practical papers—SUGAR-BEET AND BEET SUGAR. 237 
In 1838-39 the “ ISTorthampton Beet Sugar Company,” of 
Northampton, Massachusetts, made several hundred pounds 
of this sugar, and succeeded in raising beets of excellent 
quality and weight, but the enterprise did not prove finan¬ 
cially successful. The most ?5omplete published account 
this attempt is that given by Mr. David Lee Child.* 
This enterprise is also referred to by Mr. B. B. Grant. Of 
the more recent endeavors he thus speaks: f 
“In 1863-’64 the brothers Gennert of New York, conceived the idea of 
manufacturing beet sugar. Mr. Thomas Gennert visited Europe for the pur¬ 
pose of studying the methods there employed. Upon his return the firm 
selected the prairie lands in the town of Chatsworth, Livingston county, 
Illinois; purchased twenty-three hundred acres, erected buildings, and com¬ 
menced the cultivation of beets. lu the process of time, they gathered their 
crop, which, owing to the drouth, and also to the unlavorable method of 
planting, yielded only ten to twelve tons to the acre. The beets were of 
excellent saccharine properties, containing twelve and a half per cent, of 
sugar. The heavy outlay required exhausted their means; or, to use their 
own words: ‘We started on too large a scale for our purse, which gave out 
too soon before the machinery required for successful working was finished ; 
but experience has shown us sufficiently that sugar enough is contained in 
the beets, and that it can be got out. With our imperfect, or rather incom¬ 
plete, machinery we extracted seven per cent, in melada. Those beets would 
average, with complete machinery, nine per cent.’ ” 
The testimony of the best authorities on this subject, and 
the attempts themselves, prove that the beet may be grown 
successfully on our soil, and that when capital and enterprise 
are brought to the aid of this industry, success in sugar-making 
will be assured beyond doubt. 
NEW PROCESSES AND MACHINERY. 
Before giving a detailed account of the machinery and 
apparatus used in the manufacture of beet-root sugar, it has 
been thought advisable to briefly enumerate the processes, and 
report the machinery employed at the present time. This 
notice is condensed from an article by Mr. Basset, published 
in Etudes sur VExposition. 
* The culture of the beet, and the manufacture of beet sugar, 1840. 
tBeet-root sugar and cultivation of the beet, by E. B. Grant. Boston, 1867. 
