Snqar-Beet Cultivation in Austria. 
331 
came into force on August 1, 1888.' This law akandons the 
whole previous system, and makes the actual produce the basis 
for the levying of the duty. In place of a tax on the raw 
material, the amount of sugar produced is subject to tax at the 
rate of 11 florins per 100 kilos, (about 9^•. per cwt.) ; and instead 
of the drawback allowances on export, a direct bounty on ex- 
portation is granted at the following rates : — 
«. <i. 
(d) Sugar polarising 99 o and over . . 2 4 per cwt. 
\b) „ „ 03 to 90 . . . 1 7i „ 
(c) „ „ 88 to 93 ... 1 Gi „ 
It has been further provided that if the export bonus during 
the producing season, i.e. from August 1 to July 31 of the 
following year, should exceed 5,000,000 fl. (417,000^.), such 
excess amount must be refunded to the Government p-o raid by 
the sugar producers. 
This law was much criticised at the time, being regarded as 
a concession made to the powerful sugar interests, and it was 
argued that a subsidy of 5,000,000 florins annually was thereby 
granted to the 200 sugar manufacturers of Austria, at the ex- 
pense of the community. The Finance Minister, however, 
declared that " it was, as a matter of principle, correct that 
bonuses or premiums should not be granted, but that it was, on 
the other hand, an undoubted fact that so long as other States 
accorded bonuses, the beet-root sugar industry could not subsist 
without similar support." - 
Axioms of Sugar-Beet Growing. 
In a report presented by Dr. Wm. McMurtrie to the 
Department of Agriculture at Washington in 1880,^ the axioms 
of sugar-beet growing are very succinctly stated in the subjoined 
words, which I make no apology for adopting as the text of. 
the more detailed observations on the subject contained in the 
following pages : 
Choose well-drained, permeable soils, not overcliarged with nitrogenous, 
organic, or soluble mineral matters. Choose the best qualities of seed. 
' See Parliamentary Papers respecting International Conference on Sugar 
Bounties, C. 5259 of Session 1888, p. 104, and C. 5260, p. 71, See also observa^ 
tions of Count Kuefstein at the second sitting of the Conference, Nov. 28, 
1887 (C. 5260, p. 102). 
^ Mr. Phipps to the Marquis of Salisbury, Vienna, Nov. 2, 1887. Parlia- 
mentary Paper C. 5259 of 1888, p. 81. 
' Report on the Culture of the Sngar-Beet : By William McMurtrie, E.M., 
Ph.D. ; agent and representative of the United States Department of Agriculture 
at the Paris Exposition of 1878. Washington, 1880. 
t 2 
