80 
Sugar-Beets and Beetroot Distillation. 
period little information existed in Enrjland as regards the con- 
ditions of g^rowth that favour the development of sugar in the 
roots, and the aim of the farmer was to grow as large a crop of 
mangolds as possible, irrespective of quality. Common man- 
golds of a moderate size seldom contain more than 4^ to 5 per 
cent, of sugar, and in large bulbs I have found less than 4 
per cent. The return in spirit, it need hardly be remarked, 
depends mainly upon the percentage of sugar in the roots em- 
ployed by the distiller ; and as the roots bought by the manager 
of the Minety distillery were, for the greater part, large-sized 
common mangolds, which probably contained not quite 4 per 
cent, of sugar, the farmer who grew something like 25 tons 
per acre of such mangolds, and got IZ. per ton for them, did a 
good stroke of business, whilst the distiller lost money by the 
transaction. 
In the next place, I would observe that in several instances 
brought under my notice at the time, I found that the persons 
who had charge of the distillery were ignorant of the details 
which have to be observed, in order to convert the sugar in the 
roots completely into alcohol ; in other words, want of a proper 
knowledge to carry on the process of fermentation caused a loss 
of alcohol. 
In the third place, it has to be remarked that the process of 
rectification of the crude spirit was very imperfectly carried out 
by beetroot distillers. The rectifying stills in use ten or twelve 
years ago rendered it next to impossible to produce pure spirit 
from beets ; and nothwithstanding all the skilled experience of a 
careful superintendent, the old-fashioned rectifying stills at the 
best produced only a moderately clean spirit which could not 
compete with good grain spirit. Most of the beetroot spirit 
that was made in England at that period had an earthy burning 
taste and an extremely disagreeable smell, which rendered it unfit 
for all the purposes for which a fairly clean spirit is required. 
By far the larger proportion ol English beetroot spirit, in con- 
sequence of its bad qualities, could only be used by makers of 
varnishes and French polish, and for purposes for which methy- 
lated spirit is applicable. It had, therefore, to be sold at a price 
scarcely higher than the low price at which methylated alcohol 
can be bought. 
To sum up briefly, three distinct causes — each sufficient in 
itself to lead to disappointment — led to the failures which fol- 
lowed the first introduction of beetroot distilleries in this country 
some ten or twelve years ago: — 
1st. The distiller employed common mangolds, instead of 
beetroots, or, in other words, he used a raw material yielding on 
