267 
5 lbs. of seeds are required for an acre. In rotation of 
crops, the Beet takes its place best between Barley and 
Oats. In Middle Europe the yield averages 14 tons of 
Sugar Beet to the acre, and as many hundred weight of raw 
sugar. The mercantile value of the root, at our distilleries, 
ranged from 20s. to 30s. per ton. In our clime, the Beet 
harvest can be extended over a far longer time of the year 
than in Middle Europe. The extraction of the sap is 
effected generally by hydraulic pressure. The juice is 
purified with lime and animal coal. Excess of lime is 
removed by carbonic acid, and the j)urified and decolorized 
juice is evaporated in vacuum pans, with a view to prevent- 
ing the extensive conversion of the crystallisable sugar into 
treacle. The production of Beet sugar needs far less labor 
than that of cane sugar, and the harvest is obtained in so 
short a time as eight months. Beet has shown itself 
subject neither to alarming diseases nor to extensive attacks 
of insects. Beet is grown in extra-tropical zones like ours, 
while the sugar-cane is a plant confined to tropical and sub- 
tropical latitudes. Beet culture, by directly or indirectly 
restoring the refuge, ameliorates the soil to such an extent, 
that in some parts of Grermany land, so utilized, has risen 
to fourfold its former value. Beet, furthermore, affords one 
of the most fattening stable fodders ; and thus again an 
ample supply of manure. In Middle Europe now about 
one-sixth of all the arable land is devoted to Beet, yet the 
produce of cereals has not become reduced, while the rearing 
of fattened cattle has increased. Notwithstanding a heavy 
tax on the Beet-sugar factories in Europe, the industry has 
proved prosperous, and assumes greater and greater dimen- 
sions. In 1865, the sugar consumption of Europe amounted 
to 31,676,497 cwt., one-third of which had been locally sup- 
plied by the Beet, from over one thousand beet-sugar 
factories. Treacle obtained from beet is distilled for 
alcohol. Eor establishing remunerative factories on a 
large and paying scale, it has been suggested that farmers’ 
companies might be formed. Eor ascertaining the per- 
centage of sugar in Beet, saccharometers are used. In 
G-ermany, some scientific periodicals are exclusively devoted 
to the fostering of this industry. 
