Beet-root Distillery. 
69 
and in many cases three times, that length are necessary to bring 
continental breeds to the same weight and degree of fatness ; 
and this means three times more expense in food, and three times 
more capital engaged, with a proportionate loss of interest. 
These preliminary considerations naturally lead me to the 
subject of this paper — viz. beet-root distillery. In this and other 
subjects equally important connected with agricultural practice 
in France, lies the problem of the application of purely manu- 
facturing operations to agriculture. Hitherto, and especially in 
England, agricultural pursuits have been exclusively confined to 
the production of the raw materials of food and raiment. But 
the question arises, whether the farmer could not advantageously 
bring his goods to market in a more elaborate form — for in- 
stance, flour instead of corn, beef and mutton instead of live 
stock, bacon instead of pork, flax instead of flax straw, &c. &c. ? 
Being obliged to have recourse to steam-power for many farm 
operations, it is not unreasonable for him to aspire to a more 
extended use of a motive power now become indispensable ; 
but as these points are somewhat foreign to my subject, I mention 
them merely as a ready illustration of the idea of adapting manu- 
facturing processes to agriculture, which seems now to prevail in 
France in so remarkable a degree. 
There are many peculiarities in French agriculture which 
render the adoption of English principles altogether impossible. 
The nature of the climate, the peculiarity of the soil, the wants 
of the population, and the requirements of French commerce, 
have strongly influenced the cultivation of the land, and rendered 
manufacturing operations a matter of necessity to the farmer. In 
at least one-half of France vines are cultivated, and the tiller of 
the soil makes his own wine upon his farm premises. In the 
south he cultivates the mulberry tree, feeds silkworms upon his 
farm, and produces raw silk. Tobacco, several tinctorial plants, 
hemp, flax, olives, poppies, colza, and other oleaginous vege- 
tables, cover a considerable portion of the arable land; and in 
many instances most of these plants are used as raw materials 
upon the farm premises, and sent to market ready for consump- 
tion. Everybody knows how the first Napoleon created the 
manufacture of sugar from beet-root. What was then a neces- 
sary expedient, has become in our times an important branch 
of industry and a powerful stimulant to agricultural progress, by 
introducing the cultivation of root crops into the routine of 
French agriculture — the happy results of which are so conspicuous 
in the North of France and Belgium, where the land is better 
■cultivated and more productive than in any other part of the 
Continent. 
The grape disease, which, like the potato blight in Ireland 
