THE CULTIVATOR. 41 
on the platform to be occupied by the pulp, the cloth and the hurdle, to 
two feet square, and heaping them up to the ordinary height. 
Square pieces of coarse cloth or canvass. —These squares of strong but 
thin cloth, serve to wrap up an enclose the pulp, to keep it under the 
press. Two of them are laid down side by side, and the pulp is enclosed 
and piled up by crossing their points. 
Knife and table —A common table with narrow strips nailed on the 
edges to raise them, and then gently inclined towards the only side where 
the strip is wanting, will answer for spreading the cloth on, and enclosing 
the pulp. A roller, or rolling pin, similar to those used by pastry,cooks, 
serves to smooth down the enclosed pulp, and a bucket placed under the 
fore part of the table receives the juice pressed out by the rolling pin. 
Hurdles of willow or lath. —These flat hurdles, somewhat larger than 
the cakes of pulp enclosed in the cloth and pressed down, may be made 
of osier, or still better, of lath, united to move at half an inch distance from 
each other with iron or brass wire. They may be strengthened by a plate 
of tin, to bind and enclose the ends of all the laths. 
Buckets —These are well known utensils, which maybe made more 
solid and convenient by substituting iron for wooden hoops. 
Boilers for clarifying. —Any large boiler may suffice, provided it can 
be made to boil in. a very short time. It is preferable to have it set over a 
furnace, and that it has an opening near the bottom, furnished with a cock 
to facilitate the exhanges from one vessel to another. 
Fillers.— A bucket having a double" bol tom, the upper peircedwith 
holes, and placed about an inch above-the lower one, will very well an¬ 
swer for this purpose. A clean wet cloth is placed on the false bottom, 
coarse animal charcoal also moistened, is then put in, to the height of 
twelve or fifteen inches, in five to eight layers, with cloth, interposed, 
throwing in carefully layer upon layer, covering the whole with a clean 
wet cloth, which is kept in its place by the aid-of another board pierced 
with holes. The filtering takes place in the same manner as ley. 
Pans for evaporating and boiling down. —These pans ought to be 
shallow, and furnished with handles for convenience of pouring out. They 
ought to evaporate three-quarters of the depth of the liquid in the time oc¬ 
cupied by purifying the juice. 
A skimmer —This is a well known utensil. It may be made of tin or 
copper, and two or three times larger than the common family skimmer. 
Pails — Common wooden pails may answer; they are more convenient 
and more durable if made of copper. 
Ladle —This is a large ladle, which is more convenient if made .to 
hold from one to two litres of liquid.* * * * § 
Pot or coffee burner to revive the animal charcoal. —A cast iron pot, 
wide and shallow, that will admit of stirring the contents with a crooked' 
stick, passed through a hole in the lid, will serve for this purpose; we may 
also use a large coffee burner. 
Wooden moulds. —These vessels are made of wooden staves bound with 
wood or iron hoops, or we may even use pails or kegs, open at one end, 
and the bottom of which should be pierced with gimblet holes. The 
moulds or the kegs may be placed on props over pots and earthen pans, to 
receive the draining sirup or molasses. 
Variety —The white Silesian, and the yellow Castelmandary beets, are 
the kinds that are preferred. \ The first is more generally employed; its 
juice is more easily treated and generally the most pure. 
Stripping the leaves. —When we give the Beets the last hoeing, it is 
convenient to take off the leaves nearest the ground, which would soon 
spoil, and which moreover furnish a useful aliment for cattle. 
Pulling or talcing lip the roots. —At the period of maturity,, and even 
some days before, the beets fire taken up to supply the first operations of 
the manufactory, and In order not to houseany till it is to be feared, that in 
waiting longer, we may be overtaken by rains, or frosts. All those which 
we intend to pull up, ought to be first deprived, on the spot, of all their 
leaves and crowns, to be used, immediately as food for cattle, lest they 
should become dirty by mixing with the earth. If We cannot feed the 
whole of these prunings, we should bury them on the spot, as they make 
an excellent manure for the soil. 
Storing the roots. —We may preserve in small.heaps, out of doors near 
the manufactory, and in barns, or even in.the fields in small piles, covered 
with eight inches of earth, all the beets which we suppose we can use be¬ 
fore the hard frosts, the overplus is housed or covered in ditches of from 
three to six feet wide, of the same-depth, and of apy length. It is well to 
leaVe a partition of earth at intervals of twelve leet. (Any other sheltered 
place is proper to preserve beets.) 
The beets are put down with some precaution to-avoid as much as pos¬ 
sible bruising them. When the trench or pit is heaping full, they are co¬ 
vered with twelve to eighteen inches of compact earth, which is heaped 
up so as to be shelving both ways. At intervals of five or six feet from 
each other, in the middle of the ditch or pit, fascines or bundles of brush 
are put down, extending a few inches above the covering- of earth. The 
trench is broken qpen at one end, to take out each day the quantity of beets 
to be manufactured. 
Cleaning the beets —This operation is very simple. Itis sufficient to 
* The litre is about equal to a quart.-^T r. 
rub the beets against each other in a vessel half full of water, with the aid 
of an old broom, or shaking them in a basket plunged in water. In soils 
which are not too compact, dry scraping with a knife may take the place 
of the washing, removing the greatest part of the earth and adhering 
stones.* In light soils, free from stones, the beets are often fit for rasping 
without any cleaning. 
Cutting off the crown of the beets. —In the small establishments, espe¬ 
cially when the neck of the beet has not been cut at its base before rasp¬ 
ing, the cortical part of the head is cut off by three or four slices with a 
knife, in such a'way as to leave it of a conical form, and to remove the 
parts where the leaves were attached, which are the hardest, and contain 
the least sugar. These parts carefully preserved, are used with the small 
roots and pulp, of which we will speak hereafter, as food for cattle. 
Rasping or grating. —This operation is very simple. If itis done by 
hand, two men relieve each other, one turning the crank, while the other 
pushes the beets gradually against the cylinder with the .hand, or a wooden 
shoe.f When the rasp is connected with machinery, and put in motion 
by cattle or horses, or any other power, a single person is occupied in 
holding the beets. 
Pressing.— The pulp is enclosed in clean cloths, the corners and edges 
.of, which cross each other, so as riot to allow the pulp to escape in conse¬ 
quence of the pressure. Some of the-juice is pressed out by passing the- 
rolling pin over the pulp thus enclosed. Then the cloths filled with the 
pulp are flattened down, and successively piled on the platform of the 
press, separated from each other by a hurdle, described page 15, to the 
height of two or three feet. 
At first, the pressure is very gently applied, then with greater and in¬ 
creased force, until no more juice can be drawn from it. The press is then 
unscrewed and another pressing commenced. The liquid obtained is imme¬ 
diately subjected to the process of purification., The residue of the pressed 
pulp may be turned to profit, not only by immediately feeding it to sheep, 
oxen and milch bows, but a great? part of it may also be preserved without 
difficulty as fodder for future use, by drying it on metallic plates, or in an 
oven. The dried pulp may also be kept, if desired, in sacks or casks. It 
should be irioistened with a little water before it is fed to the animals.J The 
pulp is also preserved by collecting it daily, and laying i.t up in a cistern 
or a hole dug in the earth, and covered’with a roofing of straw. 
Purification with lime— It is well to try- on a small scale the quantity 
of limewhich it is best to employ. It should be just so much as, after 
being.mixed with the juice, heated to a degree that is insupportable to the 
finger, and then carried to the point'-of ebullition, gives a strong foam, 
leaving, after some minutes of repose, the liquid limpid, but without the 
peculiar acrid taste of lime. In general, at the commencement of the 
season, (from the end of September to November,) we may employ from 
three to three and a half kilogrammes of lime for each 1,000 li’res of juice.§ 
This dose of quick-lime is extinguished with hot water, by pouring on a 
little at a time, as fast as the lime slakes and falls to powder, and in such 
a way as to obtain a perfectly uniform mixture, fine and without lumps. 
In all there must be enough water added to make a clear milk, which 
will be about eight times the weight of the lime. The juice, heated as 
we have just said, is stiired, and the milk of lime poured in. It is then 
briskly stirred for three or four seconds and left to heat without further 
agitation, until the first bubble appears. The fire is them instantly cover¬ 
ed up, or the boiler removed. It is left at rest for six or eight minutes, 
and then drawn off clear. 
Racking off, draining and using the scum and deposite. —The clear 
liquid is drawn off by a cock, or poured by inclining the boiler, into a 
bucket, or reservoir, out is of this it is poured, or dipped with a lad'dle, a 
little at a time, upon the filter. The scum and dregs are left to drain off 
through a cloth, or what is better, put into bags of cloth, and subjected to 
the gradual pressure of a lever press, and in the end employed as manure, 
after being dried with powdered lime, and then spread on the soil. 
First filtering. —The liquid, filtered like ley through, the coarse animal 
Charcoal, is immediately poured into the pan, when it is evaporated as ra- 
pidly as possible. We may add to it the fine charcoal which was separat¬ 
ed from the coarse in therevivifyingprocess, to'be hereafter described, and 
which is taken oft" partly with the scum. This is added to a second puri- 
fiGatiori, (defecation.) 
Evaporation —The evaporation is kept up, and accelerated as much as 
possible, by increasing the fire and stirring the liquid with a skimmer un- 
* When the beets are forked, it is useful to break off the little roots, which 
might retain stones between them, .lest these should break the teeth of the 
rasp. 
« f Such as are wore by the laboring classes on the continent of Europe.—T r , 
I A part of this pulp may be converted into a coffee similar to that made of 
succory. It is sufficient to toast it like coffee, and then grind it. It is mado 
more agreeable to the taste by returning it, after it has become cold, into the 
coffee burner, (bruloin) containing<ahout one-quarter of its weight of coffee 
nearly toasted, shutting up the burner, and mixing the whole thoroughly, 
away from the fire. The mixture is then ground in a common coffee mill! 
This practice has already extended to some districts in the north of France. 
§ From 6j to 8 lbs. of lime to 250 gallons of juice.— Tk. 
