin after a meal of Potatoes as after one of Oat- 



^V •. ■_ -.« «^^+£vTnrv*ililA T\w*nf nf Hia vnliifi of the 



Again* 1 



of weaker drinks, for there is no douht 



living exclusively on Potatoes requires very 



v drink. A labourer of mine *ome years 



me that he frequently never drunk any- 



week together, not even water. It is also 



rep 



of 



i^inass die result brought about so favourable to the 

 vLrsof Mr. Caird were in consequence of, and wholly 

 Zlndent on, the very great and disproportionate 

 wdth of Potato tillage on that farm, and the high 

 ,le value of this crop, /, M. Qoodifi Granard, 



to 



As you have given the substance of Dr. 



iifttf 2?' 



THE SUGAR BEET. 

 In a late Number of the Agricultural Gazette you have 

 Verted an article on the proposed manufacture of Beet 



§ -rtr in Ireland, such article being founded on the 

 ttjer read by Professor Hancock, at the meeting of 

 Si British Association. Dr. Hancock was bent on 

 mitmg down the movement, and his remarks were 

 ikiefly directed to Mr. Sullivan's pamphlet, the state- 

 ments in which, by a one-sided effort, he sought h 



controvert _ m . 



Umeock's remarks, you will of course, in a spirit of 



fcir-play, give Mr. Sullivan's reply, a copy of which I 

 hrewith enclose. When I tell you that the crops of 

 mptf Beet now growing in Ireland far exceed in 

 luxuriance those of Mangold Wurzel, you will admit 

 hit the prospects of the manufacture in Ireland are not 

 what Dr. Hancock seeks to represent them. Some 

 existing interests here will be affected by the production 

 of indigenous sugar ; and hence the secret of the oppo- 

 sition which has been raised in certain quarters against 

 k. As you can of course have no object in view but 

 the dissemination of truth regarding it, I feel assured 

 will readily give a place to the enclosed reply of 

 kr. Sullivan, who, in addition to a profound knowledge 

 of chemistry, is well acquainted with the manufacture 

 rf sugar on the continent, where he resided several 

 years. Mr. Sullivan s information is not therefore of a 

 speculative character. John Sproule> Superintendent of 

 m Beet Sugar Company in Ireland. Dublin, 87, Marl- 

 hrougk-street, A ugust 2 3. 



The following paper is an abridgment of the one 

 referred to above by Mr. Sproule. 



A short time since an abstract of a paper, entitled, " On the 

 Prospects of the Beet Sugar Manufacture in Ireland," by Pro- 

 fmor Hancock, appeared in your Paper, in which he comes to 

 the conclusion, that it is impossible to manufacture sugar in 

 tbi» country with any chance of success. Now, as I came to 

 precisely tbe opposite conclusion in the pamphlet upon the 

 lime subject which I publi&hed some months ago, and which 

 Dr. Hancock has done me tbe honour of drawing nearly all 

 «* calculations from, there evidently must be error scnie- 

 Where. I examined the subject frbm five principal points of 

 Tiew— 1st, the unsuitability of Ire and to be a great corn 

 growing country • 2 ndly, its adaptation to be a root- growing 

 £° e ; 3<Uy, that it is profitable to grow Beet for the manufac- 

 ture of sugar ; 4 hly, that the per ctntage of sugar contained 

 in Irish-grown roots was at least equal to that contained in 

 those procuced on the continent of Europe ; and 5 hly, that 

 tne manufacture of sugar from Beet would be profitable in 

 Ireland, even when /exposed to the competition of all the 

 tropical sugar-growing countries. I shall now proceed to ex- 

 amine how far Dr. Hancock has observed both rules in his 

 cntiekm of the five points which I have put forward. Now. 

 now does he meet the- four first propositions already stated? 

 iJoes he show that the climate of Ireland is unfavourable to 

 tne growth of Beet ? Does he show that it is less profitable to 

 2? w lt ** tbe price which I have assumed than the usual 

 crops I Does he show by experiment that Irish-grown Beet 

 contains less su*ar than French ? No ; and *ill it be believed, 

 nis arguments are reducible to a few phrases, which may be 



■hi?? i? 8 ! No instigation had been made to show 

 wnetner the circumstances of production resembltd the north- 

 ■Mt or the nonh-west of France, and the Bugar Beet had been 

 refer tn^T? 11 1D Ife,aud > tb ere were no statistics of prices to 

 n*r<» .?<• • • mode ot ar guing a question possesses the rare 

 itudi J ;h nglUallty ' and 8how8 that < he writer, it he has not 

 stud \T\ !k ? Ufe8tl(JD up^n Which he has written, has at least 

 haVL *h u Uman Datur * of those with whom he wished to 



tne character nf on Awnn i n *„ u« u„„ i.ft th<ia a f,«in 



turer gets n«» return ior an entire year tor that portion of his 

 capital embark* d in e<>st of raw material a»>«l expense of 

 manufacture, and jet I have shown a profit. Now, why is it 

 that Dr. Hancock did not take this estimate ! Could he tax v 

 with exaggeration ? I shall tell him why he did not take it 

 Because it did not suit him as well as the one which he has in 

 part taken, for he very cunningly avoided taking the whole. 

 At page 43 I gave an estimate by M. Paul Hamoir, of Valen- 

 ciennes, in which the produce is calculated at five different 

 rates— thus, at 4$, 5, 5 1 , 6, and 6 J per cent., the object intended 

 being to show among other things the influence of an increase 

 in produce of j per cent, on the manufacturer's profit. Now, it 

 is very singular that Professor Hancock took the lowest calcu- 

 lation — that is, 4$, the produce obtained 20 years ago. lt is 

 no wonder, therefore, that under free trade, where the price 

 will fall to 2»s. or 30^. per cwt., such a yield would not pa\. I 

 shall tell the doctor a fact, namely, that in the time of Napo- 

 leon the Btet sugar could not compete with foreign J-ugar, 

 although it paid no duty, and sugar was 6 f. the lb. Hid be 

 lived in those days, he would have laughed at the man who 

 would venture to assert that it would one day or other drive it 

 from the market. Is Professor Hancock aware of the tact that 

 6 to 6J per cent, of refined sugar can be obtained at present 

 from the Beet, not by any new untried processes, but by pro- 

 cesses in full operation in many continental establishments — 

 thus, for instance, in the establishments of Messrs. Serret, 

 Hamoir, Duquesne, and Co., who supplied the comparative 

 estimates relied upon by the professor, 7 per cent, of raw 

 Sugar, equivalent to at least 5j per cent, of refined sugar, is 

 obtained. In the Beet-root su>;ar manufactory of G >tha, ac- 

 cording to the statement of the director, Herr Matthai, the 

 produce for the years 1840 — 1848 was 6.8, 6 8, 7 4 per cent. In 

 the Baden establishment at Wagbausel, one of the best con- 

 ducted in Europe, according to official statements, the mean 

 produce has been 8 per cent, of raw sugar. Now let us givs 

 the doctor's calculation, substituting a produce of 6 per cent, 

 instead of 4$, and we shall have as follows : — 



The price of 61.607 tons of Beet, at 15#. fcJ. per ton £46,080 

 Cost of manufacture , ,. 8u,iK)Q 



Barley : not 



•«• 



M« 



MaMng a total outlay of 



. ■ ♦ 



sell for 



short 



• t ■ 



• • i 



• •« 



•• 



'•• 



...jC-85,980 

 ... 108,488 



Giving a balance in favour of the ma- 

 nufacturer of. ...£22,5^8 



But there is really no necessity of arguing the q lestion in 

 this way, and Dr. Hancock knows it too well. The simplest 

 way to show the mode in which he has diverted the question, 

 and the total absence of any numerical facts of his own, is to 

 state that 15 tons of roots yield 1 ton of sugar, and that upon 

 that supposition the following estimate would represent tne 

 profit : 



To 15 tons of roots, at 15*. per ton v , ... .,.£11 I 

 Cost of manufacture, say at 9J. per ton 9 



Total cost 



* t • 



• • • 



• • • 



• • • 



...j6T20 5 



The produce would be 1 ton of sugar, at 28s. per cwt. 28 

 Deduct expenses 20 6 



aracter of an oracle. As he has left these four 



En i k.°£.!? : lhe five . advanced by me untouched, I shall imitate 



abject w 

 as the price of Beet-root likely to be 



p — . — w — ■ 



or two phrases. Dr. 



him hYT; • ve advanced by me unt< 



Hanrlfc T""* the * ub J ect with one 



to a^ri« «? f Wbat Was the **• ° f ] 



Sm 11 v ° f * earfi W Ireland?" And as nobody answered 



uiuj, wny has he not favoured us with his notions upon the 



threat It *«»vi44v;\a us wim juio uvuvuo u±>\ju uic 



aW.Tui n u 6Carcel y tfe " my readers that it will mainly 



«mi S°° pric6 of corD » and u P° n the competitor 



T w u tdrujers in the neighbourhood of a sugar works 



* nave 8U0WO that to irrnw Ri-ot Um AB nn.«fi^Ki a ♦l/o*. ♦/% «^« 



Giving a balance of profit of j£7 15 



In this estimate I have not included the pulp or molasses, 

 and have assumed the cost of production per ton at the very 

 highest sum paid in any manufactory in Europe, and}et ihere 

 remains the very handsome protit of 11. 155. per ton ! I shall 

 now leave the public to judge how far Dr. Hancock has suc- 

 ceeded in proving the impracticability of establishing a great 

 branch of industry in this country. 



It may not be unimportant to notice here a few facts rela- 

 tive to the present condition of the sugar manufacture in 

 tropical countries. According to the enemies of native 

 industry, one would imagine that the manufacture of cane 

 sugar w-is in the most primitive condition, and that as soon a- 

 the processes were improved by which it was extracted the price 

 of sugar would fall to such an extent that no imiigenous^sugar 

 could be profitably produced, unless under the most extraordi- 

 nary protection. There can be no greater mistake. Although 

 it is true that the cane sugar producers have done very litiie :o 

 improve their proctSbes, jtt, by borrowing fc\ m the Bett root 

 sugar manufacturers, the manufacture of cane sugar has 

 arrived at nearly as great a state of perfection as that of 

 Beet sugar. Eighty-two per cent, of the juice of tbe caue can 

 now be obtained, and it is by no means probable, fnm the 

 nature of the canes, that it will ever pass that per centage 

 with economy. AlObt of the sugar-growing countries are now 

 provided wiih the most approved apparatus, lhe one firm « f 

 Dtrosne, Le Call, and Co., of Faris, have put up, Muce 1837, 

 apparatus in Bourbon, Guadaloupe, Martinique, Cuba, 

 Surinam, Demerara, and Java, capable of manufacturing 

 480,500 cwt. of sugar. And, since 1»81, the great firm of 

 Pontifex and Co., of London, and many o her English houses, 

 have been occupied in setting up similar apparatus in the 

 British colonies. It is, threfore, a great mistake to imagine 

 that the price of sugar can fall in future years to such an 

 extent is to render it impossible to manufacture sugar in 

 Europe, especially when it is recollected that the Btet sugar, 

 j from which has originated all the improvements in the manu- 

 facture of cane sugar, is itself very far from having reach 

 its limit of perfection. At a moment like tbi*, when it is the 

 duty of every Iiishman to assist, as far as he is able, all legiti- 

 mate attempts to encourage the establishment of manufactures 

 in this unfortunate country, is it not lamentable to find men 

 using the position and the influence which they po^ess to 

 damage a great enterprise? There is a wide uiff.renec 

 between the man who points out errors, into which the most 

 careful may fall, and who endeavours to supply new iacts, in 

 order to prevent the money of the country from being squan- 

 dered, and those wno, to gain a cheap reputation, take the 

 most inopportune moment to throw dUcreoit upon the sea e 

 ments of other* by a sjstem of special pleading, and with the 

 air of a prophet. William K. Sullivan. 



deny liimsoli the luxury of 3*. bed* and 5*\ dinMn^ 

 and he will be the gainer of enough to frank a number 

 of Ins men to London. M. S. 



The Harvest in 5 nth Hants. — Wheat : an arerag© 

 crop, but much " tailin":," caused by the »les of the 

 26th and 27th of July, which knocked the Wheat about 

 at a very critical period of its growth. ~ ' 

 sucli a promise as last year ; three weeks' heavy raius 

 retarded sowing, and when in the milk, dry weatner set 

 in, rain followed, and it recovered, but the crop will be 

 abort. On "shaly* lands it looks red and dried up f 

 rather than ripened. Oats : the crops of this cereal 

 very fine in most places. The heavy dews at night 

 during the earlier stages of its growth improved them 

 much ; whereas Barley did not derive the same corre- 

 sponding be fit the reason is obvious to a farmer* 

 Beans and Peas : the former "bloomed" well, but West 

 and South- West gales stripped the haulm and blighted 

 the crop ; in other places th plant was green and vigo- 

 rous, but the yield is not great, either of the winter or 

 spring varieties. Peas were, and are, a very fair crop, 

 the earlier sown particularly, but the pods contain % 

 maggot. Mangold Wurzel : iu some places the fly or 

 " flea" injured the young plant ; bu* three W ks' drought 

 in July flaye this crop the hardest blow. The April 

 sown look best, and some sown late in May. upon sandy 

 loams, are getting on, contrary to expectation. But the 

 crop for the most part is a failure. Swed< the early 



sown look the best ; and win re they had tbe svjvantajo 



of storms look very fine—hut in n iy plan s tin Swedes 

 after " brairding " were carried off by the fly, which has 

 been more busy this year than ever waa known. The 

 late sown are a regular plant, and ii j rope rly hoed and 

 attended to after harvest ma v. in these warm a I 



9 T 



southern climes, prove a fair crop. Potatoes : early 

 sown good and free from disease— late sorts unuu< stiou- 

 ably stricken. X. Ft %h Hants. 



\Vhcat Dibbling. — In the first week of September last 

 I dibbled a plot of ground with Wheat, at the rate of 

 about 2 pecks per acre, on a strong soil in good heart, 

 after Potatoes ; the distance between the rows was from 

 10 to 12 inches. On account of the ground being very 

 dry and rough it came up irregular, but so soon aa rain 

 came it changed its appearance, and before winter it 

 tillered out into large tufts, running horizontally on the 

 ground, or spreading out on all sides. Through tho 

 winter and spring it looked healthy and vigorous, and 

 was admired by all who saw it ; but I did not altogether 

 like its appearance, on account of its being too thick, 

 and before it came into ear it became too luxuriant and 

 flaggy ; and when the late heavy rains came it fell, but 

 on account of the stiffness of the straw it is not fallen so 

 close to the ground as to take damage ; it has heavy 

 long ears, and looks equ*J to 6 quarters to the acre. 

 In the second week of October last I dibbled a piece of 

 ground adjoining the other with Kessingland Wheat, at 

 the rate of 2 pecks per acre, and 1 2 inches between the 

 rows ; it came up very well indeed, but many of the 

 plants were eaten off by the slugs, \<\, and it looked SO 

 miserable during the winter, that it had more tho 

 appearance of a fallow field than a piece of young 

 Wheat. In the spring, so soon as the ground became 

 dry enough, I stirred the soil between the rows ; it 

 immediately began to improve, and after being well 

 hoed three or four times, it soon covered the ground, 

 and was the surprise of all who saw"it. I never saw a 

 finer crop than it now is. The ears are very heavy, and 

 most of them measure from 5£ to 6| inches long. It 

 has the appearance of yielding at the rate of 6 \ «jrs. to 

 the acre. The Kessingland is more prolific and stouter 

 of the straw than the sort with which I dibbled the other 

 piece. There is also another incident which I wish par- 

 ticularly to mention respecting the two crops, i. c., tho 

 crop dibbled the first week in September was dibbled 

 dry ; the crop dibbled the second week in October 



was vitrioled. The September sown is free from 



blight and smut ; the October sown has in it 

 about 3 per cent, smut ears ; the two pieces are side 

 by side, and how to account for the one piece baipg 

 smuttv and the other not, I do not know, except it be 

 the difference in the time of sowing. There are several 





Wh«t T D to grow Beet is more profitable than to grow 



Franc* ** , ?? t J rblch is well known on the continent. Thus, in 

 flnn»M *nicn may be considered a good corn country, the 

 with Wfc? mat , e ?* et at n L P« r 1( >00 kilogrammes on a par 

 ffianv nf!f a / U f * per bectolitre, and as th e farmers receive in 

 for thfit I tbe north of Fr ance 18 f. per luoO kilogrammes 

 tbtv vll ■' and onIy 13f - P er hectolitre for their Wheat, 

 •* *ery rationally consider the Beet the better of the two 



find ilnt £*' u r doe5 not re quir© to be a political economist to 

 intere.t a farmera will in every country seek their own 

 tbat In a ? cultlvate th *t crop which pays them best, and 

 toare UfYk i C( m P e tition vf ill spring up between them for a 

 which rnn7,\ ge f profit to be deiived from growing Beet, 

 trand Twv * p e price dow n» Now I come to the doctor's 

 BeetinTri* °I„ attack — Is *- profitable to make su-ar irom 

 Otttljto J . h X do not know really whether I ou^hc seri- 



it U in r, , v V. ur t0 a n»wer this part of the doctor's paper, as 

 *1 of mT n a ? lttorUd Picture of the whole subject. At page 



manuiac f r l * give a fttatement of tbe probable co»t of 



°&t the m Ur * jteet-root sugar, in which I endeavour to make 

 *&us I t «l un v faVoura ble case possible for the manufacturer. 



Hry nearly -T Prtce 0t Beet at the avera £ e of France, or 

 toa of iiiiAr , ,ar 8 e 9i - as tn © expense of manufacturing one 

 c»t>ital ftt ■ 3 !Ji taUe lne P ri>d uce at only 5 per cent., the fixed 

 q^red thA • * hat l am i,a a P^itiou to prove is now re- 

 *«ely to tp "ui ° f lhe * u S* r at the i° we 8t sum which it is 



Edpat ono/ii? ,' mau y jears, and the ptice of the residual 

 * fran^A 7n rhe pnce 8tafed b ^ oae of ihe first autUuriii 

 ce {i) un**) ; and, tinaily, I assume that the mai 



ies 

 ufac- 



Home Correspondence- 



Th* Exhibition.— -Harvest over, now is the leisure 

 time of farmers. If anyone is disposed to lend a hand 

 to the more deserving young men of his village, who 

 are no doubt desirous of seeing the Lxhibition, perhaps 

 my experience may be of use to him. I went up with 

 five others, paid for their return Uckets, ^nd found 

 them lodgings. We lodged at the chambers of the 

 Metropolitan Association, in Albert-street, Mile-end. 

 We were away from Monday morning till Saturday 

 night: the whole cost to me, including ail my own ex- 

 penses and those I have mentioned of the others, 

 together with occasionally the cost of the whole party 

 in seeing shilling sights, was 61. 10*. The return 

 rsion tickets cost 9s. 8£ each ; and we were com- 

 fortably lodged. Contrast this with my experience of 

 the next week, when my expense from lues'lay 

 morning till Friday night, to the Cattl how at W indsor 

 and thence to the Crystal Palace again, were exactly 

 61 10s. for myself alone, owing to the higher charges ot 

 fir^W hotels and ordinary trains. Let any one then 







crops of Wheat in this parish dibbled with your 

 machines, all of which I have inspected ; they are all 

 good except one, which was dibbled at the rate of 

 2 bushels per acre. The others are stiff of the straw, 

 less lodged, better headed, and are altogether decidedly 

 better than the drilled and broadcast sown. I grew 

 Barley in the year 1849 at the rate of 80 bushels per 

 acre ; 1 believe my crop this year is nearly as good. 

 My winter Beans were dibbled in October ; they are 

 very good. 1 have proved your cultivator to be a very 

 superior implement to be used amongst all crops sown 

 in rows. I have this year frequently used it in stirring 

 the soil between my Potatoes, Swedes, &c, to the depth 

 of 7 or 8 inches. I find that from frequently stirring 

 the ground, it greatly improves the crop. William Griffin, 

 Eydon, Da try : To Dr. S. Newington, 36, Wellington- 



9quar<, /fastings. 



Rape. It was my practice to grow yearly a few acres 



of Rape for sheeg feed, on land intended for Wheal ; it 

 answers two purposes — first, feed for sheep, and 

 secondly, the Wheat crop is much the better for it ; but 

 it requires caution on the part of the shepherd, or the 

 sheep will be blown. I have generally had it mown m 

 the morning (and sometimes sprinkled with salt), what 

 was intended for the sheep to feed on in the evening, 

 but I think with every attention there i ome danger 

 in feeding off Rape-if the crop is good, more particu- 

 larly. I "have been led to make these remarks on read- 

 ing" J. D.V communication on the culture of Rape, 





