SugarSeet Cultivation in Anxtria. 
329 
developed during the last lialf of that period, as shown in the 
following table : — 
1830 1860 1870 1880 1888 
Number of factories 100 1 125 1 215 1 227 1 215 
Tons of beet used 490,000 | 1,430,000 \ 3,300,000 | 4,700,000 I 6,000,000 
On the average of the ten years 1879-88, 494,000 acres in 
Austria were devoted to the cultivation of sugar-beet, of which 
318,000 acres were in Bohemia and 150,000 in Moravia. The 
annual yield during the same period was 3,750,000 tons, or an 
average of rather more than 7^ tons per acre (in some parts of 
Bohemia 10 tons). 
Olivier de Serres, in his writings of 1590, makes mention of 
the red beet as having only recently been introduced into Europe, 
and as yielding a juice which " on boiling is similar to sugar- 
syrup." But the root does not seem to have been considered as 
having an industrial value, and was cultivated only for the table 
or for cattle food, until 1747, when MargraflP, a member of the 
Berlin Academy of Sciences, believing sugar to be a regular 
constituent of plants other than the sugar-cane, made examina- 
tion of different varieties of vegetables, and succeeded in sepa- 
rating from several kinds varying quantities of crystallisable 
sugar, beet being found to be the richest. This important dis- 
covery, however, remained dormant for nearly half a century, 
when one of Margraff's pupils, Karl Franz Achard, director of 
the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, again took up the line of 
research started by his preceptor, and finally succeeded in ex- 
tracting sugar from the root on a comparatively large scale. 
Prior to this, sugar had been obtained exclusively from the 
sugar-cane, and was for the most part produced in the colonies 
of the different countries, though in all cases refined in Europe. 
The first attempts in Austria to obtain sugar from various 
native plants had been made by Professor Jaquin in Vienna as 
early as 1799, and by Dr. Ries in St. Polten in 1803. Conrad 
Adam in Vienna carried out experiments with the beet on a 
larger scale ; he settled in Ilarowitz in 1800. The first great 
success was not, however, obtained with the beet as a producer 
of sugar, but with maple-juice — a method which was first intro- 
duced on the estates of the Prince of Liechtenstein at Eisgrub.' 
Even this efibrt led to no permanent result, for it soon appeared 
that the beet was the most fitted for the production of native 
sugar ; and when, in consequence of the decree of the Emperor 
Francis I., dated January 14, 1831, the production of sugar from 
' A charming spot near Lundenburg, with extensive forests and a magnifi- 
cent palace, visited by me in the course of my inspection. 
VOL. n. T. s. — 6 z 
