14 



BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY ON THE CONTINENT. [June 1896. 



BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY ON THE CONTINENT. 



II. 



A recent number of this Journal* contained some notes dealing 

 with the cultivation of sugar-beet for the manufacture of sugar 

 in Russia, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, and the 

 following brief review of the economic features of sugar-beet 

 farming in Holland, Belgium, and Denmark may be of interest, 

 inasmuch as it will serve to complete the information already 

 published relating to the progress of the beet- sugar industry on 

 the Continent. 



According to the official statistics issued by the Dutch 

 Government, the acreage devoted to the cultivation of sugar- 

 beet in Holland in each of the ten years ending with 1893 has 

 been as follows :• — 



Year. 



Acres. 



Year. 



Acres. 



1884 



52,865 



1889 



58,262 



1885 



41,614 



1890 



69,407 



1886 



45,036 



1891 



55,652 



1887 



47,263 



1892 



60,718 



1888 



54,155 



1893 



70,096 



The number of sugar factories in operation in 1894 was 30, 

 and there has been no increase in the number of these establish- 

 ments since 1886. The production of raw sugar from the 

 home-grown beet has, with a few fluctuations, steadily increased, 

 owing not only to the extension of the area under the crop, but 

 also to improved methods of extraction. In the three years 

 1886-89 the average annual outturn, excluding molasses, 

 amounted to 642,000 cwts. ; in 1889-90 it was estimated at 

 1,038,184 cwts. ; while in the following year it was 1,140,386 cwts. 

 In 1891-92 the produce of raw sugar fell to 687,500 cwts., owing 

 largely to a contraction of the area under the crop in 1891, but 

 a recovery took place in the next year when the outturn was 

 1,012,948 cwts., and in 1893-4 the factories produced nearly 

 1,115,900 cwts. of raw sugar, not including molasses. 



In the Netherlands the excise duty on native raw sugar ie 

 calculated on the assumption of an estimated yield of 3*086 lbs., 

 or 3*20 lbs. (according to the date of defecation) of refined sugar 

 per hectolitre (22 Imperial gallons) of beet-root juice, per degree 

 of density, and is fixed at 22s. lOd. per cwt. This is also the. 

 amount of the drawback allowed on exports of refined sugar. 

 There is also a supplementary duty of 5 J or 9 per cent, accord- 

 ing to the process of extraction employed. The estimated yield 

 of refined sugar from a given quantity of beet juice was fixed 

 in 1867, but in consequence of the improved methods of extraction 



* Vol. II., No. 3, p. 292. 



