GROWTH OF THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY. 91 



manufacture of an article of prime necessity, whose habitat has 

 been for a century in the tropics. 



The chemists have found that the four principal elements which 

 enter into plant-life are met every day, only under other names and 

 slightly different forms. Nitrogen in one form is the ammonia of 

 commerce. Potash is simply lye from wood-ashes. Phosphoric 

 acid is ground bones dissolved in acid ; and lime is seen every- 

 where. These represent the necessary nutrition of the beet-root 

 when the climatic conditions are favorable ; but if they exist in 

 insoluble combination, they will be useless in the economy of nu- 

 trition, or if in form suitable for similation, but excessive in quan- 

 tities, they will stimulate the plant to abnormal growth, unsuited 

 to its desired perfection. 



The scientists have shown us how to cultivate the beet for sugar- 

 making ; that soils charged with mineral salts are injurious to its 

 development for that purpose ; that, in fact, the beet easily absorbs 

 saline matters, while the alkaline salts constitute one of the 

 greatest obstacles to sugar extraction. They say new ground, or 

 that lately cleared of forest, should not be applied to the culture 

 of the beet, but the land used for this purpose should have been 

 under continued cultivation at least ten or fifteen years for the 

 removal of the nitrates and the organic matter containing nitro- 

 gen, which are always present in new soils, and exert an injurious 

 influence on the quality of the root. 



We now have elaborate tables of analyses of soils to show the 

 chemical composition of those most favorable to the culture, as 

 well as to the physical character which render them best suited 

 to the cultivation of the beet, their porosity and subsoil conditions. 



Unless the supply of the elements of plant-food is continuous 

 and regular, a purely sandy soil would be undesirable. If no 

 means are provided for the removal of surplus water which may 

 be found in a purely clay soil, or to so improve its condition as to 

 admit of free circulation of air as well as water, it will be too 

 heavy, and become absolutely useless. The same is true of purely 

 calcareous soil, since the same unfavorable conditions would pre- 

 vail, though perhaps to not quite the same extent. Such soils 

 would also be unsuited to the plant itself, because they would not 

 admit of the free progress of the tap-root nor of the lateral fibrous 

 roots in their search for nutrition. These conditions have a pow- 

 erful influence upon the ultimate yield of sugar from the surface 

 cultivated. 



But if the sandy soil be mixed with either or both of the 

 others, and with humus — pulverulent brown earth — in suitable 

 proportions, the conditions most favorable to the maintenance of 

 a regular and plentiful supply of food, the healthy condition of 

 the root and its consequent normal development will be assured. 



