| tured from the root of the white beet. 
as 
remarkably thick midribs; and its flower-spikes 
are produced from the wings of the leaves, and 
have narrow leaflets between the flowers. Its 
leaves are white, yellow, green, orange, or deep 
crimson, according to the variety; and its prin- 
cipal varieties are the common white beet, and 
the great white beet or Swiss chard. The stem 
and the leaf-rib are peeled and dressed like as- 
paragus or scorzonera, and are the parts properly 
called chards; and the leaves, deprived of these 
parts, are used asa pot herb. The seeds ought 
to be sown thinly, on an open and not too moist 
spot of ground, in the beginning of March. If 
the plants rise crowdedly, the leaves will be 
small, full of fibres, and comparatively worthless; 
and the common white ought not to be left 
nearer to one another than six inches,—the 
Swiss chard not nearer than ten inches. Fre- 
quent hoeings are required; and one bed of 
plants will yield leaves for use till the end of 
the second season. 
The sea beet, Beta maritima, grows wild on 
the sea-coast and in salt marshes, in various 
parts of England. It has a prostrate habit, 
usually attains a length of only about a foot, and 
has a tough woody root, and numerous entangled 
branches. Its leaves are small, oval-shaped, 
rather sharply pointed, succulent, and of a deep 
green colour; and its flowers are produced. in 
spikes, and appear in August. Its leaves are 
used as spinach ; and, when well dressed, are 
delicate, well-flavoured, and easily reducible to 
pulp. It is propagated from seeds in the same 
manner as the common beet; and it thrives in 
almost any garden soil, with little cultivation — 
The curled beet, Beta crispa, was introduced to 
| Britain from the south of Europe in 1800; and 
| it grows to the height of six feet, and is a hardy 
culinary plant.—The three-styled beet, Beta 
trigyna, is a rather pretty but nearly useless 
plant from Hungary.—The spreading beet, Beta 
patula, is an uninteresting and half-tender plant 
from Madeira. : 
BEET SUGAR, Crystallized sugar, manufac- 
Chemists 
have, for about a century, been aware of the 
saccharine wealth of different kinds of beet; a 
functionary of Berlin first publicly proposed the 
manufacture of sugar from beet, by boiling, 
slicing, and pressing the roots; Buonaparte 
caused beet to be annually cultivated, to the 
aggregate extent of upwards of 100,000 acres, 
in order to afford a substitute for the British 
colonial sugar, which he forbade to be imported ; 
many establishments, small and great, private 
and public, have since been set up, in several 
countries of Kurope, for the manufacture of beet 
sugar; and some fond speculations have occa- 
sionally been entertained as to the probability 
of this manufacture becoming an important de- 
partment of British industry, and a valuable 
stimulus to the labours of agriculture. But 
either to sketch a history of the manufacture, or 
to attempt an estimate of its capabilities, would 
be to accumulate an enormous mass of both 
political and fiscal matter, totally unsuited to 
the character of our work. 
‘One brief passage may serve as a specimen of 
the whole. While the French government en- 
couraged the manufacture of beet sugar, experi- 
ments were made on a considerable scale, and 
with great success, in the town of Bruges. 
machinery was inexpensive, and the remaining 
cost was merely that of manual labour, and a 
moderate consumption of fuel. The material 
itself came at a very low rate, about ten shillings 
British by the ton; and to this circumstance | 
may be chiefly attributed the cessation of the 
manufacture. 
farmer to give up a certain portion of his land 
to this root, without securing to him a fair re- 
muneration. The consequence was, that the 
manufacturers, thus supported, and taking ad- 
vantage of the constrained supply, have, in many 
instances, been known to refuse payment even 
of the carriage of a parcel, in other respects sent 
in gratuitously ; and a consequence still more 
natural was, that the farmers, wherever they had 
the opportunity of shaking off so profitless a 
crop, converted the space it occupied to better | 
To the manufacturer, the profit was | 
purposes. 
ample; an equal quantity of sugar with that of 
the West Indies, which at that time sold for five 
shillings the pound, could be produced on the 
spot from mangel-wurzel at less than one shilling | 
by the pound; and to such perfection had the 
sugar thus made arrived, that the prefect, mayor, 
and some of the chief persons of Bruges, who 
were invited by a manufacturer to witness the | 
results of his experiments, allowed the specimens | 
he produced to exceed those of the foreign sugar.” 
—[Newby’s Beta Depicta.] 
The root of the white beet, although so largely | 
employed in Europe in the manufacture of sugar, 
has not received a very minute chemical inves- 
tigation. 
found in the white Silesian beet, and nearly in 
the proportions indicated :— 
Water, on an average : 8 
Crystallizable sugar (average) . ] 
Vegetable fibre . , 
Albumen and nitrogenous substance . 
Pectin, malice acid, colouring and aromatic 
eubetances! fixed oil, bitter essential oil, 
chlorophyll, asparagin, oxalate -of lime, 
phosphates of lime and magnesia, malate 
and phosphate of ammonia, sulphate, mi- 
trate and oxalate of potassa, chlorides of 
potassium and sodium, esate silica and 
oxide of iron De 
100'00 
The quantity of sugar varies from 8 to 12 per 
cent., but in the progress of manufacture a por- 
tion of it is rendered uncrystallizable. Although 
a large yield might be expected from the above 
Maver | 
Instead of encouraging the culti- | 
vator, the government leaned altogether to the | 
manufacturer, and made it imperative on every | 
The following substances have been 
BEET SUGAR. 
