Sugar-Beets and Beetroot Distillation. 
73 
Althougli they weighed from 1\ to 2 lbs. each, (loaned and 
trimmed in the same way as by beetroot-sugar makers, they, 
nevertheless, contained nearly 15 per cent, of sugar. 
It is worthy of special notice that the beets No. 5 grown by 
Mr. Thomas Seigne, contained 12 per cent, of sugar in round 
numbers, although they weighed on an average about 3| lbs. 
each. This shows that, in a favourable season, good sized roots, 
and yet roots rich in sugar, can be grown in Ireland. 
It will be noticed, that of the ten lots of beets three lots con- 
tained nearly 15 per cent, of crystallizable sugar. 
2 lots contained 13^ per cent, on an average. 
3 „ from 12 to 12f per cent. 
2 ,, ,, about 10 per cent, on an average. 
These results speak for themselves ; they show, at all events, 
that excellent sugar-beets were grown in Ireland in 1870. I ques- 
tion much whether better sugar-beets were grown in that season 
in the most favoured beetroot districts of Belgium or France. 
The summer and autumn of 1870 were, no doubt, highly- 
conducive to the development of sugar in root-crops, and pro- 
bably the beetroots which were raised in England and Ireland 
in 1870 were richer in sugar than they are likely to be in 
average seasons. Still, considering that we now have three 
years' recent experience on the cultivation of sugar-beets, there 
seems to me no good reason why beetroot should not be pro- 
fitably cultivated in many parts of the United Kingdom. In a 
good season, I believe from 18 to 20 tons of beets, of as good 
a sugar-producing quality as in France or Belgium, may be 
grown without difficulty. 
The farmer will run very little risk by trying the experiment 
to grow sugar-beets instead of common mangolds, for if he 
cannot obtain a good price for his roots from the sugar-manu- 
facturer he can use the beet for cattle food, and although he may 
not get so heavy a crop as he does when he plants common 
mangolds, it has to be borne in mind that 1 ton of sugar-beets is 
equivalent, in nutritive qualities as cattle food, to at least IJ ton 
of good common mangolds. 
Sugar-beets exhaust the land far less than common mangolds, 
and as the former should not be grown with farmyard manure, 
the whole expense of the manure for a crop of beetroots will be 
the cost of 3 to 4 cwts. of superphosphate. 
Common mangolds generally are heavily manured with rotten 
dung, or with dung and guano, or mixed artificial manure 
rich in nitrogen. In consequence of the excess of nitrogenous 
manures which are usually applied to mangolds, the roots do not 
get fully ripe by the time frost sets in, and the crop has to be 
taken up in a more or less immature condition. In this unripe 
