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newspapers and others usually indulge too much in generalities ; 
they, and all of us, know how absolutely necessary it is to get all 
we can from the soil, but they do not sufficiently indicate what 
we should grow—my intention is now to point out those crops 
I think should be tried. 
Sugar Beer. 
First and foremost among crops not grown here—and which I 
feel convinced would pay well to cultivate—is this most valuable 
root. It is about 30 years since the press of Melbourne and a 
few of our public men first directed attention to the importance 
of sugar beet. At that time cane sugar was the common staple 
article all over the world. Sugar produced from the beet root 
was very small ; in fact, the industry was then only beginning to 
develop. In 1868 the total yield in all Europe of beet sugar was 
only 650,000 tons. In 1889-90 the yield in Europe alone was 
no less than 3,543,107 tons. California—with soil and climate 
similar to our own, but with a little less rainfall—is now, after 
considerable opposition from those connected with the established 
cane-sugar indusiry, growing the root largely. In 1890 3,250 
tons of crystallized sugar’ were produced; but in the very next 
year (1891) this quantity increased to 10,350 tons from three 
factories, and two more factories were in course of building. 
In the whole of the states of America they are now manufacturing 
something like a million tons of.this sugar annually. The pro- 
duction of cane sugar is gradually diminishing, thé total yield for 
1890 being, according to Hayter, 2,676,500 tons, or a trifle more 
than half the quantity made from beet. The wonderfully rapid 
increase in the production of beet sugar is, of course, owing to 
the large subsidies paid by Germany, France, Belgium, Russia, 
and other European countries. Some 20 or 25 years ago a 
commencement was made in this colony to grow this root and 
manufacture it into. sugar. As far as the growing of the root 
and its conversion into sugar were concerned the experiment was 
successful, yet the enterprise came to grief, if I remember rightly 
the causes being want of sufficient capital, proper management, 
and the lack of the necessary scientific skill to make the venture 
a success. The quality of the article made was pronounced by 
experts to be equal to any imported. 
The history of the attempt to start this novel industry in 
Victoria was graphically given at a meeting of the Royal Com- 
mission on Vegetable Products some half-dozen years ago by Mr. 
Murray Ross, a gentleman who had sufficient faith in the practi- 
cability and remunerativeness of sugar-beet growing and manu- 
facturing the same to build, at a cost of some £50,000, that fine 
pile of buildings near the junction of the Gippsland and Mor- 
nington railways. This. gentleman stated to the Commission 
