104 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
the several processes for obtaining the sugar. This means, thin the 
plants, extirpate all weeds, and keep the surface of the soil loose. The 
implements, the cultivator and hand hoe—Chaptal used the plough. 
Taking up the crop. —Pedder says, as soon as the roots have complet¬ 
ed their growth—September or October. Chaptal says, as soon as 
their larger leaves begin to turn yellow, as after this the saccharine 
principle may disappear, in consequence of a new elaboration of juices 
after maturity, and salt petre be generated instead thereof. The leaves 
may be fed to cows, sheep or swine. In Germany they are dried, for 
winter forage. The roots should not be bruised. They are taken up 
with a spade. 
Preserving the crop. —The mode we have recommended for ruta ba- 
ga, where cellars will not suffice—in trenches upon dry soils, two or 
two and a half feet broad, two and a half or three feet deep, and as 
long as you please, crowning the top with roots, covering with suffi¬ 
cient earth, and perforating the crown with a bar to let off the warm 
or rarified air. Beets suffer from heat as well as from frost. 
Profit of culture. —The common price in France, paid by the manu¬ 
facturer, is ten francs (—to $1.85) the 1,000 pounds. The yield is 
from 40 to 52 thousand pounds—medium 46,000 the hectare—equal to 
85 dollars. The tops will buy the seed. Where the culture and manu¬ 
facture are connected, and the business managed to the best advantage, 
Mr. Pedder estimates the cost of the sugar to the manufacturer at four 
and a quarter cents per pound, taking into the account the value of the 
cake and molasses for feeding cattle and sheep, and the value of the 
manure these make. 
M. Iznard estimates the benefits which a farmer will derive by the 
cultivation of one acre with beet for the making of sugar, as follows: 
§00 lbs. good Muscovado sugar, at 8 cents per lb............. $64 00 
50 galls, molasses, for distilling or feeding, at 16 cents,....... 8 00 
4 tons pumice, or cake, for cattle, $3 per ton,................ 12 00 
1 ton of leaves, or their value as manure,................... 5 00 
Total.......................$89 00 
The expense of manufacturing, we presume, to be deducted from the 
above total. 
The manufacture of sugar, consists of seven distinct processes, viz. 
1. Washing or scraping the roots; 2. rasping or crushing the roots; 3. 
pressing the pulp by hydraulic press; 4. diffication, or purifying with 
lime; 5. evaporation, in which process some animal charcoal is added; 
6. clarification, during which most of the animal carbon is added; and 
7. concentration. When an excess of lime is by accident applied, it is 
taken up by diluted sulphuric acid, in the proportion of 44 of water to 
1 of acid. We refrain from attempting an abstract of these processes, 
and of the implements and vessels employed, as it would only tend to 
embarrass the novice. We refer to the report, or to Chaptal. 
Product. —The beet root gives from four to seven, and in one instance 
Mr. Pedder says, he knows it gave eight and a half per cent of sugar. 
This consists of first, second, and third qualities ; though it is advisa¬ 
ble not to crystalize the third quality, it being more valuable left in 
molasses, to be fed with cut straw to cattle. Assuming six per cent as 
the medium, and the average crop at 23,000 pounds the acre, the pro¬ 
duct of an acre is divided by Mr. Pedder as follows: 
Sugar, 1st and 2d quality,......................... 2,400 lbs. 
Molasses, 2 per cent,......................... .... 800 lbs. 
Cakes, 15 per cent,...... 6,000 lbs. 
9,200 lbs. per ac. 
Value of the cake, fyc. —The beet in all its varieties, is a valuable 
crop, cultivated merely as food for cattle. By the above estimate it is 
made to appear, that the acre not only produces 3,200 pounds of sugar 
and molasses, but nearly 10,000 pounds of pumice, or beet cake, of 
more value to stock, as M. Iznard has shown, than ten thousand 
pounds of beet root before the sugar and molasses have been extracted. 
For the entire beet contains 85 to 90 per cent of water—the water be¬ 
ing expressed from the cake, leaves in it, after pressure, a greater pro¬ 
portion of saccharine matter, as compared to the water, than it con¬ 
tained before pressure. The molasses too, amounting to 800 pounds, 
fed with cut straw or hay, will go far in subsisting or fattening stock. 
M. Iznard sold his cake, for feeding cows, higher, per cwt. than the 
price of beets. The cakes are preserved in magazines sunk in the 
ground, where they are beaten hard and left to ferment, and are used 
six and nine months thereafter. 
Drill barrow. —A drill barrow, for sowing beets, and most other 
seeds, is described by Mr. Pedder, with eight wheels, in two setts, 
three being used for beets, or five for wheat. It is evidently on the 
principle of the one described in another column, invented by Mr. 
Meacham of Chenango. Price of the French drill 100 francs. He 
also speaks of a Barrow Hoe, which is pushed forward between the 
rows, is simple and of great use in row culture; and of a superior 
hand hoe, having a long crooked neck, which permits the weeds to pass 
over—similar, we suspect, to our turnip hoe. I 
Family Manufactur e.—Mr. Pedder saw the family establishment of 
Mens. Lecerf, who obtained a premium for home manufacture. The 
labor was performed in one of his rooms, and the cost of all his ma¬ 
chinery and apparatus did not exceed 500 francs. 
Miscellaneous. —The practice of strewing the sheep yards with lime, 
as mentioned in a late Cultivator, to prevent the foot-rot, is common in 
France. The estimated cost of a sugar establishment, employing 80 
men, and producing 110,000 pounds of sugar, $5,200. Rent of lands 
$8—taxes $1.12J per acre. The season of manufacture lasts from 10th 
September to 15th April. The cost of cultivating an acre, including 
rent and taxes, about 110 francs (about $20) labor cheaper than with 
us. 
If the preceding estimates are any where near the truth, and we see 
no reason to distrust them, they satisfactorily demonstrate, that the cul¬ 
tivation of beets, in the united States, for sugar, can and will, ere long, 
be made one of the most important and profitable branches- of Ameri¬ 
can husbandry. 
The Beet Society propose to import a large quantity of seed. Or¬ 
ders for seed may be sent to Jacob Snider, Jr. Philadelphia. 
ARTIFICIAL PONDS. 
These are constructed in districts, and on farms, destitute of streams, 
into which water is conducted in the wet season or after heavy rains, or 
by means of underdrains, for the use of the farm stock in dry seasons. 
They are generally constructed at the intersection or on the line of di¬ 
vision fences, so as to be accessible to two or more enclosures. 
They are economically constructed where there is not, permanently, 
water upon the surface for the supply of cattle, and are a cheaper and 
better expedient than wells. These ponds are generally round, about 
45 feet in diameter, the banks sloping in an angle of about 40 degrees, 
and affording a depth of water in the centre of about five feet. Com¬ 
mon day, well mixed by means of water, closely tramped, and then 
pounded tight with a paver’s mallet, will make a tight bottom; and 
when made, should be covered with a coat of fine gravel, beaten in. 
Where the soil, therefore, consists of a tenacious clay, the labor of 
construction consists in merely making the requisite excavation, and in 
finishing the bottom as above directed. The labor may be all perform¬ 
ed by the farm hands, and the expense will be comparatively trivial. 
But where the soil and subsoil are porous, as in sand, gravel, &c. 
greater labor and expense must be incurred, to prevent leakage. The 
following instructions for constructing artificial ponds on dry soils, with 
the subjoined cut, is taken from the 6th volume of the Annals of Agri¬ 
culture. This mode has been successfully practised in Yorkshire, 
(Eng.) for many years. 
_ “The line A, describes a circular hole made in the ground, of such 
size as may be found necessary; and on which a stratum of clay, B, 
must be carefully beaten, and trodden into a solid, compact body, from 
four to six inches in thickness. 
“ C represents a layer of quick-lime, about an inch, or an inch, and 
a half thick; and which should be uniformly spread over the whole. 
“ D is a second stratum of clay, that ought to be of a thickness simi¬ 
lar to that above mentioned, and should be pressed down in the same 
manner. 
“ Either stones or gravel must be spread on the second layer of clay, 
to such depth as may prevent the pond being injured by the feet of 
cattle; for otherwise, they will penetrate the stratifications of clay and 
lime; in consequence of which the water will be discharged through 
the pores of the earth. When thus completed, according to the section 
above given, the pond will remain five feet deep, and forty-five in di¬ 
ameter ; the letter E, representing the line of level, both of the water 
and the ground. The expenses attending a work of the dimensions 
above stated, are computed to be from £4 to £6, (=$17.66 to $26.64,) 
according to the distance from which the clay is carried. Such a pond 
will remain unimpaired for a series of years; because the lime pre¬ 
vents worms from strjking either upwards or downwards, and conse¬ 
quently from injuring the clay, which naturally resists moisture.” 
FILTERING CISTERN. 
We give below a diagram of a filtering cistern, for rendering rain 
water pure, fit for drinking and all culinary pnrposes. It may be con¬ 
structed either round or square, of brick and water lime, or,'what we 
deem cheaper and better, of rubble stone and water lime, upon Foster 
and Van Kleeck’s plan. To construct a common cistern on their plan. 
