THE PRODUCTION OF BEET-SUGAR. 



205 



decade, which have been important agencies in making it possible 

 to manufacture beet-sugar at a profit. The method of extracting 

 the sugar from the beet-root is entirely unlike the one usually 

 employed in manufacturing sugar from the cane-plant, but the 

 principle of the former is equally applicable to the latter, and 

 will probably be generally adopted when the cane-sugar manu- 

 facturer can afford to replace his old mechanical system with 

 rotary diffusion batteries. 



The beet-roots are dumped, by the farmers, into large bins 

 about nine hundred feet long, capable of holding five thousand tons 

 of beets, from which they are dropped by adjustable traps into 

 a concrete ditch or canal, underneath the beet-house. This canal 

 is provided with descents of brickwork or metal gutters, through 

 which the roots are borne by the rushing water into the wash- 

 house, which constitutes the first stage of the factory. In the 

 wash-house is a large screw or raising wheel arrangement, by 

 which the beets are emptied into a hopper on the second floor, 



Pig. 5.— The Beet-Cutter. 



from which they pass into a large, drum-shaped iron cylinder, 

 called the wash-barrel, where the roots are thoroughly cleaned. 

 The washing of the beet is a very important operation in the 

 manufacture of the sugar, for the roots are thus freed from mold, 

 small stones, and other kinds of dirt attaching to them, which not 

 only saves the machinery employed in the actual preparation of the 

 beets from injury, but keeps the sugar ultimately obtained free 



