10 
EXPERIMENTS WITH SUGAR BEETS. 
The classical researches of Scharcht, Walkhoff, 
Champagnon, Pellet, Bretschneider and Decaisne have 
shown that in a cross section of the beet the inner zone is 
the richest in sugar. The neck, above the ground, is 
usually filled with crystals. Those in the samples ana¬ 
lyzed resembled crystals of potash. Below the ground the 
crystals gradually disappear. If the sugar beet contained 
nothing but a solution of sugar, the operation of sugar 
making would be quite simple. 
The epidermic tissue is composed mostly of cellulose. 
The beet contains tannin, and this tannin combines with 
the albuminoids to form an insoluble compound that is a 
valuable thing for the sugar makers. 
Payen has shown that the sugar beet contains 
malates of potash, lime, soda and ammonia; also the 
oxalates of potash, soda and ammonia, and several other 
compounds in small quantities. These compounds are 
mostly found in the neck of the beet, and it is now an 
accepted statement that the amount of sugar varies indi¬ 
rectly proportional to these salts. The formation of sugar 
in. the beet seems to be mainly due to the leaves. The 
amount of sugar present is greatly influenced by the 
weather, fertilizers, size, soil and the variety grown. The 
sugar increases from the top to the bottom, as shown by 
the following analyses. The sections were made across 
the beet, one inch apart, and are numbered from the 
top down : 
