Sugar-Beets and Beetroot Distillation. 
61 
Encouraged by Napoleon I., and aided by the scientific 
labours of several Frenc h chemists and the sound judgment and 
knowledge of one of Napoleon's ministers, the celebrated M. 
Chaptal — a man eminent for chemical and general scientific 
attainments — the new industry, for a time, made rapid progress. 
It sustained a temporary check soon after Napoleon's fall, and 
vexatious and injudicious fiscal regulations at one time threat- 
ened to crush altogether the beetroot-sugar industry on the 
Continent. However, increased knowledge, and the spread of 
sounder commercial principles, gave a fresh impulse to the beet- 
root-sugar industry ; and, considering the difficulties under 
which it had to struggle at first, its progress has been rapid, 
especially during the last 10 years. 
Since 1860 France has nearly doubled her production of beet- 
root-sugar, and equally great has been the development of the 
beet-sugar industry in North Germany and Belgium. 
There are, at present, over 500 beetroot-sugar factories and 
distilleries in France, nearly 200 in Belgium, about 300 in 
Prussia, and a good number in Austria, Russia, and other 
Continental states. Probably the number of Continental beet- 
root-sugar factories and distilleries does not fall much short 
of 2000. 
Large tracts of land have lately been put under beetroot 
cultivation in Russia ; and, under the direction of German 
agriculturists and chemists acquainted with the growth of sugar- 
beets and the manufacture of sugar, most satisfactory practical 
results have been realised in that country of late years. The soil 
of the sugar-beet growing farms in Russia is described as very 
fertile, and the climate of the district well suited for the produc- 
tion of roots rich in sugar. From all I can learn from corre- 
spondents settled in Russia, the manufacture of beetroot-sugar 
has probably a great future there. Russia appears to afford a 
splendid field for the profitable investment of skill and capital 
in the growth of sugar-beet for the manufacture of sugar and the 
distillation of spirit. 
The recent discovery of immense beds of coprolites and 
phosphatic rocks, running right through the centre of Russia, is 
very important ; and some day, no doubt, millions of tons of 
phosphatic minerals, which at present are scarcely utilized at 
all, will be of the greatest service to the Russian sugar-farmer. 
The manufacture of beetroot-sugar has assumed gigantic pro- 
portions in France, Belgium, Germany, and other Continental 
states, and is still extending in most of them, as will be seen 
by the following numbers, which give the production of beet- 
root-sugar in the year 1869-70 compared with 1867-68 :— 
