486 Proceedings. 
ribs and white flesh. There is a variety of it which has a rose-coloured skin, 
leaves marked by purple-coloured ribs, but the flesh is white like that of 
the former. There is no difference in their sugar-yielding qualities. 
The average temperature of the continental beet-growing countries, and of 
the localities in England where beets are grown to advantage, ranges from 
62° to 65° Fahr. 
The average composition of the root of the sugar-beet of France, Belgium, 
and the Rhenish provinces, is theoretically nearly as follows :— 
Sugar ee ees oie eae ... 103 per cent. 
Gluten ne nae ss : 3 i 
Fibre ii <a ae aes io. oe A 
Water ES oe a! at we ene A 
100 
Practically the per centage of sugar extracted reaches about 8 per cent. But 
the proportion varies very much. Thus it is greater :— 
1. In small beets than in large. Chemical inquiry has proved that the 
proportion of sugar was larger, and of salt less, in beets not weighing more 
than three pounds. One per cent. of salt in the sap will render three per 
cent. of the sugar uncrystallizable. The best roots weigh on an average from 
one and a half to two and a half pounds each. 
2. In dry climates, and especially when the climate is dry after the roots 
have begun to swell. | 
3. When grown in light potato or barley soils than in heavy soils. The 
_ land should be well drained and capable of being cultivated to a depth of 
eighteen inches, 
4. In the part under than above ground. The tap root is the richest in 
sugar. i 
5. When manure has not been directly applied to the crop, as its contact 
with the plants occasions unequal growth, as well as infests them with various 
kinds of insects. Strictly speaking the manure should be worked into the 
ground some months previously to the seed being sown. Superphosphate of 
lime and bone-dust are the best manures for this root. 
It has been.proved that a crop raised by means of the direct application of 
manure contains more salt, and gives more uncrystallizable syrup, than when 
raised without direct manuring. At the factory where this was tested a 
larger price, therefore, was offered for roots grown upon land which had been 
manured during the previous winter ; a higher still for such as were raised 
after a manured crop of corn; and a still higher when after the manuring 
two crops of corn were taken before the beet was sown. 
__ In France and Belgium the crops gathered are from fourteen to fifteen 
