The Cultivation of Sugar-Beet. 
443 
— 
Mr. F. 
0. Licht, 
Magde- 
t D g 
Wavertrke. 
Grown at Dunbabin 
(Marquis of Salisbury's 
Estate), Lancashire, 
by Mr. John Gibbons 
IRKLAVD. 
Grown at Ballymitty, 
near Wexford, 
by Mr. John Ennis 
jjjig or experiment .... 
Oct. 10, 
1889 
October 10 
October 10 
Seed 
Seed 1 Seed 
Seed 
Seed 
Seed 
Seed 
Seed 
Xo. 1 
Xo. 2 
Xo. 3 
Xo. 4 
Xo. 1 
Xo. 2 
Xo. 3 
Xo. 4 
Number of beetroots drawn for 
experiment . . 
112 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
Average weight with leaves in 
grammes 
900 
675 
958 
967 
1268 
1079 
1118 
1177 
1077 
Average weight without leaves 
in grammes 
510 
246 
364 
404 
429 
506 
469 
460 
479 
X-argdst root with leaves in 
grammes .... 
1670 
800 
1260 
1330 
2215 
1440 
2040 
1500 
1650 
Largest root without leaves in 
1205 
370 
660 
670 
760 
690 
720 
640 
710 
Smallest root with leaves in 
490 
400 
590 
510 
770 
780 
820 
780 
740 
!t It tiiLilUUv Ita i i. ; 
295 
130 
210 
200 
310 
380 
320 
310 
330 
Specific gravity of juice . . . 
1-0806 
10799 
1-0799 
1-0784 
10793 
1-0S67 
1-0838 
1 0821 
10888 
Degrees by Brix saccharometer 
19-4 
18-7 
18-7 
18-3 
1S-4 
19-9 
19-8 
196 
19-9 
Quantity o£ sugar in 100 parts 
1658 
16-5 
170 
167 
164 
18-2 
17-5 
172 
18-8 
„ „ non-sugar „ 
2-82 
22 
1-7 
1-6 
2-0 
1-7 
23 
24 
w 
Quotient of purity „ 
85-5 
88-2 
909 
91-2 
891 
91-5 
88-4 
87-8 
94 6 
1 kilogramme (1,000 grammes) equals 2 2 lb. avoirdupois. 
paring favourably with the German ones. The saccharometer, or 
sugar-measuring instrument, employed was that of Brix, which is 
supposed to show what quantity of sugar there is in the juice, whilst 
the quantity indicated by the polariscope is real sugar ; the figures 
under the head of " non-sugar" are the differences between these. 
The main object of analysis is to discover how much per cent, of 
pure sugar it is possible to extract from 100 parts of the solids 
of the juice, and the higher this percentage is, of course the 
better the beetroot. To calculate this, the saccharometer of Brix 
is used to show the dry substance of the juice, and then a calculation 
is made as to how much is sugar. If, for instance, a juice has 12 per 
cent, of sugar and shows 1 5 per cent, on the saccharometer, the result 
is 80 per cent, of sugar to 100 parts of dry substance. 
The yield of crop was only noted at Wavertree, where it averaged 
42 tons 19 cwt. per acre ; equivalent, say, to 15 tons of clean roots, a 
very heavy crop being given by the variety of Dippe's seed known 
as Gebriider Dippe's verbesserte Zuckerreiche kleine AYanzelbohnen 
Elitezuchtung. 
There is no foundation for the idea that beetroot is an exhaust- 
ing crop. Before the Select Committee, in 1879, Mr. Martineau 
quoted Mr. J ohn Algernon Clarke, Secretary to the Central Chamber 
of Agriculture, and Dr. Voelcker, chemist to the Boyal Agricultural 
Society, to the effect that it is not an exhausting crop, and that it is 
one very favourable to the growth of wheat, the deep cultivation 
necessary to grow beetroot increasing the yield per acre of cereals 
and other crops. 
The following examples taken from Die Zuckerriibe und ihre 
rationtlle Cultur, by Dr. C. J. Eisbein, bear upon this point. 
