Manufacture of Sugar from Beet-Hoot, 



145 



defective — agriculture had necessarily been mucli depressed bv 

 the unsettled state of the Continent — in some countries fiscal 

 regulations obstructed both experiments and improvements. 

 Now, however, these days are past, and it represents one of the 

 most flourishing and most important of all the manufactures con- 

 nected with agriculture. In Russia, Germany, Austria, Belgium, 

 aiitl France, the farmer is called upon each year to increase his pro- 

 duction of the raw material, and science is every day adding to 

 the beneficial consumption of it by the manufacturer.'^ 



In these countries beet is always looked upon as a fallow crop, 

 and is selected as much as possible for the more argillaceous 

 portions of the farm in that part of the course or rotation. Of 

 course there are various modes of growing it in different coun- 

 tries, dependent on the soil, the climate, and the requirements of 

 the markets. In all cases, however, it is considered good farming 

 to let it hoih follow nnd precede a straw crop. In the first case, the 

 stubble of the preceding crop being ploughed in has a mechanical 

 as well as chemical action on the soil, keeping it light and open, 

 and thus more accessible to the influence of the weather during 

 the winter, a matter always of importance on strong soils, but 

 particularly so in countries where the various accessory imple- 

 ments are not so readily obtainable as with us. In the second 

 case, the cultivation necessary to secure a good crop of roots — the 

 deep ploughing, the fine tilth, the hoeing, weeding, and stirring 

 the soil, and the peculiar mode of harvesting, all tend to leave 

 the land in a condition exactly suited to the requirements of a 

 grain crop. In all cases the preparatory tillage and condition of 

 the soil are carefully attended to ; the seed is sown as we sow it — 

 sometimes on ridges, but more commonly on the flat — by hand, 

 usually broadcast, or by dibbling. In the most improving dis- 

 tricts, especially in France ( Depart ement du Nord), a machine 

 is used for sowing it in drills. 



The same practice of steeping the seed is found to be advan- 

 tageous on the Continent as with us ; the wrinkled epidermis 

 absorbing sufficient moisture, by immersion for from twelve to 



* In Russia the entire consumption of sugar amounts to 85,000 tons, of Avhich 

 35,000 tons are made from beet-root. 



In Germany (the Zollverein\ in 1848 the quantity of beet sugar made yras 

 26,000 tons: in 1851 it had increased to 43,000 tons, the consumption of cane 

 sugar decreasing in the same proportion. 



Austria consumed about 40,000 tons of sugar in 1848, of -which 3,000 were 

 made from beet-root : this quantity ^vas doubled in 1850. 



In Belgium the consumption of sugar is about 14,000 tons, of ^-hich 7,000 are 

 made from beet-root, and the number'of establishments ^vere nearly doubled in the 

 last year, -which, of course, -will materially add to the rate of production. 



In France, the annual manufacture of beet-root sugar amounts to 60,000 tons, 

 ■which is about half of the quantity consumed, -with an increasing rate of pro- 

 duction. 



VOL. XIII. 



L 



