162 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
thy is so astonishing, that we were almost irresistibly impelled to inquire 
into the cause, Ido not intend to pursue such examination, however. 
It is sufficient that we know many difficulties must be encountered by 
further reliance for aid upon the legislature, to which private effort, 
however feeble it may be, is not subjected. A combination of indivi¬ 
duals may present a power which will ensure success. 
“ Comparison between beneficent acts for public good—(I will not 
say benevolent, for unnecessary inquiry into motives never can be cor¬ 
rect)—is not always, and perhaps not often, happy; but this subject, 
in religious, moral and political importance, is superior to any other, 
and may, if properly directed, be the foundation of improvement in all. 
I will not assert, that there are no elasses opposed to such diffusive im¬ 
provement. Unfortunately for the public welfare, we have both seen 
and felt such opposition too evidently to doubt its existence, or its 
power to embarrass and defeat. It is not my province in this way 
to designate the source or character of the opposition particularly. 
Though some covertly, and others openly oppose, yet I believe even 
that arises from mistaken opinions with regard to their real interests. 
“7 know of no class, order, profession or pursuit, in this country, 
whose permanent safety and prosperity are not interwoven with the most 
extensive possible diffusion of intellectual improvement , and the connex¬ 
ion of all useful employment in life with such improvement. 
“There is nothing in the act incorporating the society, to prevent 
the establishment of eounty societies in connexion with it. Indeed, I 
think such a measure would be in accordance with its intention. With 
this view I would suggest the appointment of a committee to visit as 
many of the counties as may be in their power, previous to the next 
annual meeting of the society, and in the organization and establish¬ 
ment of as many agricultural, mechanical and laboring men’s associa¬ 
tions as possible;—take measures to concert with those societies the 
formation and founding of schools of the above description. That 
such committee be authorized to procure subscriptions to found one 
school, in such place as a majority of the members at the next meet¬ 
ing of the society may think most eligible, for an experiment; and 
whenever they shall have procured subscriptions to the amount of 
twenty-five thousand dollars, they may request the president of the so¬ 
ciety to give notice for an extra meeting, if he should deem proper, pre¬ 
vious to the next annual meeting. 
“ With great respect and esteem, I am your obedient serv’t. 
“ J. B. YATES.” 
J. Bud, Esq. President of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society. 
BEET SUGAR. 
We recently received from an esteemed friend at Paris, a package of 
French books and pamphlets, on agricultural subjects; and not under¬ 
standing the French language, we handed them to some friends, with 
a request that they would translate whatever they might find in them 
of interest to the readers of the Cultivator. Dr. Spook has just sent us 
a translation of one of the pamphlets, being a report made last summer 
to the Royal Central Agricultural society of France, by a special com¬ 
mittee, composed of the Baron Sylvestre, the Due Decazes, and other 
distinguished members, on the culture of the beet, and the manufacture 
of beet sugar, embracing directions to individual farmers, and to small 
associations of farmers and others, for managing the whole of the ma¬ 
nufacturing processes. This is a very interesting document to the 
American reader, and particularly adapted to their present wants; as 
we have no doubt that the manufacture of beet sugar will become an 
important branch of our national industry, and that it will be profita¬ 
bly carried on as a rural and household business. We shall commence 
the publication of this report in our next number. 
We copied in our December number, an article signed by W. W. 
Sleigh, calculated to dissuade our farmers from embarking in the ma¬ 
nufacturing process. Mr. S. says, that “ an establishment will not 
clear expense, unless it be calculated to manufacture at least from two 
to five hundred pounds a day.” We doubt the correctness of this, 
when applied to a domestic or household concern, where we wish most 
to see the business prevail, though it may be true in reference to an 
establishment constituted for this purpose solely. There is a great 
difference in the economy of a business, whether it be carried on by 
hired labor, in an extensive establishment, or by the inmates of a fa¬ 
mily, at a season of leisure, without the charge of an expensive struc¬ 
ture and costly utensils. Wherever manufactories may be established 
on a large scale, it will no doubt be for the mutual advantage of the 
farmer and manufacturer to exchange the beet for the sugar. But the 
beet will not bear to be transported far; and hence in districts where 
there may not be a large manufactory, we are anxious to provide for 
household manufacture. Several instances are cited in the report be¬ 
fore us, of rural establishments producing some 150 lbs. of sugar per 
day. When stripped of mystification, the process of making beet su¬ 
gar has little in it more difficult than the process of making maple su¬ 
gar. It consists in extracting the juice of the beet, of purifying it, and 
boiling it down to a proper consistence to granulate. All the care and 
particularity recommended in the making of beet sugar, might no doubt 
be applied advantageously to the making of maple sugar; though this 
is seldom done; and the consequence is, that our maple sugar does not 
possess half the value it might possess. The purification of the juice, 
and the reducing it to sugar, are managed on like principles, though 
the processes of purifying vary. The sap of the maple has only to be 
divested of its earthy impurities, which milk, eggs or blood serves ordi¬ 
narily to effect. The juice of the beet contains colouring and other for¬ 
eign matters, which it is necessary to get rid of; and this is done, and 
the liquor rendered limpid, by the application of lime and animal char¬ 
coal. These processes are particularly described in the report before 
us. 
Now beets can be grown, gathered and washed, by the laborers on 
a farm; they can be reduced by them to pulp in a cider mill; and the 
juice can also be expressed by them in a common cider press. The pu¬ 
rifying process is easily learned, and practised by the inmates of the 
family, as are the processes of boiling down and sugaring off. The 
ordinary utensils of a family may suffice, though they are not to be 
preferred. A thermometer and areometer are useful in managing the 
processes with certainty and economy. They would be equally useful 
in the processes of making maple sugar, and the thermometer in the busi¬ 
ness of making butler and cheese. The cost of both will not exceed 
three dollars. One serves to determine temperature, the other specific 
gravity, and in five minutes the principles of either may be explained 
to a novice. What then, we ask, is to hinder the farmer from raising 
the beet, and extracting from it, when his farm labors of the summer 
relax, or are completed, the sugar necessary for the consumption of his 
family, or for market, with as little expense, and as much certainty, 
as he produces it from his maple grove ? 
The labor of fabricating maple sugar consists in tapping the trees, 
collecting the sap, and boiling it down to sugar. This is all out-door 
work, mostly performed in the woods, is fatigueing, and must be per¬ 
formed at an unpleasant season of the year, and ordinarily within a 
period of three or four weeks. The labor of making beet sugar, after 
the beets are prepared for rasping, consists in extracting the juice, and 
boiling it down to sugar. This may be all done under cover, and within 
a period of six months, though evidently the earlier it is done the better. 
The residuum of the beet sugar is valuable for cattle and sheep, and is 
nearly or quite sufficient to remunerate for the out-door labor, or the 
culture of the beet. 
VEGETABLES FEED ON VEGETABLES. 
The importance of every species of vegetable and animal matter, as 
a manure for the soil, may be made apparent to any farmer, by a few 
plain considerations. 
Every kind of animal matter is derived originally from vegetables 
and is convertible, by a natural process, again into vegetables. And 
every part of a vegetable is in like manner convertible into new 
plants. 
The elementary matters of a species of vegetable are always the 
same; that is, a stool of wheat, or a stock of corn, grown this year 
contains the same materials, and in about the same proportions, as they 
did last year. These materials, which constitute the wheal or the 
corn crop, are principally drawn from the soil; and consequently the 
fertility of the soil is diminished, in proportion to the number and 
amount of the crops which are carried off. However rich, therefore a 
soil may be naturally, it must be evident, that every crop serves to dimi¬ 
nish its fertility—that it becomes poorer and poorer every year until it 
is no longer worth cultivating—unless fertility is kept up by restoring 
to it the vegetable matters, or a large portion of them, which have 
been carried off. We have all seen this proved, in numerous instan¬ 
ces, under the old system of farming. To prevent this decrease of fer¬ 
tility is one of the improvements of modern husbandry; and it is pre¬ 
vented by manuring and alternating crops. Under the old system the 
rich lands of the west will deteriorate till they are no better than those 
on the Atlantic border. Under the system of manuring and alternat¬ 
ing, the ordinary lands of Flanders have been made to maintain their 
natural fertility for hundreds of years, and those of China for thou¬ 
sands of years; and many of our worn out lands are now being in like 
manner renovated. 
Again. That a field of corn contains precisely what is necessary to 
constitute another field of corn. If it is all left to rot on the ground 
and permitted to decompose and mingle again with the soil, it will 
make another like crop. But it is carried to the barn; the grain is 
consumed, and the stocks and shucks are eaten by the farm stock, or 
littered in the yard. If, after serving these purposes of the cultivator 
the residue of the crop—the dung, the stalks, &c.—were carefully re¬ 
turned and blended with the soil, even then the deterioration of the 
field would be trifling. But this is seldom the case ; these elements of 
fertility are suffered to waste, and if any, but a small portion of them 
are restored to the soil. The moment these stocks, or the cattle dung 
begin to ferment, their decomposition, or chemical separation of their 
parts, commences—and this always takes place in the presence of 
heat, moisture and air—the gaseous matters, which they necessarily 
