310 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 21. 
; but those who have once made use of it will never be taken 
I in a second time; for, independent of its possessing a very 
small portion of the sweetening principle, which renders its 
use as dear as sugar, it contains a powerful acid, that acts 
most disagreeably on the bowels.’ (Narrative of a Forced 
Journey, vol. i p. 483-4). 
“Napoleon complained at St. Flelena, that ‘the old 
aristocracy, those enemies to our prosperity, exhausted all 
their wit in stupid jokes and frivolous caricatures.’ (Las 
Cases, part iii. p. 330). What reason lie had for attributing 
these squibs to the royalists in particular does not appear. 
Two of them are described by Lord Blayney at the same 
place in his narrative as the former extract. * One repre¬ 
sents George the Third and Napoleon on opposite sides of 
a table, with a cup of coffee before each; our king is dis¬ 
solving the point of a great loaf of sugar into his, while 
j Nap. is grinning most horribly in trying to squeeze a drop 
of sweetening from a large Beet-root. A second caricature 
on the same subject shows how deeply the French are 
interested in it; it represents the king of Borne sucking a 
Beet-root, making wry faces, and exclaiming “ Voila un joli 
morceau de sucre que mon papa m’a donne.’” (p. 483.)— 
| (Here’s a jolly lump of sugar my papa has given me.) 
! “Nevertheless, the process continued, and other modes 
were adopted along with it, which have been called inventions, 
i although, when compared with the passage quoted from 
| Neumann, it will be seen that they were only copies. In 
1810 sugar was made from the maple-tree, and the prince of 
Auersburg set up a manufactory of it. In April, 1811, the 
impulse given to the culture of Beet-root in France had 
extended itself to Germany; and on May 25, Napoleon 
ordered 32,000 hectares of land (about 64,000 acres) to be 
devoted to it for making sugar. October 22, Guerazzi, of 
Florence, succeeded in extracting sugar from chesnuts; and 
in November the fabrication of the article from Beet-root, 
by Achard, was announced as being brought to perfection. 
In December it was extracted from meal, and from the 
arbutus. On Jan. 2, 1812, Haiiy certified that the crystalline 
forms of Beet-root sugar were the same as those of the cane. 
“ While scientific results were so favourable, poetry was 
not silent. For instance, at the birth of the king of Borne, 
M. Michaud, the celebrated Academician, contributed to the 
numerous congratulations some stanzas, in which he boasts 
that at the signal given by a hero a new Flora (‘ une Flore 
inconnue’) has appeared in the forests of France, and that 
the honey of America (‘le miel Americain’) will grow in 
her furrows. His note on this stanza is,—‘ S. M. l’Empereur 
vient d’encourager la culture des plantes quepeuvent suppleer 
a l’indigo, a la cochenille, a la canne de sucre, etc.’ By 
forests he means particularly that of Fontainbleau, which 
was devoted to the experiment. 
“ The subject is thus noticed by Alison in his History of 
Europe: ‘ Beet-root was largely cultivated as a substitute for 
; the sugar-cane, and, though the saccharine matter obtained 
■ from that useful vegetable was inferior in sweetness and 
richness to that which the West India islands yielded, yet it 
was superior in clearness and delicacy, and, as a native 
production, was justly admired.’ (Vol vi. p. 396.) 
“Napoleon asserted that the French nation were indebted 
to him for the cultivation of sugar,indigo, and cotton. (Las 
Cases, part iii. p. 338.) He enumerated among his treasures 
‘funds accumulated to establish upwards of 400 manu¬ 
factories of sugar from Beet-root, for the consumption of 
part of France, and which would have furnished sugar at 
the same price as the West Indies, if they had continued to 
receive encouragement for only four years longer.’ (Ibid vi. 
251.) But Lord Blauey, who paid some attention to the 
subject, ascertained that it was not so successful as the 
emperor wished it to be thought. * The Duke of Beggio 
(Marshal Oudinot) in order to please his master and ruin 
Old England, almost ruined himself by speculations in the 
preparation of Beet-root sugar.’ (Vol. ii. p. 260.) When his 
lordship visited the building, at Bar in Lorraine, where the 
works had been carried on, it was converted to rearing cattle 
of the Dutch and Flanders breed, ‘fattening on the Beet¬ 
root planted to make sugar, for which it seemed to be much 
better calculated, and is besides said to give the meat a 
; delicious flavour.’ At the Bestoration, when West Indian 
j sugar could again be procured, the home manufacture 
j declined. M. Pcignot (the eminent bibliographer) in his 
‘ Precis Chronologique de l’Histoire de France,’ 1815, a work 
not written in an anti-Corsican spirit), says significantly, 
‘ La decouverte du sucre de betteraves au 19e siecle n’a pas 
en le succes qu’on en attendoit et qu’on faisoit esperer.’ (p. 
146.) The following stanza, in a ballad of M. Menetrier’s, 
on the accession of Louis XVIII., affords even a stronger, 
because a popular, evidence of the decline :— 
“ Qu’il naisse fille ou garyon, 
Les parrains, faisant les braves, 
Pourront offrir au poupon 
En confiture et bonbon; 
Bon, bon, grace a Bourbon, 
Plus de jus de betteraves ; 
Bon, bon, car un Bourbon 
Est toujours bon.* 
“ On Nov. 22, 1814, foreign refined sugars were prohibited 
in France, which indicates the desire, with the returning 
opportunity, of promoting colonial interests. Finally, in 
General Ambert’s pamphlet, ‘ De l’utilite des colonies par la 
France,’ 1822, which advocates particularly the exclusion of 
English sugar, there is no obvious allusion to the subject of 
Beet-root, &c., a silence which betokens that the sugar-cane 
had resumed its place. 
“M. Achard died in 1821, having seen the fall of his 
experiment as well as its rise. What new prosperity may 
now attend it, under circumstances of competition, instead 
of compulsion, is an interesting question, the solution of 
which must be left to time, and awaited patiently.” 
We think that J. T. M., scarcely awards to M. Achard 
his due proportion of merit for his researches and efforts to 
establish this manufacture, for we find that “in 1799 he 
published the first of a series of works on the subject of the 
production of sugar from the Beet-root, entitled ‘ An especial 
Description of the Mode in which the Culture of the Beet¬ 
root must be managed in order to increase its Saccharine 
Matter, and to render it profitable for the manufacture of 
Sugar,’ Berlin, 8vo. Marggraf had, as early as 1747, drawn 
attention to the fact that the Beet-root or Mangel -wurzel was 
capable of producing sugar, and had made known a process 
by which it might be procured. Achard improved Marggraf’s 
processes, directed his labours to the cultivation of the Beet, 
especially the species that might be most usefully employed 
in the manufacture, and drew attention to the subject as 
affording a means of increasing national wealth. At first 
the subject did not excite much attention, and a report 
unfavourable to the adoption of this mode of obtaining 
sugar was made by the Institute of France. The King of 
Prussia, however, granted to Achard a small estate at 
Kunema, near Breslau, in Silesia, where he carried on the 
cultivation of the Beet-root, and the making of sugar, and, 
in 1812, established a school for the purpose of teaching the 
art of making this kind of sugar. Although the Institute of 
France had reported unfavourably on this subject, the 
‘ continental system ’ of Napoleon threw the French so 
much upon their own resources, that they extensively 
adopted this mode of obtaining sugar. In 1829, France 
produced upwards of 10,000,000 pounds of Beet-root sugar, 
and the manufacture was then increasing; but the protection 
that ensures the success of such a branch of manufacture, 
in Europe can only be given at a great loss to the community. 
“ The remaining works of Achard on this subject are— 
‘ Proofs of the Possibility of extracting Sugar from Beet¬ 
root,’ Berlin, 8vo., 1800. ‘ How ought the Manufacture of 
Sugar and Brandy from Beet-root to be conducted so as not 
to diminish the Customs?’ Berlin 8vo., 1800. ‘ Instructions 
on the Mode of cultivating Beet-root for making Sugar. 
Breslau, 8vo., 1803. ‘ On the influence of the Manufacture 
of Beet root Sugar on Domestic and Burnl Economy.’ 
Glogau, 8vo., 1805. All his works are in German.” 
SHANGHAES AS NURSES. 
I have read about Shanghae hens being good nursing j 
mothers, but, as I have seen nothing about the cocks being 
good nursing fathers, perhaps mine is one by himself; but I , 
* The point of this verse is, that now parents can give their children 
real sweetmeats and bonbons, and, “ thanks to the Bourbons, no more 
juice of the Beet-root.” 
