IRLF
1L WINTERHAi/rKV
APR 1 6
GIFT OF
W. K. Winterhalter
UNIVERSITY FARM
<f
. K.
BEET-ROOT SUGAR
•;;
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET,
BY E. B. GRANT.
BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD.;
1867.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866. by
B. B. GRANT,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
STEREOTYPED AT THB
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,
No. 4 Spring Lane.
GEO. C. RAND & AVERY, Cornhill Press.
PREFACE.
THE experience of Europe in the failure of their
supply of cotton, caused by the late war, should teach
the United States not to depend too exclusively upon
foreign countries for her supply of so necessary an
article as Sugar, of which the consumption is about
400,000 tons, while the production of all kinds within
her borders is less than 50,000 tons ; leaving 350,000
tons to be imported.
In case of war with a great maritime power, like
England or France, which would, in part at least,
prevent importation} sugars would necessarily advance
enormously.
The emancipation of slaves in the only remaining
strongholds of slavery — Cuba and Brazil (which is
simply a question of a very few years) — would prob
ably, at first, as it has always done elsewhere, diminish
the production of sugar in those countries at least
fifty per cent.
If such should prove to be the case, as this pro
duction exceeds 600,000 tons, the diminution would
make so serious an inroad upon the ordinary supplies
of the world that prices would materially advance.
It is, without doubt, within the power of the United
(3)
4 PREFACE.
States to produce, within her own borders, not only all
the sugar she requires for home consumption, but also
to become a large sugar-exporting country, and that
within a very few years. It is believed that the sugar
beet is the plant destined to effect this revolution, and
the reasons are set forth in the following pages.
The object of this book is to call attention to the
importance of beet-sugar production in the Old World,
and to demonstrate the advantage and feasibility of
establishing it in the United States.
Part I. is chiefly devoted to the history of beet sugar,
and the relative advantages of Europe and North
America for its production.
Part II. is wholly agricultural in its character, and
gives instruction for the choice of soil suitable for the
cultivation of beets ; the methods of preservation ; of
raising the seed ; and of the preservation and use of
the pulp.
Basset, in his work, " Guide Pratique du Fabricant
de Sucre," says, " The manufacture of sugar from beets
is one of the most important elements of public pros
perity.
" Resting on agricultural progress and the wants of
a constantly increasing population, allied by reason
of the cattle which it supports with the production of
meat and bread, based upon improving cultivation, it
renders to modern society the greatest services, at the
same time that it attains for itself the highest point
of prosperity and glory to which any industry ever
had the ambition to aspire."
CONTENTS.
PART I.
PAGE
SUGAK. Supply of the United States. — Manufacture of
Beet-root Sugar in Europe. — Location favorable for its
Production in the United States. — Value of Land and
of Coal 7
HISTORY OF BEET-ROOT SUGAR. Its Discovery. — Early
Experiments. — Extent of its Production and Use in
Europe. — Production in France and in Germany. — Prices
from 1816 to 1866. — Consumption of Sugar in Europe. —
Production of Sugar in the World. — Quality of Beet-root
Sugar. — Taxes 9-25
SUPPLY OF BEETS. Extent and Cost of their Cultivation.
— Average Yield. — Saccharine Contents. — Profits of
Cultivation. — Cost in France. — Probable Cost in the
United States. — Advantages of Beet Culture. . . . 26-39
COST OF BEET-ROOT SUGAR IN FRANCE. Methods of Man
ufacture.— Detailed Cost of Manufacture. —Yield of
Sugar. — Cost of Labor 40-46
PROFITS ON BEET-ROOT SUGAR. Estimated Profits in the
United States. — Ability to Compete with other Countries.
— Eecent Improvements in Europe 47-54
PRODUCTION OF SUGAR IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. Relative
Yield of the Cane and of the Beet 55, 56
ATTEMPTS TO MANUFACTURE BEET-ROOT SUGAR IN THE
UNITED STATES 57-63
GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF BEET-ROOT SUGAR MANUFAC
TURE. Effect produced in Europe by the Manufacture
of Beet-root Sugar. — Probable Effect of its Introduction
into the United States. — Opinions of Distinguished
Men. . . . , . 68-78
CONTENTS.
PART II.
THE BEET AND ITS CULTIVATION. Analysis of the Beet. —
Varieties. — Choice of Beets. — Choice of Soil. — Cli
mate 79-92
METHOD OF RAISING THE SUGAR BEET. Preparing the Soil.
— Ploughing. — Manuring. — Sowing. — Preparation of the
Seed. — Seed Sowers. — Method of Sowing. — Weeding.
— Thinning Out. — Cultivating. — Hoeing. — Transplant
ing. — Earthing Up 92-106
HARVESTING. Signs of Maturity. — Effect of Frost. —
Effect of Rains and of Drought.— Methods of Harvest
ing 106-110
PRESERVATION OF BEETS. In Silos or Pits. — In Piles. —
Method in Saxony. — In Massachusetts 110-120
SEED. Importance of selecting the Best. — German Method
of selecting Seed Beets. — Method of M. Vilmorin. —
Soil and Manure suitable for Seed Beets. — Method of
Preserving Beets for Seed. — Methods of Planting and
subsequent Culture. — Time of Harvest. — Method of
Saving the Seed. — Chinese Method of Cultivation. . 120-126
MANURES. General Effect of Manures on the Beet. —
French and German Systems of Applying Manures. —
Artificial Fertilizers. — Effect of different Fertilizers on
Saccharine Contents of Beets. — Stassfurt Manures. —
Analysis of the Ashes of Beets 126-134
ROTATION OF CROPS 134-136
BEET PULP. Method of Preserving Pulp. — Method of
Feeding it to Cattle 136-139
LEAVES OF BEETS. Their Uses. — Methods of Preserva
tion. — Their Effect upon Milch Cows 139-143
CULTURE OF THE BEET. Its Advantages to Farmers and
the Country 143
APPENDIX. . . . . 144-158
BEET-ROOT SUGAR.
PART I.
MY attention was drawn to the question of the sugar
supply of the United States by the very high prices
prevailing in the spring of 1865, and I commenced
the investigation of the subject early in the month of
March of the same year.
Having satisfied myself of the firm basis of the beet-
sugar industry in Europe, and that its establishment
in the United States was not only practicable, but also
promised to be highly remunerative, I spent several
weeks in pursuit of that locality which possessed in
the highest degree the advantages of cheap land, labor,
fuel, transportation, and also a high market for sugar.
Most of these conditions are fulfilled in the region
which I have selected, viz., — the coal and prairie lands
of Illinois, on the line of the Chicago and Rock Island
Railroad, — the territory being intersected, not only by
the above-named road, but also by the Illinois River
and the Illinois Canal, which secure cheap, easy, and
frequent transportation to Chicago, St. Louis, and the
(7)
$ BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
Mississippi River, with all important points in every
direction.
The condition sought that is unfulfilled is that of
cheap labor ; but it is a well-known fact that, notwith
standing the high price of labor, the peculiarly favor
able nature of the soil of Illinois for the use of agri
cultural machinery enables the farmer of that state
to cultivate land as cheaply as in any part of the
world. For the enterprise in question, moreover, it is
believed that the location is a favorable one, for it is
in the midst of a German population, many of whom
have had experience, in their own country, in the cul
tivation of beets and the manufacture of beet sugar.
Land can be bought at from twenty-five dollars to
forty-five dollars per acre. " Slack " or coal screenings
can be had at factory for one dollar and twenty-five
cents per ton ; and sugar is usually worth at Chicago,
by reason of its distance from the present sources of
supply, from one to one and one half cents per pound
more than upon the seaboard.
Having satisfied myself that the manufacture of
beet sugar in the State of Illinois promised to be prof
itable, it remained to acquaint myself with the pro
cess and condition of its manufacture in Europe ;
and for that purpose I sailed from the United States,
early in December last, furnished with letters which
have given me access to every establishment that I
desired to visit in France and Germany.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET.
HISTORY OF BEET SUGAR.
I will proceed to give a sketch of the history of
the beet-sugar manufacture in Europe, but principally
that of France, where this branch of industry is carried
on more scientifically and successfully than in any other
country.
The beet is supposed to be a native of Turkey, and to
have been introduced into France about the year 1595.
In the year 1 747, MargrafF, a Prussian chemist, dis
covered that sugar was contained in beets, and advised
his countrymen to cultivate them for the purpose of
making sugar.
In 1773, Achard, a Prussian chemist, tried various
experiments for the manufacture of beet sugar, under
the patronage of Frederick the Great. Prevented for
a time, by the death of Frederick, from pursuing his
investigation, he did not again attempt it until 1795,
when he planted sixty or seventy acres with beets.
In the year 1799 he presented several loaves of beet
sugar to the King of Prussia. He reported that he
had produced a good quality of raw sugar at sixty-
five centimes a kilogramme, or about six cents per
pound, and expressed the belief that his process was
susceptible of improvements that would reduce the
cost one half. This report of Achard having been
published in the annals of chemistry (" Annales de
Chimie"), a committee, consisting of some of the
most distinguished chemists of France, was appointed
by the Institute, to investigate the merits of Achard's
IO BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
discovery. Their report stated that the amount of
sugar extracted was rather less than one per cent.,
and the enterprise was abandoned, until Napoleon I.
again called attention to the subject, and appointed a
new committee to conduct further experiments. M.
Deyeux, a member of this committee, made his report
in 1810, and presented two loaves of sugar, equal in
every respect to the best sugar from the cane.
In this report neither the percentage of sugar ob
tained nor the cost of production was given. Reports
not well verified were published that in Germany from
four to six per cent, of sugar had been obtained.
By the experiments of M. Barruel, from fifty to
sixty per cent, only of juice was obtained from the
beet ; whereas the production at the present time is
from eighty to eighty-five per cent. The yield of
sugar was about one and one half per cent., while at
the present time in France it is about seven ; in Ger
many, eight to nine ; and in Russia, nine to ten per
cent. The cost was nearly thirty cents per pound,
while at the present time it is about four cents.
M. Derosne, a Frenchman, obtained about this
time two per cent, of sugar from the beet. Other
experiments yielded two and one half per cent. A
factory working 500 tons of beets in a season was
considered quite extensive. There are establishments
now in operation that work 60,000 tons.
A rasp then worked up about three tons per diem.
Now, from 150 to 300 tons a day are consumed by
one rasp.
In 1812 the continental blockade favored the estab
lishment of the beet-sugar industry. The cost of
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. II
manufacturing sugar was about 105 francs the hun
dred kilogrammes (say nine cents per pound).
Chemical schools and imperial factories were estab
lished, and government ordered the cultivation of
100,000 acres of beets. The sum of $200,000 was
placed in the hands of the minister of agriculture,
with which to encourage the production. Five hun
dred licenses to manufacture were given, and the in
digenous sugar was exempt from duty for four years.
The political events of 1814 caused the failure of all
the beet-sugar manufacturers but one, M. Crespel
Delisse, who continued to work.
Tn December, 1814, the impost on beet sugar was
fixed at forty francs the one hundred kilogrammes, —
about three and one third cents per pound, — and the
duty on foreign sugars at fifty per cent, advance (say
five cents per pound). This infused new life into the
industry ; manufacturers introduced great improve
ments in their establishments, improving the processes
of rasping and pressing to such an extent that they
obtained seventy per cent, of juice from the beet, in
lieu of fifty and sixty.
Bone black, or animal charcoal, was used in filtra
tion. Machinery driven by wind and water, as well
as by horses and oxen, replaced the more slow and
costly processes of hand labor.
The yield of sugar was from three to four per cent.,
and of molasses about five per cent. M. Crespel De
lisse claimed that he obtained five per cent, sugar and
4.8 molasses. The cost of manufacturing was about
eighty-five francs the hundred kilogrammes (say seven
cents per pound). From 1822 to 1830 the number
12 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
of manufactories largely increased. The yield of
sugar was about five per cent., and the cost of pro
duction from sixty to seventy francs the hundred kil
ogrammes (average, say five and one half cents per
pound).
In 1825 France produced 5000 tons of sugar in over
one hundred establishments. From 1830 to 1836 great
progress was made. The sugar produced was of im
proved quality, and amounted to about five per cent,
of the weight of beets worked. The introduction of
steam power increased the means of production ten
fold. In 1836 four hundred and thirty-six factories
were in operation.
The intimate relation between this branch of in
dustry and agriculture developed itself, and there
were no longer unimproved lands in the vicinity of a
sugar manufactory. In the department of the North,
where the industry was most firmly established, the
number of acres under cultivation in grain increased
enormously, the beet pulp furnishing farmers with the
means of feeding an increased number of cattle, thus
providing the means of fertilizing an increased amount
of land.
In 1837 government laid a manufacturer's tax on
domestic sugars of fifteen francs the hundred kilo
grammes (say one and one fourth cents per pound).
This caused the failure of one hundred and sixty-six
establishments.
In 1837 M. Payen, professor of the a School of
Arts and Manufactures," in a communication to the
" Royal and Central Agricultural Society," stated that
beets in a fresh state contained ten per cent, of crys-
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 13
tallizable sugar. They contained no uncrystallizable
sugar, neither grape nor mannite.
Nevertheless, by the processes in actual use there
was obtained but five or six per cent, in the two or
three first months after harvest, and later in the sea
son three to four per cent, only ; the whole average
being but four to five per cent.
He expressed the belief that inasmuch as the beet
contained ninety-five per cent, of juice, while there
was but seventy per cent, extracted, the yield of
sugar might be largely increased.*
In order to stimulate improvement, the " Society for
the Encouragement of Beet-sugar Manufacture " of
fered a prize of 10,000 francs to the person who should
* The sugar beet actually contains ninety- five per cent, of juice,
of which only eighty is usually extracted, although eighty-five
per cent, is occasionally obtained. Robert de Massy, of St.
Quentin, in France, has invented a method by which he claims
to obtain ninety-three per cent. The inventor is a very wealthy,
as well as an ingenious man, and claims that his process will not
only increase the yield of sugar from one to one and a half per
cent., but will also materially lessen expenses, as it dispenses with
all the hydraulic presses, hurdles, and sacks, besides diminishing the
number of workmen required in the factory. — I visited Mr. De
Massy's sugar factory at Busigny last winter with the proprietor,
to see the apparatus in operation, but an accident prevented its
working. Since my return, Mr. De Massy, through the " Jour
nal des Fabricants de Sucre," invited all the manufacturers to visit
Busigny on the 15th of May, for the purpose of s eing the appa
ratus at work. The amount of juice obtained at this trial was
eighty-nine per cent. ; but I infer from reading the article in which
an account of the meeting is given, that the experiment did not
thoroughly satisfy the manufacturers present of the value of the
invention in its then existing state.
14 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
find the means of extracting from beets containing ten
per cent, (without increasing the usual cost of manu
facture) eight per cent, of crystallized sugar in the
first four months of working, and 10,000 francs to any
one who should extract eight per cent, crystallized
sugar from any beets, without regard to the degree of
richness or time of manufacture.
I annex a table in which is shown the contrast
between the average results obtained in 1837, accord
ing to Mr. Pay en, and those of 1865 : —
1837. 1865.
Yield of beets to an acre, . 12 tons. . .16 tons.
Price of beets per ton, . . $3.00. . . . $3.25.
Percentage of sugar con
tained in beets, .... 10 per cent. . 11 1-2 per cent.
Percentage of sugar pro
duced from beets, . . . . 4 1-5 «« • . . 7 "
Cost of sugar per pound, . 7 3-10 cents . 4 cents
Sugar produced in France, . 49,000 tons. . 270,000 tons.
The production of sugar, which had risen to 49,000
tons in 1837, ^e^ to 395°°° m l%Z9i and to 22,000 in
1840.
The history of the beet-sugar industry from the year
1837 n^arly to the present day, is but the record of a
struggle on the part of the cane-sugar manufacturers
of the French colonies with their formidable rivals
the beet-sugar manufacturers of France : —
In 1843, the beet sugar produced, was, . . . 28,000 tons.
" colonial sugar imported 83,000 "
In 1848, beet sugar produced, 56,000 ••
" colonial sugar imported, 62,000 "
In 1850, beet sugar produced 64,000 "
" colonial sugar imported, 46.000 "
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. l£
To-day the French colonists have a protection on their
sugars in France of five francs the hundred kilogrammes
(about half a cent per pound). The beet-sugar man
ufacturers have no protection, competing at a disad
vantage with French colonial sugar, and upon equal
terms with the products of the rest of the world.
Notwithstanding this, the following figures show the
relative importance of the French traffic in native,
foreign, and colonial sugars in the year 1865-6 : —
Colonial importations 76,103 tons.
Foreign " 144,083 "
Beet sugar manufactured, 270,000 "
Beet sugar fifty-five per cent, of the total traffic. The
exportation of refined sugar for the same period was
114,150 tons, mostly of foreign and colonial sugars,
owing to the policy of the French government, which,
to encourage its commerce, accords an advantage to
the refiner of foreign sugar for exportation, leaving
the supply of the home consumption almost entirely
in the hands of the manufacturers of beet sugar.
Except in the immediate vicinity of the seaboard
cities of France, no sugar is used but the beet. The
same is true of Germany. Not an ounce of any other
is consumed in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Dresden,
Leipsic, or Munich.
In 1853-4 tne high price of alcohol — one hundred
and eighty-five francs the hectolitre (one dollar and
fifty-seven cents per gallon) — induced some twenty
manufacturers of sugar to convert their factories into
distilleries, and in 1854-5 nearly one hundred more
pursued the same course.
1 6 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
Since 1840 the production of beet sugar in France
has doubled every ten years.
In 1830 the consumption of sugar in France was
about two pounds per head, of which the beet-sugar
manufacturer produced nine per cent.
In 1865 the consumption was over fourteen pounds
per head, and the beet-sugar manufacturer produced
more than enough to supply the home demand, al
though the total consumption had in the mean time
increased tenfold.
There were sixty manufactories of beet sugar in
Austria in 1840 ; in 1865 the number had increased to
one hundred and forty.
The states of the Zollverein have nearly quadrupled
their production in the past fifteen years, 52,586 tons
having been produced in 1850, against 180,000 tons in
1865-6. In the same time the quantity of imported
sugar has fallen from 52,568 tons to 12,562 tons,
proving that cane sugar is almost entirely expelled
from Germany. In 1865-6 there were thirty new
establishments built in Germany, and many old ones
enlarged their machinery.
It will be seen by the following table which gives
an idea of the importance and progress of this indus
try, that although the number of factories was but
ninety-six in 1845, against one hundred and forty-
five in 1840, yet the amount of sugar produced was
greater. Establishments were consolidated and en
larged, it being found economical to work upon a
more extended scale. This table also shows the in
creasing tax paid upon the raw beets, which rose
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET.
from twelve cents per ton in 1840 to three dollars and
fifty-six cents in 1865.
TABLE
Showing approximately the Quantities of Beets used
in the Manufactories of the Zollverein, the Prod-
ticts extracted, and Rate of Taxation, from 1840-1
to 1865-6.
*s
•8
i
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V
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«3
s
sl
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si
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0 cS
a
be
E3
CS fl
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x«
in
&*"
m
M
^
H
CO
^
H
H
1840
145
241,486
13,445
8,955
18
5.55
3.7
9.25
.12
1845
96
222,754
14,850
6,905
15
6.67
3.1
9.77
.71
1850
184
736,215
52,586
19,877
14
7.14
2.7
9.84
1.42
1851
234
914,495
60,966
27,434
15
6.67
3
9.67
1.42
1858
257
1,833,427
146,674
45,835
12.5
8
2.5
10.50
3.56
1860
247
1,467,701
126,526
35,224
11.6
8.62
2.4
11.02
3.56
1861
242
1,584,619
122,838
38,050
12.9
7.75
2.4
10.15
3.56
1862
247
1,835,663
138,042
44,055
13
7.52
2.4
9.92
3.56
1863
253
1,999,576
151,180
47,989
13.2
7.55
2.4
9.95
3.56
1864
270
2,079,729
165,978
49,913
12.4
7.98
2.4
10.28
3.56
1865
300
2,106,000
180,000
50,544
11.7
8.54
2.4
10.94
3.56
The average yield of sugar for the past eight years
has been over eight per cent., and of molasses about
2.40 ; but this includes, of course, the results of all the
poorly managed establishments, many of which are
worked by the old process. I have visited several
establishments where the yield of sugar averaged
nine per cent., and of molasses two and a half to three
per cent., throughout the season.
In France, too, where the whole average yield is
perhaps rather less than seven per cent, of sugar, I
1 8 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
know of establishments, working by improved pro
cesses, where the yield is from seven and three fourths
to eight per cent, of superior sugar, and from three
to three and a half per cent, of molasses.
There were 86,000 acres of land in cultivation with
beets in France in 1850, and 297,000 acres in 1865.
The product from this land was manufactured into
sugar and alcohol, 270,000 tons of the former and
6,000,000 gallons of the latter having been produced
in 1865.
The products obtained from beets in France, in
about the following proportions, are, pulp, twenty per
cent. ; sugar, seven per cent. ; alcohol, three fourths
per cent. ; potash, one fifth per cent. ; soda, one tenth
per cent.
The pulp is the refuse of the beet after the extrac
tion of the juice. It is fed to cattle and sheep, which
are extremely fond of it, and are quickly fattened
upon it.
It is worth from two dollars and seventy-five cents
to three dollars per ton at the factories, and is esti
mated to be worth, for feeding purposes, one third as
much as the best hay.
After the sugar is extracted from the juice there
remains about three per cent, of the original weight
of the beet in the form of molasses, from which alcohol
is distilled.
The molasses, which usually sells at from fifteen to
eighteen cents per gallon, produces twenty-five per
cent, of 90° alcohol. The cost of distillation is less
than twenty cents per gallon of alcohol.
After the extraction of the alcohol, there remains
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 19
from ten to twelve per cent, of the weight of the
molasses in the following salts, in the proportions
given below : —
Per cent.
Carbonate of potash, 40.33
Sulphate of potash, 2.46
Hydrochlorate of potash, 22.10
Soda 34.14
Sulphur and divers matters, 97
100.00
The potash and the soda are extracted at a cost not
exceeding three and a half cents per pound.
The following table shows the average prices, ex
clusive of duties, of No. 12 raw sugar in Paris from
1816 to 1828: —
1816 12-3^ cents. J823 8^ cents.
1817 ii A " 1824 ioT3<y "
1818 i2TV " 1825 9^ "
1819 n-fs " 1826
1820 ioT8^ " 1827
1821 ioT8<y " 1828 9^ "
1822 7^ "
From 1828 to 1854 *ne Price gradually fell, and the
following table shows the average prices from 1854
to 1865: —
1854 5T8iy cents. 1860 6TV cents.
1855 6 " 1861 5^ «
1856 6TV " 1862
1857 7T6(i " 1863
1858 $£> " 1864
1859 6A " 1865
2O BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
The price in April, 1866, was four and three fourths
cents per pound.
The preceding table shows that the price of sugar
has constanly fallen since 1816. Yet production has
steadily increased.
It will be seen that the price of sugars, exclusive of
duties, was in 1816 about three times greater than
at present. But this does not fully convey an idea of
the difference in the state of things existing then and
now.
From 1816 to 1833 beet sugars were protected by a
duty on foreign sugars varying from five to eight cents
per pound.
From 1833 to 1840 they had a protection of two
and one fourth to five and three fourth cents per
pound.
From 1840 to 1860 they were protected by a duty
of from one to three and a half cents per pound on
foreign sugar.
From 1860 to the present time, not only has there
been no protection as against foreign sugars, but sugars
of the French colonies have had an advantage over all
others of nearly half a cent per pound.
In addition to constantly diminishing price, with
steadily decreasing protection, wages have doubled,
and it is to increased skill alone that beet-sugar manu
facture owes its present existence.
The following table shows the production of beet
sugar in France from 1828 to 1865 : —
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET.
21
Year.
Tons.
Year.
Tons.
Year.
Tons.
1828
4,665
1841
26,000
1854
77,000
1829
4,380
1842
30,000
1855
45,000
1830
5,500
1843
28,000
1856
92,000
1831
7,000
1844
30,000
1857
80,874
1832
9,000
1845
37,000
1858
150,444
1833
12,000
1846
49,000
1859
131,762
1834
20,000
1847
60.000
1860
130,000
1835
30,000
1848
53,000
1861
146,414
1836
40,000
1849
44,000
1862
173,675
1837
49,000
1850
64,000
1863
108,495
1838
47,000
1851
75,000
1864
145,745
1839
39,000
1852
60,000
1865
270,000
1840
22,000
1853 i 75,000
The following table shows the number of beet-sugar
manufactories in Europe, with their production, in
! 865-6: —
France,
270,000 1
ion
Holland,
5,000
u
Austria,
80,000
u
Zollverein,
180,000
u
Russia,
50,000
u
Belgium,
30,000
a
Poland,
14,000
a
Sweden,
1,000
u
Total,
630,000
8
u
2 "
140
u
unknown.
300
((
14 building.
438
11
unknown.
63
It
2 building.
54
a
2 "
3
(I
unknown.
1426
38
It is stated by Mr. William Reed, an English au
thority, that Great Britain, which consumed 10,000
tons of sugar in 1700, consumes at the present time
566,000 tons.
Consumption of sugar in the following countries in
1865: —
22 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
Tons. Pounds per head.
Great Britain, .... 566,220 37T3tf
France, ...... 268,200 14^
Switzerland, .... 18,000 14!
Zollverein, 150,000 9
Spain and Portugal, . . 60,000 6
Italy, Turkey, and Greece, 110,000 5^
Sweden and Norway, . . 15,000 5
Poland, 10,000 4
Austria, 50,000 2§-
Russia, 57?ooo if
Holland, Belgium, &c., 50,000
Total, 1,354,420
From the two preceding tables it appears that
Europe produced from beets in 1865-6 nearly one
half her consumption.
The chief sugar-producing plants are the sugar-cane
(Arundo saccharifcra), the beet {Beta vulgaris},
the date-palm (Phoenix sylvestris], and the sugar-
maple (Acer sacch arinuni).
The total production of sugar in the world is not
far from 2,800,000 tons, in about the following pro
portions : —
Sugar-cane, 71.42 percent., or 2,000,000 tons.
Beet, 22.50 " " 630,000 "
Palm, 5.00 " " 140,000 "
Maple, i. 08 " " 30,000 "
2,800,000
It will be seen that the beet furnishes nearly one
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 23
quarter (twenty-two and a half per cent.) of the sugar
of the world.
Arnold Baruchson & Co., in giving the statement
of the London sugar market in their circular of March
10, 1866, say, " The greatest attention ought to be
paid by dealers to the beet-sugar crop of Europe, for
it is clear that before long she will produce all her
own sugar."
There was formerly a prejudice in the minds of
many people against beet sugar ; but it is perfectly
well ascertained, that, if properly refined, it cannot be
distinguished from the best sugar of sugar-cane, either
by taste, appearance, or chemical analysis : the two
are identical.
William Reed, of London, says, in his recently pub
lished work, " History of Sugar and Sugar-yielding
Plants," " Beet-root sugar is not only identical in every
respect with cane sugar, but much of the Dutch lump
sugar is actually the produce of beet root. The cir
cumstance cannot be too much insisted upon, that the
seeming distinction between yellow beet sugar and
yellow cane sugar depends on the extraneous colored
matters present. These, when eliminated by re
fining, leave white materials in all respects identical.
There is positively no difference between these two,
whether of color or of grain. Grain or crystals can
from either be developed to the size of the largest
candy if desired ; in fact, at the present moment
(1866), France is sending here large white crystals,
produced from beet root, to compete with London,
Bristol, and Scotch, and other crystal manufactories."
With the exception of London, most of the principal
24 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
cities of Europe use no other sugar than that of the
beet ; and even in England the consumption is rapidly
increasing, Great Britain having, in the year 1865, im
ported 70,000 tons, which is in high favor with the
refiners.
The "Journal des Fabricants cle Sucre," in its
issue of January 4, 1866, says, " One of the most re
markable and interesting facts of the past year k the
exportation of considerable quantities of beet sugar
from France to England — a country that not many
years ago tried to stifle the beet-sugar industry in its
infancy."
Referring to the fact that Achard, the Prusian chem
ist, stated that, after the first report of his discoveries in
making sugar from the beet had been published, the
English government, frightened by the effect it might
have upon trade with their West India colonies,
offered him a large sum of money to acknowledge
publicly that he had been mistaken in the result of his
experiments. But he indignantly refused the humili
ating offer, and continued to publish the results of his
labors.
The cost of producing from the beet a pure white
sugar, entirely free from unpleasant smell or taste, is
but a trifle more than is required to produce a lower
grade. In Germany refined loaf sugar is produced
directly from the beet. In France the brown is first
produced, and then refined. Within the last two
years, however, sugar has been produced of such
purity and whiteness, that it has been sold directly
for consumption without refining ; and there is no
question that the peculiar odor of the beet may be
entirely got rid of in the manufactory.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 25
Such is the present condition of beet-sugar manur
facture in Europe. More than one third of the sugar
there consumed is made from beets ; and the progress
of the industry is such, that it is perfectly clear, that
within a few years the importation of sugar into
Europe will entirely cease.
It is the constant effort of the French sugar manu
facturer at the present day to induce government to
reduce the duties and imposts on sugar, feeling that the
reduction in the price consequent upon such action
would largely increase consumption. He does not
ask for protection against the manufacturers of cane su
gar in any part of the world ; for although the industry
is entirely the creation of the protective policy, yet un
der it so great an amount of skill has been acquired,
and the cost of manufacture has consequently been so
reduced, that he is now able to compete upon equal
terms with the whole world.
In France, the impost is laid upon the sugar pro
duced ; in Belgium, it was formerly laid upon the juice
expressed from the beets ; but at present it is upon
the sugar, as in France ; in Germany, upon the beets ;
in Austria, upon the sugar produced, or upon an agreed
estimate of the capacity of the mill ; in Russia, upon
the hydraulic presses. It varies in the different coun
tries from forty to eighty-five dollars per ton.
26 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
SUPPLY OF BEETS.
Having given an account of the rise and progress
of the sugar industry in Europe, and demonstrated,
as I trust, that it rests upon a firm basis, I shall pro
ceed to consider the feasibility of establishing it in this
country.
In comparing the relative positions of the two coun
tries, I shall draw my comparisons chiefly with
France, as the representative of Europe, the condi
tions of trade there being more nearly akin to those
of the United States than in any other country ; reli
able statistics in this department of industry are more
readily procured there than elsewhere in Europe, and
the spirit of enterprise is so great among Frenchmen,
that whatever improvement in the manufacture of su
gar has been originated elsewhere, it has been seized
upon, improved, and perfected in France.
And first as to the ability to procure in the United
States raw beets, of good saccharine properties, upon
reasonable terms.
The experience of Europe shows that beet of rich
quality can be profitably cultivated from the Medi
terranean to the North Sea, and from the Atlantic to
the heart of Russia.
M. Mauny de Mornay says of the beet, that " all cli
mates seem to suit it. It flourishes in the north and
in the south. Moisture favors its development, but
drought does not prevent its yielding good products.
It may be regarded as the only root cultivated in Pro-
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 27
vence that also succeeds in the centre of the empire."
Tomlinson says, in his Cyclopedia, " It has been
shown by practical experiment and chemical analysis,
that there is no material difference in beet grown over
a region extending from the Atlantic to the Caspian
Sea, and from the Mediterranean Sea nearly to the
Arctic Ocean."
The universal testimony of the che-mists, manufac
turers, and farmers, with whom I conversed, was, that
any good wheat land was suitable for beets. The
sugar beet is almost identical with the mangel wur-
zel, the cultivation of which for stock has been very
extensively and successfully practised in the Northern
and Western States.
Repeated analyses made in the United States of
beets, as well as of carrots, and other sugar-containing
vegetables, show that they contain as much sugar as
similar vegetables in Europe.
An analysis made of sugar beets, raised in Illinois,
showed that they contained twelve and one half per cent.
(12^-) of crystallizable sugar in October, and eleven
and four tenths per cent, in the following spring. A
fair average percentage of sugar in the beet of France
is eleven and one half per cent., in Germany it is about
thirteen per cent., and in Russia even richer.
The quality of the beet has been very much im
proved within a few years, and within the last year
extraordinary results have been attained, beets having
been produced, containing even as high as eighteen per
cent, of sugar. In one instance twenty-one per cent,
was contained. •
The quality of the beet, as well as the amount ex-
28 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
tracted from it, is largely affected by legislation and
the price of labor. In France the impost tax is laid
on the sugar produced ; the consequence is, that the
farmer strives for large crops, beets being sold by the
ton, and he pays comparatively little heed to the
quality.
In Germany, however, the impost is laid upon the
beet ; the cultivator consequently strives to produce a
beet rich in sugar, paying greater attention to quality
than to quantity.
In France labor is comparatively high, and the
manufacturer is contented to obtain in sugar and mo
lasses within two per cent, of all the saccharine matter
contained in the beet, the extraction of the last two
per cent, being costly in labor. The remaining pulp
is also better for cattle than when a greater proportion
is extracted.
In Germany, where wages are low, the pulp is more
completely exhausted, and the manufacturer is not
satisfied unless he obtains, in sugar and molasses,
within from one half to one per cent, of all the existing
saccharine matter.
A crop of beets was raised in Illinois, two years
ago last summer, under the following disadvantageous
circumstances. New prairie land was broken up, and
the seed planted on the upturned sod — a course rarely
pursued by good farmers anywhere ; the beet requiring
for its proper development a soil previously cultivated,
in which the sod has been entirely rotted. The sea
son was extremely dry, and the yield averaged from
ten to twelve tons only, to the acre, of beets contain
ing about twelve per cent, in sugar. The total cost.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 29
including the breaking up of the land, harvesting, and
transportation, was three dollars and forty cents per
ton.
In France the average yield of beets is from fifteen
to eighteen tons per acre, frequently rising to thirty,
and often to forty tons, while in one instance within
my knowledge, nearly sixty-two tons were produced
from a single acre. There is also an authentic account
of a crop of over sixty-eight tons to an acre. In 1865
whole districts produced thirty-two tons per acre.
The cost of producing an acre of beets in Illinois,
where all the conditions favor cheap cultivation, would
not much exceed the cost of a crop of sorghum, which is
estimated as low as thirty-five dollars, and is certainly
not more than forty-five dollars per acre.
According to Flint's " Agriculture of Massachu
setts," F. H. Williams, of Sunderland, cultivated one
hundred and eighty-four rods, or an acre and an eighth,
of land in broom-corn, at a cost of $38.32. This, in
cluding harvesting, cleaning the seed, and also eigh
teen dollars for manure, makes a total cost per acre
of less that $34.
The same authority states that Alonzo P. Good-
ridge, of Worcester North, cultivated a crop of ruta
bagas at a cost of $70 per acre, including $32 worth
of manure. Yield, 43,880 pounds, or more than 19^
tons, to an acre. Cost, $3.59 per ton.
Mr. Goodridge also raised a crop of sugar beets at
the same cost, and with the same amount and value of
manure. Yield, 38,520 pounds, or about 17^ tons, to
an acre. Cost, $4.05 per ton.
S. D. Smith, of West Springfield, raised a crop of
30 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
sugar beets at a cost, of $38 per acre, including $i6for
manure. Yield, 38,070 pounds, or 17 tons, to an acre.
Cost, $2.23 per ton.
William Birnie, of Springfield, raised a crop of
mangel-wurzel, in 1859, on 2^ acres of land, at a cost
of $82 per acre, including $40 per acre for manure.
Yield of mangel-wurzel, 76,000 pounds, or nearly 34
tons per acre. There were also harvested on the same
land 400 heads of cabbage, besides 30 two-horse loads
of beet-tops for milch cows. Cost per ton of beets,
excluding value of tops or of cabbages, $2.38.
Mr. Birnie says, " I estimate that the improved con
dition of the land, after the crop is taken off, will more
than balance the interest on its cost for the year."
Dr. Long, of Holyoke, raised a crop of ruta bagas,
in 1860, at a cost of $48 per acre, including $12 for
manure. Yield, 43,608 pounds, or nearly 20 tons,
per acre. Cost, $2.40 per ton.
W. G. Wyman, of Worcester North, raised a crop
of ruta bagas, at a cost of $50 per acre, including $36
for manure. Yield, 49,600 pounds, or more than 22
tons, per acre. Cost, $2.27 per ton.
According to the United States Agricultural Report
for 1864, Thomas Messinger, of Long Island, N. Y.,
raised a crop of yellow globe mangel-wurzel at a
cost of $57 per acre, including rent and every other
expense. Yield, 111,000 pounds, or more than
tons, to an acre. Cost, $1.15 per ton.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET,
Tabular Statement of the Crops described.
Name of cultivators.
Crops.
Yield
per ac.,
tons.
Cost of
manure
per acre.
Total
cost per
acre.
Cost
per ton.
Alonzo Flint,
A. P. Goodridge,
Dr. Long,
W. G. Wyman,
Wm. Birnie,
Thos. Messinger,
A. P. Goodridge,
S. D. Smith,
Broom-corn,
Ruta baga,
Ruta baga,
Ruta baga,
Mangel-wurzel,
Mangel-wurzel,
Sugar beet,
Sugar beet,
Average
19£
20
22
34
49i
17*
17
$16
32
12
36
40
32
16
$34
70
48
50
82
57
70
38
3.59
2.40
2.27
2.38
1.15
4.05
2.23
2.72
25.6
26.28
56.12
The average yield of roots to an acre was 25T60-
tons ; the cost per ton was $2.72 ; the value of manure
applied was $26.28 ; and the average gross cost of
cultivation was $56.12 per acre.
The cost of cultivation, exclusive of manure, was
$29.84 per acre, or $1.16 per ton of roots.
The usual average cost of cultivating sorghum,
broom-corn, mangel-wurzel, and sugar beets is about
the same.
The average price paid for beets in France, in 1865,
was eighteen francs, say three dollars and fifty cents
per ton ; but at the close of the season, some were
bought as low as two dollars per ton.
The average price for the last twenty years has been
probably about three dollars and twelve cents per ton.
An acre of land producing twenty tons of beets,
sold at three dollars and fifty cents per ton, would
yield seventy dollars, — and with a yield of thirty tons
one hundred and five dollars per acre.
What other crop could an Illinois farmer cultivate
32 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
that would yield him such a return ? The following
table shows that the principal crops raised in the North
ern and Western States do not yield anything like such
returns.
TABLE
Showing the Average Yield and Cash Value of
Corn, Wheat, Rye, and Oats, on one acre of land,
in twenty-two of the United States, for four years,
from 1862 to 1865 inclusive, according to the Re
port of the Agricultural Department for June,
1866.
Bushels. Price per bushel. Value per acre.
Corn, . . 32.99 per acre. $ .86 $28.57
Wheat, . 14.34 " J-57 22-44
Rye, . . 15.94 " 1.03 15.98
Oats, . . 28.56 " .58 16.52
Average value of crops, per acre, $20.87.
The introduction of the manufacture of beet sugar
in the West would give to the farmer a market for
beets at his own door, and the establishment of a man
ufacturing population in his vicinity would give him
a home market for the other productions of his farm.
In France the manufacturer contracts with the
farmer for the culture of a certain number of acres in
beets, at a fixed price per ton, and the crop is always
sold in advance of its production.
The relative cost, in the department of the Maine et
Loire, of raising an acre of beets, and an acre of wheat,
by the same cultivator, and in the same year, is shown
by tflfe following figures. It is fair to remark, however,
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 33
that labor in the region referred to is somewhat lower
than in the north of France, where the beet is most
extensively cultivated.
The total cost of cultivating and harvesting the
beets on 580^5- acres of land was as follows : —
Four Ploughings, $9.18 per acre . . $5,335-34
Manures, . . . 9.77 " " . . 5,676.31
Seeds, ..... 53 u " • • 3IO46
Sowing, .... 1.84 " " . . 1,078.35
Cultivation, . . . 3.56 " " . . 2,069.10
Harvesting, ... 1.42 u " . . 827.64
Transportation, . 1.18 " " . . 690.09
Sundries, ... .27 " " . . 156.26
Total, . . .$27.75 » » . $16,143.55
The total cost of cultivating and harvesting the
wheat on 11- acres of land was as follows : —
Ploughings, .... $4.04 per acre $2,065.37
Manures, ..... 7.46 " " . 3,817.68
Seed-sowing, .... 3.55 " " . 1,818.30
Harrowing and rolling, 1.28 " " . 658.98
Harvesting and threshing, 3.40 " " . 1,745.12
Sundries, ...... 27 " " . 138.81
Total, .... $20.00 " " $10,244.26
From the above figures it appears that the cost of
cultivating and harvesting an acre of beets was $27.75,
and of an acre of wheat $20.00. Rent of land is not
included in either account. The cost, then, of the acre
of beets, was nearly thirty-eight per cent, more tlian
that of the acre of wheat.
*
34 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
The cost of preparing and planting the ground in
Illinois with a crop of beets would not exceed that
of preparing and planting it with corn, for it would
all be done by the same machinery that is now used.
The increase of cost would arise from the greater
amount of hand labor required on the beets to keep
them entirely free from weeds. In France this labor
is all done by the piece. The following are the prices
paid for each • operation subsequent to planting the
seed upon the above-described field, containing 580^
acres : —
First weeding, $1.18 per acre.
Second weeding, .... 1.03 "
Third weeding, 90 "
Thinning out, ...... .23 "
Pulling the beets, .... 1.42 "
Loading into wagon, . . . .03 per ton.
Putting into " silos," ... .04 "
At these prices the workmen make from thirty-eight
to forty-two cents per day. Much of the work is done
by women and children.
On a crop of twenty tons to the acre, the cost of
this labor would amount to $6.16 per acre. It is cer
tainly safe to assume that the same work would not
cost over twenty dollars per acre in this country ; for I
have found that the prices of labor in the United
States are certainly not more than three times those
prevailing in France, where a farm hand gets from
fifty to sixty cents per day in gold.
The usually estimated cost of cultivating beets in
France is from four hundred and fifty to six hundred
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 35
francs per hectare, which is from thirty-five to forty-
eight dollars per acre. This includes taxes, and also
rent of land, which latter varies from eight to twen
ty-five dollars per acre per annum ; and manures, which
are applied at a cost of from ten to fifteen dollars per acre.
Labor, of men, horses, and oxen, including ploughing,
harvesting, and transport of crop to the manufactory,
does not materially exceed fifteen dollars per acre.
I submit here the estimate of a practical French
gentleman upon the cost of labor on an acre of beets.
Ploughing, $5.54
Weeding. 3.96
Harvesting, 1.98
Transport, 3.96
Total, $15.44
I can see no reason, then, why the western farmer
cannot cultivate an acre of beets at a cost certainly
not exceeding forty-five to fifty dollars, for the COST
of his acre of land will not average TWICE THE AN
NUAL RENT of the acre in France ; and unless the
present system of cultivation is materially changed, he
will not apply fifteen dollars worth of manure to the
acre, as they do in France. The use of labor-saving
machines would probably enable him to diminish con
siderably the amount of hand labor employed, as com
pared with France. Even if he employ the same
amount, and pay three times the prices paid by the
French, not only for his laborers, but for his teams
also, his work will not cost him over forty-five dollars
per acre.
36
BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
Assuming that the cost of cultivating an acre of
beets would be even as high as sixty dollars per acre,
— which is from fifteen to twenty-five dollars more than
the cost of an acre of sorghum, — that the crop pro
duced would be as great as that of a fair yield in
France, or say twenty tons, then at four dollars per ton
the crop would produce eighty dollars, leaving a direct
net profit of twenty dollars per acre — a sum nearly
as great as the gross receipts average at present, as
shown by table on page 32.
I have said a direct net profit of twenty dollars per
acre, because it has been found in Europe that there is
also an indirect profit on the beet crop in the large
increase of crops succeeding it, and in the cattle sup
ported upon the pulp ; experiments having conclusively
proved that lands now yield from two to three times
as much grain, and support from eight to ten times as
many cattle, in the beet-growing districts as they did
before the beet was introduced. The great beet-pro
ducing districts of France are the grain districts, and
cattle districts also. The three branches of agriculture
always co-exist.
David Lee Child published, in 1840, a book, to
which further reference will be made hereafter. He
cultivated sugar beets in Northampton, in this state, in
1838-9. He stated, as the result of his observation in
France in 1836, that " the crops of beets in that country
averaged about thirteen tons to the acre," * and that
the result at Northampton was about the same. The
* Since Mr. Child's visit, cultivation has not only largely in
creased the production per acre, but it has considerably improved
the saccharine properties of the beet.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 37
sugar contained in the French beet was ten to ten
and one half per cent., and in those raised at North
ampton seven and one half to nine per cent. He
attributed " the inferiority in richness to the inexpe
rience of cultivators, and mainly to improper manuring.
The probability is, that with equal culture our beets
will surpass, in saccharine richness, those of France."
Mr. Child estimated the cost of raising a crop of
beets at forty-two dollars per acre. He " had seen a
great number of estimates based on more or less prac
tice ; and the great agreement which we find among
them satisfies us that the general result may be relied
upon. They are all very near forty dollars per acre.
The lowest is thirty-five dollars and the highest is for
ty-four dollars."
At the same time Mr. Child estimated the cost of cul
tivating an acre of corn at thirty-one dollars and fifty
cents, and an acre of broom corn at forty-two dollars.
He says that the cost of cultivating an acre of beets
and that of an acre of broom corn are exactly alike.
This corresponds with what I have said about the
sorghum, the cultivation of which is identical with
that of broom corn. He says, moreover, in reference
to the corn and broom-corn crops, —
" But neither of these crops is an enriching or a
cleaning crop : the beet is both, exterminating every
noxious plant, and leaving good stuff on the ground,
which ploughed in is equal to a quarter or half manur
ing, i. e., to five or ten loads of manure per acre and
the expense of carting it."
In cane-sugar-producing countries the number of
acres "tended" by a hand varies from one to five,
38 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
according as agricultural machinery is more or less
used. The cane in Louisiana is an eight or nine
months' crop, and is cut before maturity.
In the West Indies it is in cultivation, before cutting,
for a period of from eleven to fifteen months. The
beet grows to maturity in France in from four to five
months ; in the United States in from three to four
months. In France, with the aid of a horse, one hand
will easily "tend" five acres of beets. I know of
instances where a hand, with a horse, has done the
whole work on five hectares, or twelve acres, of beets.
Mr. Child, in 1839, estimated that the whole num
ber of days' labor on an acre of beets would vary from
fifteen to nineteen.
In Illinois, a man, with a pair of horses, tends easily
fifty acres of corn, and far more than that amount has
been cultivated by one hand. I claim, therefore, that
with the improved methods of cultivation now in prac
tice, a man can easily cultivate six acres of beets in
four months, and have more than half his time for
other labors. The cultivation of six acres of cane
would occupy a man exclusively for eight months.
The labor, then, upon the acre of cane, is, at least,
twice that on an acre of beets.
It will be shown that the product, per acre, of sugar
from beets, is greater than the general average from
cane.
But the advantages in favor of beet culture do not
stop here. The cane crop is exhausting ; it is a bad
forerunner of other crops ; the ground on which it is
cultivated must lie fallow at least half the time ; it
feeds and fattens no sheep, cattle, nor swine ; conse-
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 39
quently, it affords little material for enriching the soil.
The beet, on the contrary, is an enriching and cleaning
crop. It requires no fallow ; it is the very best known
forerunner of other crops ; it feeds multitudes of stock,
and, instead of impoverishing the soil, constantly im
proves it.
In fact, there can be no doubt that the beet crop will
be found to be as profitable to the farmer here as it
unquestionably has been to the European farmer.
The farmers of the west possess many great advan
tages over those of Europe.
They have a virgin soil prodigiously productive,
easily cultivated, and of low cost, and agricultural
machinery with which one man will do the work of
a dozen. Probably, notwithstanding the high price
of labor, there is no other country in which an acre
of land is cultivated so cheaply as in the west.
I have conversed with a great many farmers in no
less than twelve of the Northern and Western States,
and have found no one who did not say that there
would be no difficulty in getting all the beets we could
consume for less than four dollars per ton. The im
pression among those farmers generally was, that it
would cost from forty to fifty dollars an acre to raise a
crop of beets ; some placed it as low as thirty-five, and
none over fifty dollars. If these estimates should prove
to be correct, the cost of beets, with an ordinary yield,
would be from two to three dollars per ton.
If it be true, then, that beets equally rich in sugar
can be raised in the west as cheaply as in Europe, it
only remains to inquire if that sugar can be extracted
at a profit.
40 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
COST OF BEET SUGAR IN FRANCE.
There are various methods of making sugar from
beets employed in Europe, of which the following are
but a part : —
The old method of rasping, pressing, treating with
lime, evaporating in open boilers, crystallizing in large
moulds or in pans, draining, and crushing.
This method, in some factories, is modified by the
introduction of the vacuum pan. In others the cen
trifugal machine takes the place of the slower method
of moulds and of pans, for the purpose of throwing
off the molasses.
In other establishments, instead of using hydraulic
presses, juice is extracted from the pulp in centrifugal
machines in which large quantities of water are used.
In others the " process of diffusion," so called, by
which the beets are cut into thin slices, and the sac
charine matter exhausted by steeping them in water
in a series of vessels.
In others the process of " maceration" is applied to
small slices of beets, called " cossettes," which are
dried and then steeped in water in a range of " mace-
rators."
In others there is a single saturation with carbonic
acid gas after defecation.
In others the " Maumene process," or the system of
cold defecation, is employed.
In others the sirup of the beets is "strengthened"
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 41
by the addition of sugar, and the refined loaf is pro
duced directly from the beet.
In some establishments the old-fashioned " scum
press," worked by hand, is seen, while others have
" hydraulic scum presses." A score of different meth
ods are employed in various parts of Europe for the
treatment of the " scum."
In my judgment, however, incomparably the best
process is the system of " double carbonitation," so
called, of Perier and Possoz.
This method reduces the quantity of bone black
required to a very small amount, allowing the beets to
be worked later in the spring, producing a larger
percentage of sugar, of better quality and at lower
cost, than by any other method.
Taken in conjunction with the " hydraulic press,"
" Riedel's filter press," for the treatment of scums,
the " carbonitation trouble," and, possibly, the " Joly
rasp," it leaves little to be desired, and is the one that
I heartily recommend for adoption.
In France the expense of manufacturing raw sugar,
including the cost of the beets, varies from three to
four cents per pound.
The average expenses of converting 1,000 tons of
beets into sugar by the best processes are about as fol
lows, not including taxes or interest on capital : —
1,000 tons beets (a) $3.80, $3,800
Coal, 1 20 tons, (a) $3.00, 360
Bone-black waste, 300
Sacks for pulp, 250, (a) 70 cts., .... 175
Labor, 220 men 5 days (a) 70 cts., . . 770
42 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
Administration and salaries, .... 200
Lighting, 50
General expenses, insurance, .... 250
Lime, metals, rasp blades, repairs, &c., 845
6>75°
From this is to be deducted, say
200 tons pulp (a, $2.50, .... 500
30 " molasses fa) $.22, . . . 66o='i,i6o
Leaving, as total cost of working 1,000
tons beets, $5>59O
The cost per pound of sugar produced varies in
accordance with the percentage of yield, as shown in
the following table : —
Yield. Sugar. Cost per pound.
6 per cent. 134,440 Ibs. 4.15 cts.
7 " 156.800 " 3.56 "
8 " 179,200 " 3.10 "
In one establishment that I visited in France, I asked
in writing of the proprietor, to whom I had letters
that warranted me in doing so, his percentage of sugar
and molasses, and the cost of manufacturing.
This gentleman had been very successful, kept his
accounts with great accuracy, and, as he manufactured
by the old process, I selected him as a good represen
tative of the old system, and asked him many ques
tions, which he answered with great courtesy and in
the fullest and most satisfactory manner. His yield
of juice was eighty per cent, of the beets worked ;
his percentage of sugar was 6.85, and of molasses
2.75 per cent, of the juice.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 43
This gives a result of 5.48 per cent, of sugar and
2.2 per cent, molasses on the beets worked, which was
the poorest result with which I met.
In reply to my question as to the expense of con
verting a ton of beets into sugar, I shall give a literal
translation of his reply, stating that the estimate was
made from the business of nine years, in which time
he had -made improvements and enlargements of his
mill, all of which were charged to expenses : —
" Hand labor, general expenses, ten per cent, de
preciation of machinery, coal, taxes, in one word,
every expense, even those for enlargements of works
and improvements of machinery, amount to 13.75
francs the 1,000 kilogrammes of beets."
This is about $2.60 per ton of beets worked. The
average price paid for beets in the above-described
establishment was eighteen francs the 1,000 kilo
grammes, or $3.42 per ton, making the total cost of
a ton of beets and its conversion into sugar $6.02.
From this is to be deducted the value of the pulp and
molasses : —
Say, for 1,000 tons of beets (a)
$3-42> $3>420
Manufacturing 1,000 tons of
beets fa) $2.60, 2,600 = $6,020
Less, 200 tons pulp fa) $2.50, . . 500
22 " molasses fa) $22, . 484= 984
$5,036
Yield of sugar at 5.48 per cent., 54.8 tons, or 122,752
pounds, leaving the net cost of a pound of sugar
cents.
44 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
The expense for labor at 3^- francs, or sixty-six cents,
per day (the average) was ninety-two cents per ton
of beets worked, being thirty-five per cent, of the cost
of converting a ton of beets into sugar, and 15.2 per
cent, of the total cost, including the price paid for the
beets. This, if charged entirely to sugar, would make
the cost of labor in a pound of sugar six mills.
Inquiry has satisfied me that the expense of manu
facturing 1,000 kilogrammes, or 2,200 pounds, of beets
into sugar in France, including in the expenses taxes,
interest on capital, and depreciation of machinery,
averages from eighteen to twenty francs, or $3.47 to
$3.87 per ton of beets. In some cases it is as low as
fifteen francs, or $2.88, per ton, and in others as high
as twenty-two francs, or $4.25, per ton. In the case
quoted above it was 13.75 francs, or $2.60, per ton.
The expense for labor in the best establishments is,
as a rule, about twenty-five per cent, of the cost of
manufacturing.
From these figures, which I know to be reliable,
the cost of a pound of sugar and the proportion due
to labor are shown in the following table ; labor being
reckoned at sixty-six cents per day and the cost of
beets at $3.80 per ton ; yield of molasses at two and
one half per cent., price $22 per ton ; pulp twenty
per cent., price $2.50 per ton.
CULTIVATION OF TJIE BEET.
45
Cost of Labor and Total Cost per Pound of con
verting Beets into Sugar.
Manufacturing-
cost per ton
of beet.
Yield.
Cost of labor per
pound.
Total cost per
pound.
$2.88
( 6 per cent.
<7
5T3o- mills.
4TV cents.
3r6o- "
(8
4 "
SrV "
(6 "
4f^ "
347
7 "
(8
4* "
SA ;;
3-87
(6 "
{7
18
5i4 "
4* "
3* "
4-25
(6 "
7 "
/ TtT
T(T
4A "
18
JT7
I know of an establishment in France where the
total cost of producing sugar, exclusive of interest on
capital, is but thirty-six francs per 1,000 kilogrammes
of beets, or 3T1U- cents per pound of sugar.
The yield of sugar is about eight per cent., of which
four and one half per cent, is of a quality fit for direct
consumption, and would bring fifteen cents per pound
here to-day. Two and one half per cent, is of a grade
better than No. 14, and one per cent, is equal to No.
12. In another about the- same amount and quality
is produced at a cost of 3/0 cents per pound.
I know of another establishment where the total
cost, including every expense, interest on capital at
five per cent., and depreciation of machinery at. ten
per cent., was in 1865-6 but the fraction of a mill
over four cents per pound.
46 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
The amount of sugar produced was seven and one
half per cent. ; but the quality was not so good as in
the previously described cases, although the first
quality, which amounted to four per cent, of the beets
worked, sold readily at seventy-five francs the hun
dred kilogrammes, or six and one half cents per
pound.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 47
PROFITS ON BEET SUGAR.
It is believed that the only material item of expense
in the manufacture of sugar that would be greater in
the United States than in France is the single one of
labor. All others in excess of those of France are
here more than offset by the lower cost of coal, of
land, and of taxation.
In relation to labor it is well known that in the
United States the use of labor-saving machines is
greater than in any other country, because the high
price of labor has stimulated their invention. It is a
fact that the number of hands employed in sugar re
fineries in this country is much smaller than in Euro
pean establishments of the same capacity of production,
and it would doubtless be possible to effect some saving
in that direction as compared with France in an Amer
ican sugar manufactory.
The labor in a beet-sugar factory in this country
would certainly not require a greater number of men
than is required in a similar establishment in France.
But, assuming that the same number would be neces
sary, it is proper to ascertain the exact relation that
the price of labor bears to the cost of production.
In Europe the number of skilled hands required in
a sugar manufactory is very small, the great propor
tion of workmen being common farm laborers, who
work in the fields in summer and in the mills in
winter. The making of beet sugar is only carried on
in the fall and winter months, say from October to
48 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
February. With us, by reason of a more favorable
climate, not only for the earlier development, but also
for the better preservation of the beet, it could be ex
tended from September to March, or even later. It
will be acknowledged that these are the months in
which labor in this country can be most readily and
reasonably procured. The probability is, inasmuch
as the establishment of this industry in Illinois would
permit the hiring of men by the year, that the price
of labor per day would average considerably less than
it does at present in the summer time, which, in the
region I have selected, is about one dollar and fifty
cents per day for a first-rate hand.
One of the first merchants and manufacturers of
France told me, that with wages at three and a half
francs per day, the value of labor in a hundred kilo
grammes of sugar should not exceed four to four and
a half francs. That is, with wages at sixty-six cents
per day, the cost of labor should be less than four
mills per pound.
By the preceding tables the cost of labor at sixty-
six cents per day varies in a pound of sugar from four
to seven and one tenth mills in France. The average
is not far from 5^ mills per pound.
If the same amount of labor be required here as the
average of France, and its value be three times greater,
or two dollars per day, then the average cost of a
pound of sugar from beets yielding seven per cent.,
will be five and one fourth, instead of four cents, per
pound.
I herewith present a table showing the results that
I have no doubt can be attained in Illinois by a com-
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 49
pany with $300,000 capital, of which $200,000 shall
be appropriated for buildings and machinery, and
$100,000 reserved for working capital.
EXPENSES.
24,000 tons of beets, ... ^5) $4.00 . . . $96,000
Labor, 225 men, 150 days, (a) $1.75 per day, 50,625
Salaries, 10,000
Coal, 3,000 tons, . . . '. fa) $1.50, . . . 4,500
Sacks for pulp, 8,000 . . (a) $1.00, . . . 8,000
Bone-black waste, 7?5°°
Insurance, 2,000
Lighting, 750
Lime, metals, barrels, rasp blades, repairs, &c. 15,125
$194,500
RECEIPTS.
i, 680 tons sugar (yield calculated at 7%), at
$200 per ton, or 8^ cents per pound, . $336,000
720 tons molasses (yield calculated at 3%),
at $10.00 per ton, or 4 cents per gallon, 7,200
4,800 tons of pulp, at $2.00 per ton (equiva
lent to hay fa) $6.00 per ton), .... 9,600
$352,800
Less expenses, 194,500
Profit equal to 52% on capital, .... $158,300
From which is to be deducted for local
taxes and internal revenue, .... 10,000
Net profit, being nearly 50% on capital, . $148,300
It will be seen that the yield of sugar is placed at
3
50 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
seven per cent. I have no doubt it would be more,
for by the method recommended, and which is in use
in France, the yield is eight per cent. The price of
sugar is also calculated at 8^ cents per pound, but
samples made by the process referred to are declared
to be now worth an average of thirteen cents.
The value of the molasses T have placed at four
cents per gallon, but it will produce twenty-five per
cent, of its weight in 90° alcohol, and the market
value of a material that will give that result is cer
tainly not less than twenty-five cents per gallon.*
I have placed the market value of the pulp at two
dollars per ton, at which price it has been ascertained,
by years of experiment, to be equivalent to hay at six
dollars per ton ; therefore it cannot be said that the
estimate is too high.
On the other hand, beets are charged at four dollars
per ton, upon which there is little doubt a saving of
fifty cents per ton, or twelve thousand dollars, could be
effected. On pages 26 to 39 the probable cost of beets
is discussed. There can be little doubt that the actual
cost to the farmer will rarely exceed three dollars per
ton, even with small crops, while with twenty or thirty
tons per acre, the larger of which is by no means an
uncommon yield, the cost would be from one dollar
and a half to two dollars a ton. Manufacturers could
* The molasses contains from forty-five to fifty-five per cent, of
crystallizable sugar. Until recently no economical method for its
extraction was known. Last year, however, three or four estab
lishments were erected in Europe for that purpose, and I have
been assured that nearly all the sugar can be extracted at a cost
of time and a half cents per pound.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 51
certainly raise their own beets at three dollars per ton,
and probably at considerably less.
In fact, there can be no doubt that the estimated ex
penses are placed sufficiently high, being at the rate
of 4T9(j cents per pound of sugar, or iT8<y cents higher
than in the French manufactory, which it is proposed
to copy ; while excluding the item of labor, the balance
of expenses would be less here than in France. The
actual expenses for labor in the French manufactory
are less than one half a cent per pound, and IT8^
cents per pound has been allowed as the excess of cost
here over that in France.
I present below a table showing the estimated
result, with the yield of sugar as great as in the French
establishment, namely, eight per cent., provided it
were sold at its present market value, say twelve and
a half cents per pound, and the molasses at twenty-five
dollars per ton, or ten cents per gallon, which is less
than half its actual value for distillation.
1,920 tons of sugar at 12^ cents per pound, $537,600
720 " " molasses at $25 per ton, . . 18,000
4,800 " " pulp at $2 " " . . 9,600
$565,200
Less expenses, 194,500
Profit (equal to 123 per cent on capital), . $370,700
Or, deducting taxes and internal revenue, . 16,000
118 percent, $354,700
By the poorest methods prevailing in Europe six
52 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
per cent, of sugar is obtained. By the best processes
nine per cent, of sugar and two and a half per cent of
molasses can be and repeatedly have been extracted
from beets containing twelve and a half per cent, of
saccharine matter, which is the amount in the beets
raised in Illinois on the first experiment. I submit,
therefore, the accompanying table as an indication, on
the one hand, of a result that is possible to be re
alized, and also, on the other, of a result that in the
present state of the art is certain to be at least
equalled.
In this table sugar is credited at ten cents a pound,
molasses at ten cents per gallon, and pulp at two dol
lars per ton. Expenses are reckoned as in the pre
ceding table on page 49.
TABLE
Showing the Products of Sugar from 24,000 Tons of
Beets, yielding Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine per
cent., with the Amount and Percentage of Projit
on a Capital of $300,000. Taxes and Internal
Revenue not deducted.
Profit per cent.
68*
Yield per cent.
Yieldofltons.
sugar. \
Profit, dollars.
6
1,440
$152,660
7
1, 680
206,420
8
1,920
260,180
9
2,160
313,940
On pages 40 to 48 I have discussed fully the proba
ble cost of manufacturing beet-root sugar, and have
arrived at the conclusion that under no circumstances,
with a yield of seven per cent, of sugar, can the cost
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 53
exceed 5| cents per pound. My belief is that it would
be less, say 4f cents at the outside. But if it cost 5^
cents, and sold at ten, there would still be a profit of
ninety per cent.
After making all allowance for contingencies that
I can imagine as possible to arise, I have not the
slightest doubt that there can be realized on the manu
facture a profit of at least eighty per cent, on the
capital invested.
In a conversation with a French gentleman, a man
ufacturer of sugar machinery for all parts of the world,
and who is also largely interested (and with most
favorable results) in the manufacture not only of cane
sugar in Martinique, but also of beet sugar in France,
in Germany, in Poland, and in Russia, he gave it as
his opinion, that the beet was destined to become the
great sugar-producing vegetable of the world, for the
reason that it can be cultivated in the temperate lati
tudes, in countries of dense population, and conse
quently in close proximity to the consumers of sugar.
In his judgment sugar can be produced from it as
cheaply in Europe or in the United States as it can be
from cane in the West Indies or Brazil. And even if
that position were not tenable, the expenses of trans
portation are so great as to render it absolutely certain
that sugar produced from the cane cannot compete
with beet sugars in the markets of Europe or the
United States.
The "Journal des Fabricants de Sucre " says, that
"the season of 1865-6 developed the success of two
highly important processes, namely, the immediate
carbonitation without defecation of the juice as it
54 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
came from the presses, and the perfection of the
operation of the improved filter presses. In the
factories, where these new methods were employed,
their superiority was marked in comparison with the
old system, by which, late in the season, it was almost,
and oftentimes quite, impossible to make good sugar.
Beets that could not be successfully worked by the old
process were brought to the new establishments,
where sugar of beautiful quality, fit for direct con
sumption, was readily produced. And what was still
more remarkable, in as great proportions upon the
amount of beets worked as in the beginning of the
season."
The entire success of these processes, which, seeing
in operation, I have recommended the adoption of,
has created the greatest excitement among the manu
facturers in France. The opinion is there entertained
that their employment will not only increase the aver
age yield of sugar at least one per cent, on a hundred
pounds, but also improve the quality of the sugar
several numbers.
The remarkable results produced by these improve
ments have attracted the attention of Englishmen ; and
the probability is, that the manufacture of beet sugar
will yet be established in Great Britain, the country
that not only tried to strangle the industry at its birth,
but also, when it had been successfully established on
her own soil, gave notice to the manufacturers, through
its government, that an excise of five cents per pound
would be placed upon their production, upon the
ground that it would interfere with the prosperity of
their West India possessions !
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET 55
PRODUCTION OF SUGAR IN VARIOUS
COUNTRIES.
RAMON DE LA SAGRA, in his work " Cuba en 1860,"
states that the average production of sugar per acre
from the cane in that island was . . 1,709 Ibs.
The highest, ...... 7,980 "
" lowest, ....... I?257 "
Martinique average, .... 15587 "
" highest, .... 1,900 u
Porto Rico average, .... 3,950 "
Reunion lowest, ..... 1,100 "
" highest, ..... 95625 "
average, 3 5 200 u
Mauritius, 8,562 "
Java, 4,166 "
I will add that the product in
Louisiana before the war was
about 1,100 "
In Germany, the average pro
duction from beets is about . 2,100 a
In France, average, .... 2,200 "
" " highest, .... 5,000
"
It will thus be seen that an acre of land produces
from beets a larger average amount ofsugar in France
and Germany than is produced from cane in Cuba,
Martinique, or Louisiana. In Mauritius the system
of cultivation is good, but it is a matter of notoriety
that the sugar of Mauritius cannot compete with beet
56 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
sugar in France, notwithstanding it has an advantage
over the latter in the French ports of five francs the
hundred kilogrammes, or 4.3 mills per pound.
M. De la Sagra gives the following figures, show
ing the amount of sugar produced to a " hand " upon
several of the best plantations in Cuba : —
La Ponina, . 4,238 Ibs. Flor de Cuba, 6,430 Ibs.
Conchita, . 4,413 " Delta, . . 7,062 "
St. Martin, . 4,512 " Las Canas, .13,327 "
On some well-ordered estates, both in France and
in Germany, the production of sugar to a " hand" ex
ceeds 14,000 pounds.
The production of sugar at Martinique in 1832 was
30,000 tons. In 1850, in consequence of emancipa
tion, it fell to 15,000 tons. In 1864, the production
again reached 30,000 tons. Emancipation produced
a similar result in Guadaloupe. In Reunion, by rea
son of immense importations of Coolie labor, produc
tion has increased fourfold since emancipation ; but
intelligent observers see that Coolie labor is but another
form of slavery, for which reason the supply must
cease. It does not, like slavery, reproduce laborers,
for ninety to ninety-five per cent, of the Coolies are
males. The increased production is also due to an
extended area of cultivation, and not, as in Mauri
tius, to improved methods of culture. In fact, some
of the most intelligent planters in several of the French
colonies have abandoned sugar cane, and cultivate
other crops.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 57
ATTEMPTS TO MANUFACTURE BEET
SUGAR IN THE UNITED STATES.
SEVERAL attempts on a very small scale have been
made, within the last thirty years, to manufacture beet
sugar in this country ; but with one exception, so far
as I can learn, they were made when the industry was
in its infancy, and when prices were much lower than
they are at present, or are now likely to be.
Those attempts were not crowned with commercial
success ; but the results produced were such as to
demonstrate, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that beet
sugar can now be made in this country with the most
absolute certainty of success.
The attempt, of which there is now to be obtained
the most complete published account,* was made at
Northampton, in the valley of the Connecticut, in the
years 1838-9, by David Lee Child, and the "North
ampton Beet-sugar Company." The company were
the successors of David Lee Child, to whom the Massa
chusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, at their sec
ond exhibition, in 1839, awarded a silver medal.
In their report the Association say, " The crude
or raw sugar is well made, dry, and of good grain.
The refined shows that this article can be made of as
good quality as sugar from the cane."
On the 5th of December, 1839, tne " Massachusetts
* The Culture of the Beet, and Manufacture of Beet Sugar, by
David Lee Child, 1840.
58 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
Agricultural Society" awarded a premium of one
hundred dollars to the " Northampton Beet-sugar
Company, for beet sugar."
On the i3th of November, 1839, Hon. Levi Lincoln,
president of the " Worcester County Agricultural So
ciety," addressed a letter to Mr. Child, who had sent
him a box of sugar for exhibition. The box arrived
too late ; but the following extract from Mr. Lincoln's
letter indicates the quality of the sugar : " Availing
of your kind permission, samples of the sugar were
submitted to the inspection of severaj gentlemen.
The brown sugar was found to be pure, very sweet,
and entirely free from any bad taste, and its quality, in
every respect, was highly satisfactory.
" The refined or lump sugar seemed not so well gran
ulated as is desirable. Still we are well satisfied that,
as an experiment in the manufacture, it is highly en
couraging, and we all felt that the country was largely
indebted to your intelligence and enterprise in demon
strating, beyond all question, how entirely this appli
cation of domestic industry is at her command."
In May, 1839, Mr. Child received a letter from
Martial Duroy, of Boston, confectioner, from which
the following is an extract : —
" Having, while in France, heard the confectioners
in general deprecate the use of beet sugar in their
work, I was naturally a little prejudiced against it
when I was called upon by you to make some confec
tionery for the ' Ladies' Anti-slavery Fair.' I was
pleased to find, upon trial, that your raw sugar was
extremely easy to clarify, and that it grained freely.
These attributes of good and pure sugar reconciled
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 59
me at once with it, and I made a variety of confection
ery as easily and as handsome as with the best Ha
vana. But its power of crystallization is particularly
interesting, as it is upon this that depends its successful
transformation into loaf sugar ; and as far as a pretty
considerable experience goes to establish it, I think
beet sugar obtained by your process does crystallize,
both easily and abundantly, forming at will coarse or
fine grains, peculiarly brilliant, and giving, by far, a
smaller quantity of molasses in the process of refining
than cane sugar of a corresponding quality. I found
also the molasses of a pleasant taste, and well adapted
in its chemical composition to culinary purposes."
Mr. Child says that the best result he obtained from
one hundred pounds of beets was seven pounds of
sugar and three and one third of molasses ; that
" the sugar was of excellent quality, free, even in its
raw state, from any bad taste, and of a pure and spar
kling white when refined. Old and extensive dealers
have pronounced it in both states capable of success
ful competition with any sugars in the market."
The quantity made was about 1300 pounds.
Mr. Child satisfied himself, from the result of the
labors of 1838-9, that " the raw sugar can be ob
tained without any bad taste, and fit for immediate
consumption ; that American beets, though gener
ally inferior to the European in saccharine richness,
can, by suitable culture, be made inferior to none."
He says, " The sugar grained in a few hours ;
drained well and is not inferior in flavor or appear
ance to the finest West Indies Muscovadoes. The
quality of the molasses has been a matter of utter sur-
60 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
prise to us. In France the molasses is considered of
no value except for feeding to animals or for distilling,
and it sells for four or five cents per gallon. The
molasses from the sugar in question is of a bright
amber color, and so pure and pleasant as to be pre
ferred by many to any but sugar bakers'." He says,
" It will be readily conceived that a small establish
ment, dependent upon farmers for material, paying for
it twice the cost of its production, and executing by
hand several heavy and tedious operations, which
ought to be performed by steam, water, or horse
power, cannot furnish accurate data for determining
the expense of making beet sugar. The actual cost
when the material was good has been eleven cents
per pound, the pulp and manure not taken into ac
count. We are of opinion that, with proper and suf
ficient means, beet sugar may be manufactured in the
United States at four cents per pound. When the
manufacture shall have become domesticated among
us, it will probably be produced at a cost less than
that."
In relation to the effect of a beet crop on succeed
ing crops, Mr. Child says, " In Northampton wheat
has succeeded beets the present season with rather
striking success. A farmer let a field abutting on
Connecticut River on shares. On a part of it he
raised beets last year, and on the other Indian corn.
The whole was equally manured. The corn yielded
seventy-five bushels to the acre, and the beets were
tolerably weeded. The wheat was harvested, and his
share delivered in the barn without any attention to
it on his part. In due time a laborer was employed
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 6 1
to thrash it. This person, after thrashing a quantity,
observed to his employer that the wheat on one side
of the loft thrashed easier, and had a better berry and
brighter straw, than on the other. Upon examination
it was found that the former had been produced upon
the beet, and the latter upon the corn, section of the
field, but with this difference, that the beet grew near
est to the river, where it is considered that wheat is
most likely to blast. We had the advantage of exam
ining these wheats, and the difference was clearly such
as the thrasher had stated. The proprietor found a
difference of three and a half pounds per bushel in
the weight. We presume that the difference in the
flour would be found much greater, because, the grains
of the inferior wheat being smaller, it would require
more of them to fill a measure ; and as the shrunk
grains have the same quantity of skin as the large,
and as it is the skins which make bran, it follows
that the superiority remarked would appear still
more signally if the two samples were ground and
bolted."
Mr. Child, in a note, remarks, " Mr. Harrison O.
Apthorp, of Northampton, — one of the earliest culti
vators of the sugar beet in this country, — has informed
us of the remarkable growth of herdsgrass as a succes
sor of sugar beets on his grounds. The crop was pro
nounced by the oldest farmers in Northampton village
superior to any of the kind they had ever seen in the
meadows."
Several years ago, beet sugar, of very fine quality,
was made by the society of Shakers at Enfield, but
upon too small a scale, and by too crude a method, to
62 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
ascertain fairly the price at which it could be pro
duced.
In 1863-4 *he brothers Gennert, of New York, con
ceived the idea of manufacturing beet sugar. Mr.
Thomas Gennert visited Europe for the purpose of
studying the methods there employed. Upon his
return, the firm selected the prairie lands in the town
of Chatsworth, Livingston County, Illinois, pur
chased 2300 acres, erected buildings, and commenced
the cultivation of beets. In process of time they
gathered their crop, which, owing to the drought, and
also to the unfavorable method of planting, yielded
only ten or twelve tons to the acre. The beets were of
excellent saccharine properties, containing twelve and
a half per cent, in 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 which was
required for a 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 incomplete, machinery,
we extracted seven per cent, in melado. Those beets
would average, with complete machinery, nine per
cent."
The Messrs. Gennert have put theii* property into
a stock company, called the " Germania Sugar Com
pany," and have six hundred acres of land in cultiva
tion with beets this season.
I submit their estimate of the profits of working
one hundred tons of beets per day, with the following
productions of sugar, on a capital of $200,000 : —
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 63
At 6 per cent., . . 73 per cent, profit.
7 " . . 91 " "
8 " . . 109 " "
9 " . . 127 " "
GENERAL ADVANTAGES OF BEET-SUGAR MANU
FACTURE.
The "Journal des Fabricants de Sucre," in its issue
of December 8, 1864, says, "We find that the abo
lition, of slavery in America and the West India
Islands, which seems to us the inevitable result of
the America war, at the same time that it increases
the demand for sugar must diminish the supply about
500,000 tons. The production of Louisiana will be de
stroyed, that of Cuba diminished one half or one third,
and that of Brazil will be reduced. How is this defi
ciency to be supplied ? The consumption of the United
States is nearly as large as that of Great Britain, and
they will probably be driven by necessity to manufac
ture sugar from the beet, the processes for which they
can learn of Europe. As for France, Belgium, and
Germany, they can easily double or triple their pro
duction ; for it does not require long preparation of
the soil to produce beets. Capital is abundant for
such an enterprise ; and even at the present rate of
increase, production doubles every ten years."
" England may fear that the manufacture of beet
sugar in Great Britain would prejudice her colonial
interests ; but some of her statesmen foresee its intro
duction." The editor predicts that the effect of the
change in the sources of supply would be to dimin-
6<j BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
ish, and not to enhance, the price of sugars. He goes
on to say, " The North and the South may fight as
long as they like. The 4,000,000 slaves in the South
ern States may be freed, the 400,000 negroes in Cuba
may also be emancipated, as well as those of Brazil.
The African slave trade may stop, drought and insects
may continue to ravage the sugar plantations of Re
union and Mauritius, but sugar will not become scarce
in Europe for all that. We shall continue to be sup
plied by our own admirable industry, whose advan
tages and development we have set forth."
In a later issue the probability is discussed of the
United States continuing to import annually 300,000
to 400,000 tons of sugar from Cuba and Brazil, " when
they have the ability to supply all their wants with
beet sugar from their own soil, not only with certainty
of profit to the manufacturer, under the existing tariff,
but also with advantage to the whole country, because
of the unreliability of the cane crop of Louisiana,
which never ripens, and which at any rate is certain to
be paralyzed for the next ten years.
u But even if the duties on foreign sugars should
be abolished, the advantage would be on the side of
the beet-sugar manufacturer, who will probably have
less need of protection than the Louisiana planter.
" The people of the Northern States will not long
defer the cultivation of a plant which contains so much
sugar that it will soon teach them to forget that which
was formerly produced upon the banks of the Missis
sippi. As to the competition of Cuban and Brazilian su
gars, they have no more cause to fear it than have the
beet-sugar makers of France and Germany, where the
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 65
economical conditions are far less favorable than those
of the Northern and Western States."
The beet-sugar industry has been of vast benefit to
Europe. Notwithstanding the high protective policy
to which it owes its existence, and which, as a matter of
course, was pursued for a time at the expense of the
public, which paid higher for sugar than it would oth
erwise have done, yet there is no question that sugars
have been cheaper throughout the world for the past
fifteen years than they would have been had the in
dustry not existed.
Formerly the production of sugar was a monopoly
confined to the tropics, where its possession, combined
with the cheapness of land and the system of slavery,
fostered in planters and manufacturers an extrava
gant, shiftless, and costly method of manufacture.
The vast improvements that science has brought to
bear on the chemistry and mechanics of beet-sugar pro
duction in Europe have awakened the planters and
manufacturers of the tropics to the necessity for prog
ress, if they desire to retain their supremacy.
Almost all the improvements made in cane-sugar
manufacture in the last fifteen years owe their origin
to the beet-sugar establishments of France and Ger
many.
The effects produced upon agriculture in Europe by
the cultivation of beets for sugar and alcohol have
been astounding, and the importance of the interest is
now everywhere acknowledged.
In the cane-sugar countries upon the territory sur
rounding a sugar establishment no crop is to be seen
but the cane, while cattle and sheep are few. In the
66 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
sugar districts of Europe, on the contrary, the fields in
the vicinity of a sugar manufactory are covered with
the greatest diversity of crops, among which are beets,
wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn, rape, flax, tobacco, and
all the cultivated grasses. Every field is cultivated
close up to the road-side, and the stables are filled with
fire cattle, sheep, horses, and swine.
No farmer needs to be told which system is the best
and most enduring.
M. Dureau, author of several valuable works on
beet sugar, and also the editor of the "Journal des
Fabricants de Sucre," says " The cultivation of the
beet is getting to be highly popular.
" The president of an agricultural society is sure to
gain all hearts when he talks about beets. No agri
cultural newspaper can abstain from entertaining its
readers with accounts of the precious plant, and there
is no farmer who does not introduce it into his fields
with the view of its conversion either into sugar or
alcohol. Everybody sings its praises ; and surely
none have a better right to join in the concert than we,
who have always been its advocates for the sake of the
industry with which it is allied."
A French writer, after having demonstrated the im
portance of the beet-sugar industry to agriculture, in
urging its extension, says, " Who would believe that
England, with her poor soil, her wet climate, and her
pale sun, could produce crops of grain double ours,
and that the yield of her fields surpassed that of the
luxuriant plains of Lombardy ? The perfection of her
agriculture explains this wonderful production. So
does the progress of the manufacture of beet sugar ex-
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 67
plain how the cultivator of the north can extract as
much sugar from a hectare of his cold and wet land,
as the indolent Creole from the rich soil of the Antilles,
bathed in sweet odors and in sunshine."
The basis of the agriculture of England is the turnip.
In the best cultivated districts of France, it is the beet.
M. Barral, a celebrated writer on agriculture, says,
" I did not find any good crops except in those coun
tries where an industrial culture prevailed, which is
especially the case in those where the beet is culti
vated."
Another writer says, " Of all species of industry
which it is desirable to see extended in France, the
manufacture of sugar and alcohol occupies the first
rank. Branches of industry which are pursued in the
winter deserve to be supported, because they give em
ployment to laborers who work in the fields in sum
mer, and thereby enable them to increase the amount
of their yearly wages."
Another writer says, that " all cultivators and econ
omists are unanimous in recommending the cultivation
of the sugar-producing plant, which is the source of
deep tillage, heavy manuring, and increased produc
tion. No one believes now that it exhausts and im
poverishes the soil, or that it hurts other crops : these
are the prejudices of a by-gone age, which science
and practice have banished, to set up in their place a
recognition of benefits of the highest order produced
by the culture of the beet."
M. Bureau says, " The manufacture of beet sugar
was formerly charged with being a local industry.
To-day it no longer deserves that reproach, for it is not
68 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
alone in the north of France that it is pursued ; but it
has penetrated into the east, the west, and the south,
— into Germany, Russia, Italy, Austria, Spain — every
where."
Another says, that " everywhere the beet is culti
vated in France, land advances in value, and the
wages of workmen take the same direction."
" All Europe, though France has contributed the
largest and most glorious part towards the accom
plishment of the result, is destined to become a great
sugar-producing country, not less important than those
where they cultivate the cane, which many believed to
be the only plant suitable for the production of sugar,
that precious food, of which people of the present age
are such large consumers. Why should not sugar,
which the mysterious forces of nature have secreted in
the beet, be extracted from it, and the soil, prepared for
new harvests, and rendered doubly fertile by the thor
ough cultivation it demands, furnish increasing quan
tities of food for man, and for beast? It is the triumph
of industry."
L'Echo Agricole says, that " all farmers who ob
tain first prizes at the agricultural exhibitions are
either sugar manufacturers, distillers, or cultivators of
the beet. Those who have adopted this branch of
agriculture, either as proprietors or tenants, have really
obtained astonishing results. They would be surprised
if they did not carry off all the first prizes at the pub
lic exhibitions, and were consequently mentioned in
the official reports of the government."
M. Vallerand, who took the first prize in the De
partment of Aisne, bought, in 1853, a farm of eight
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET.
69
hundred and thirty-two acres, the sales of produce
from which amounted to $8,000. In 1859 ^ produced
$41,200. M. Dargent, who took the first prize in the
Department of Seine Inferieure, cultivated only fifty
acres. He so increased the production of this farm
that he obtained 154,000 pounds, or 68 tons and 168
pounds, of beets from a single acre. His yield of wheat
was 43^- bushels, and of oats 59^- bushels, to an acre.
M. Hary, Pas de Calais, obtained from two hundred
and ninety-five acres 5,225 bushels of wheat, 2,500
tons of beets, and fattened 150 head of cattle.
The culture of the beet involves the necessity of
deep ploughing, heavy manuring, and thorough weed
ing. The pulp from which the juice is extracted in
the manufacture is an excellent food for cattle, the
number of which has been increased, in the districts
devoted to that industry, from eight to ten fold since
the introduction of sugar making.
The cattle furnish an immense amount of manure,
which, applied to the deeply-ploughed and well-weeded
beet lands, enhances their productiveness for the cereal
crops.
In 1853, when the emperor and empress came to
Valenciennes, a triumphal arch was erected, with the
following inscription : —
SUGAR MANUFACTURE.
Napoleon I. who created it. Napoleon III. who protected it.
Before the manufacture of beet
sugar, the arrondissement of
Valenciennes, produced 695,750
bushels of wheat, and fattened
700 oxen.
Since the manufacture of beet
sugar was introduced, the arron
dissement of Valenciennes pro
duces 1,157,750 bushels of wheat,
and fattens 11,500 oxen.
70 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
The brothers Fievet have a model farm of 552 acres
at Masny, which is considered the best in France.
They are sugar manufacturers, and fatten 800 head of
cattle and 3,000 sheep every year. I visited there last
winter, and spent a day in their manufactories and on
their farm. They attribute their success as cultivators
to the immense amount of manure that the beet pulp
enables them to make, to the improved condition of
the soil, and also to the increased amount of profitable
service of the land, consequent upon beet culture, no
fallows being required.
They have cultivated the farm for thirteen years : the
crops are beet, wheat, oats, rye, and hay. I shall
give some of the results of the eleven years preced
ing 1864. The average amount of land in oats had
been thirty acres. In 1853 the crop was 45^ bushels,
in 1862 nearly 92^ bushels, and the average for the
whole time within a fraction of 70 bushels to the acre.
The crop of straw increased in like proportion, and
averaged two tons to an acre. In 1863 it .was nearly
three tons.
The crops of rye improved in a still greater ratio —
increasing from 17 to 34^- bushels per acre, averaging
nearly 30 bushels, with two tons of straw to the acre.
The average crops on 156 acres of wheat had been
over 36^ bushels to the acre.
Parts of the land had sometimes produced 67! bush
els to the acre, and no portion had ever yielded less
than 20^ bushels. The yield of hay had been over
three tons ; and of beets twenty tons to an acre.
In 1865, thirty, thirty-five, and even forty tons of
beets were raised on an acre.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET,
As to the cost of producing these crops, the Messrs.
Fievet stated that the thorough cultivation of the
ground for beets reduced the cost of cultivating suc
ceeding crops enormously.*
Thus, after deducting the proceeds of the straw,
their oats cost them less than thirty cents, their wheat
less than sixty cents, and their rye less than thirty-
eight cents, per bushel.
This they attribute to underdraining, to the use on the
beet crop of lime, either pure or the carbonate of lime
from the filter presses of the factory, to the liberal ap
plication of other manures, to deep ploughing, thorough
weeding, and cultivation. The grain crops are not
manured, and the ground is so thoroughly prepared
* The subjoined table shows approximately the average yield of
certain crops per acre in twenty-three of the United States, in the
year 1865, according to the Report of the Department of Ag
riculture for January, 1866 : —
Crops.
Highest average
yield.
Lowest average
yield.
Wheat, ....
Kve
13£ bush.
15
Minnesota, 20-|
Kansas, 23
Kentucky, 7£
Delaware 7
Barley, . . . .
Oats,
23!
Vermont, 28!
Minnesota, 4l£
Mass. 19£
Delaware, 12
ogl
Nebraska 46^
Delaware 16^
Buckwheat, . . .
Potatoes, ....
Tobacco, 16 States, .
Hay,
194
113
906 Ibs.
1^ tons.
Nebraska, 26§
Minnesota, 197
Conn. 1,350
Nebraska, 2
Delaware, 10.^
Kentucky, 59^
Kansas, 533
Maine, 1
Sorghum molasses, ]
18 States, <
110! gals.
Kansas, 129
New York, 75
The productions of the farm at Masny vastly exceed those
of the States named. The explanation is to be found not in the
soil or the climate, but solely in the cultivation.
72 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
by the beet for succeeding crops, that a single light
ploughing suffices for the grain, which is all sowed in
drills by a machine.
Before the introduction of the sugar industry into
France, workmen in the country, by reason of a lack
of employment, were so constantly emigrating to the
city, that government instituted inquiries to ascertain
the cause, and also the best method of preventing it.
Now, the natural tendency of workmen to seek the
capital is not noticed in the sugar-producing districts,
where the industry gives ample and well-paid employ
ment to all, both in summer and in winter, and where
crime and pauperism have sensibly diminished.
Agriculture was looked upon as the calling of peas
ants, requiring little intelligence and no education. It
is far otherwise now, and to be successful as a farmer
involves the necessity of having a good education.
The introduction of sugar-making into France, and
the intimate relation between that industry and agri
culture, called for improved methods of culture, and a
more intelligent and scientific application of labor.
Intelligence and education were decentralized for the
benefit of the whole country ; capital also lent its
powerful aid, and agriculture made rapid progress,
while the condition of the laborers also was materially
improved.
Louis Napoleon, the present emperor of the
French, when he was imprisoned at Ham, in 1842,
said of the beet-sugar industry, in his " Analyse de la
Question des Sucres," " It retains workmen in the coun
try, and gives them employment in the dullest months
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 73
of the year ; it diffuses among the agricultural classes
good methods of culture, calling to their aid industrial
science and the arts of practical chemistry and me
chanics. It multiplies the centres of labor. It pro
motes, in consequence, those sound principles upon
which rest the organization of society and the security
of governments ; for the prosperity of a people is the
basis of public order. * * *
" Wherever the beet is cultivated, the value of land
is enhanced, the wages of the workmen are increased,
and the general prosperity is promoted."
In another place the same author puts the following
words in the mouth of the sugar industry : " Respect
me, for I improve the soil. I make land fertile, which,
without me, would be uncultivated. I give employ
ment to laborers, who otherwise would be idle. I
solve one of the greatest problems of modern society.
I organize and elevate labor."
The conclusions to which I have arrived are, —
That the skill, which is the result of the experience
of more than a century, and which has made France
independent of foreign countries for her supply of
sugar, is available for us to-day.
That the manufacture of beet sugar can be success
fully transplanted from France to the United States.
That sugar can be produced in this country from
the beet nearly if not quite as cheaply as it can be
from the cane in Cuba, or any other country.
That the protection of transportation alone is suf
ficient to render it impossible for the sugar of tropical
4
74 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
climates to compete with beet sugar in the United
States.
That as the climate of the Southern States does not
permit the cane to ripen, and as the yield of sugar
from unripe cane is comparatively small, it is impossi
ble to make sugar from cane in the United States so
cheaply as it can be made from beets.
And that at present prices beet sugar can be manu
factured in this country at a profit of from eighty to
one hundred per cent.
By the new internal revenue law beet sugar enjoys
a protection over the sugar of the cane of from one to
two cents per pound in currency.
Duties on foreign sugars are from three to four and
a half cents per pound in gold.
The necessities of government, and the very ap
parent advantages arising from introducing the manu
facture of beet sugar into this country, render it
probable that the protection now accorded will be
maintained for the present.
The cost of transportation from the seaboard to Il
linois is an additional protection on sugar raised in
Illinois of about one cent per pound.
The amount of beets raised in France in 1865 could
not have been, on 297,000 acres of land, less than
5,000,000 tons, producing at least 1,000,000 tons of
pulp — an amount sufficient to feed 90,000 cattle or
nearly 1,000,000 sheep for one year, or to fatten in the
winter months nearly three times that number. It
also furnished agriculture with more than 1,500,000
tons of manure. In an agricultural point of view, the
W. X. WINTEKHALTER
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 75
effect produced by the culture of so much land in
beets, and the application of the manure of so many
cattle, with the consequent increase in the amount and
value of subsequent crops, is perfectly apparent. The
quality of wheat raised after beets is better than that
usually produced ; the ears are larger and heavier, the
straw stronger, and not so liable to lodge. The berry
is larger and brighter; its specific gravity is also
greater, weighing from two to three pounds per bushel
more than ordinary wheat.
But these effects are not all, even of those having an
agricultural bearing, which the great industry pro
duces. They are not confined to the comparatively
narrow circle that surrounds the factory, in which are
expended for beets and for labor large sums that foster
industry, and scatter plenty in the surrounding vil
lages. The distribution of these large amounts for
labor and for the crop opens a better market for the
productions of other branches of industry, agri
cultural, mechanical, manufacturing, mining, and
commercial.
To till the land and to consume the pulp, many
horses, as well as vast numbers of cattle and sheep, are
required. These are purchased from other sections,
for the departments in which the beet is cultivated are
not grazing districts in which cattle are raised, but
they are preeminently distinguished for supporting
and fattening cattle.
The improved condition of the 70,000 laborers
engaged in this industry, one fifth of whom are wo
men and children, makes them larger consumers of
tea, coffee, meat, clothing, — of all the necessaries of
76 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
life. Their enlarged means place within their reach
many hitherto unattainable luxuries.
The industry also calls into existence many estab
lishments for the manufacture of agricultural tools.
It gives employment to chemists and engineers ; to
machinists, founders, carpenters, blacksmiths, cop
persmiths, wheelwrights, and plumbers ; to woollen
and linen manufacturers for the sacks it requires. It
is a large consumer of coal, of iron, and of other
metals, products of the mine. It contributes largely
to the support of railroads and canals. It adds its
quota to the extension of commerce. Finally, it
pays to government an excise tax on sugar and al
cohol of more than $27,000,000 per annum, without
taking into account other taxes, state and local, that
are assessed on the $45,000,000 that it has invested in
buildings and machinery.
It has not only added immensely to the extent of
arable land, but has largely increased the productive
ness and value of that already cultivated. It has
enabled France to produce more corn at less cost than
she ever did before, and kept down the prices of all
grains, of beef, and of mutton. At the same time it
produces for man sugar, meat, bread, alcohol, potash,
and soda ; it furnishes nutritious food for cattle, sheep,
and swine, together with hay and grain for the horse.
In the opinion of eminent French statesmen, it has
twice, within fifteen years, saved France from a
famine.
The historian Thiers has called it " the Providence
of the empire."
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 77
EFFECT OF ITS INTRODUCTION INTO THE UNITED
STATES.
The effect of its introduction into the United States
would be to produce results correspondingly greater
than have attended it in Europe, for here the con
sumption of sugar per capita is nearly four times
greater, and the value of lands is not a quarter of those
in continental Europe, while they are by nature far
richer and more easily cultivated. The supply of coal
is unlimited. The vast distances over which many
farmers are obliged to transport their produce render
it oftentimes impossible to dispose of their more bulky
crops at a profit. The introduction of sugar-making
would give them another and most profitable crop, for
which they would have a home market. It would
enlarge the local demand for other farm produce by
interspersing a manufacturing with an agricultural
population, to the great advantage of both. It would
go far to change the present wasteful and necessa
rily unenduring system of agriculture, and to substi
tute for it another, founded upon more correct princi
ples — a system self-sustaining and improving, rather
than suicidal and degenerating.
The gold value of sugars imported into this country
is nearly $80,000,000 per annum.
The annual consumption of sugar in the United
States before the war was over 450,000 tons.
There is no doubt that within twenty years it will
be more than 1,000,000 tons, for with the customary
increase of population and the consumption per head
that existed before the war, that amount would be re
quired.
78 BEET-ROOT SUGAR.
With a proper rotation of crops the production of
that amount of sugar involves the cultivation of
4,000,000 acres of land, of which 1,000,000 would be
in beets, the base of the system. It would give em
ployment the year round, in the fields and in the mills,
to more than 125,000 men, women, and children. It
would require $100,000,000 to be expended in build
ings and machinery. It would disburse annually
$100,000,000 for labor and materials. It would re
quire each year more than 1,500,000 tons of coal. It
would fatten every year 400,000 head of cattle, or
4,000,000 sheep.
There is hardly an interest that it would injure,
while it would be difficult to find one that would con
fer so many, so great, and so general advantages upon
the country. It is destined to become one of the most
important branches of national industry.
79
PART II.
THE BEET AND ITS CULTIVATION.
THE beet is a half-hardy, biennial plant ; its roots
attain their full size the first year, but will not survive
our winters in the open ground. Seeds are produced
from transplanted roots, after which the plant dies.
Analysis of the Beet, according to Professor Payen.
Per cent.
Water, 83.5
Sugar in solution, 10.5
Cellulose and pectose, 8
Albumen, caseine, and nitrogenous matters, . . 1.5
Malic acid ; pectine ; gummy substances ; fatty,
aromatic, and coloring matters ; essential oil ;
chlorophylle ; asparamide ; oxalate and phos
phate of lime; phosphate of magnesia ; silicate,
nitrate, sulphate, and oxalate of potash ; ox
alate of soda ; chloride of sodium and potassi
um ; pectate of lime, potash, and soda ; sulphur,
silica, and oxide of iron, 3.7
100.
8O BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
VARIETIES OF THE BEET.
There are many different varieties, of which I shall
describe a few of those employed for manufacturing
and agricultural purposes.
LONG RED MANGEL-WURZEL.
Red Mangel-wurzel. — Marbled Field Beet. — Lawson.
Burr describes this beet as follows : " Root fusiform,
contracted at the crown, which in the genuine variety
rises six or eight inches above the surface of the
ground. Size large, when grown in good soil ; often
measuring eighteen inches in length and six or seven
inches in diameter. Skin below ground purplish-rose ;
brownish-red where exposed to the air and light.
Leaves green ; the stems and nerves washed or stained
with rose-red. Flesh white, zoned and clouded with
different shades of red.
" The long red mangel-wurzel is hardy ; keeps well ;
grows rapidly ; is very productive, and in this country
is more generally cultivated for agricultural purposes
than any other variety. According to Lawson, the
marbled or mixed color of its flesh seems particularly
liable to vary : in some specimens it is almost of a
uniform red, while in others the red is scarcely, and
often not at all, perceptible. These variations of color
are, however, of no importance as respects the quality
of the roots. The yield varies with the quality of the
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 8l
soil and the state of cultivation, thirty and thirty-five
tons being frequently harvested from an acre."
GERMAN RED MANGEL-WURZEL.
Disette d'Allemagne. — Vilmorin.
Burr describes it as " an improved variety of the long
red mangel-wurzel, almost regularly cylindrical, and
terminating at the lower extremity in an obtuse cone.
It grows much out of ground ; the neck or crown is
comparatively small ; it is rarely forked or deformed
by small side roots, and is generally much neater and
more regular than the long red. Size very large ;
well-developed specimens measuring from eighteen to
twenty inches in length, and seven or eight inches in
diameter. Flesh white, with red zones or rings.
Leaves erect, green ; the stems and nerves washed or
stained with rose-red.
" For agricultural purposes this variety is superior
to the long red, as it is larger, more productive, and
more easily harvested."
LONG WHITE GREEN-TOP MANGEL-WURZEL.
Green-top White Sugar. — Long White Mangel-wurzel. — Disette
blanche k collet vert. — Vilmorin.
"An improved variety of the white sugar beet.
Root produced much above ground) and of very large
size ; if well grown, measuring nearly six inches in
diameter, and eighteen inches in depth — the diameter
often retained for nearly two thirds the length. Skin
green, where exposed to light and air ; below ground,
4*
82 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
white. Flesh white. Leaves green, rather large, and
not so numerous as those of the white sugar.
" Very productive, and superior to the long red for
agricultural purposes ; the quality being equally good,
and the yield much greater." {Burr.)
Vilmorin describes it as follows : " It is one of the
best for sugar manufacturers. It has a smooth skin,
grows beneath the surface, is rather large, and keeps
well. Production, sixteen to twenty tons to an acre.
It has been neglected lately in France, because there
are so many kinds resembling it, which grow out of
the soil, and are less profitable to sugar manufacturers.
It is, nevertheless, superior to the collet rose."
LONG WHITE RED-TOP MANGEL-WURZEL.
Disette blanche k collet rose. — Vilmorin.
Vilmorin describes this beet as follows : " The bet-
terave blanche a collet rose was formerly more ex
tensively cultivated than at present, farmers having
substituted for it the ' collet vert ; ' but the appearance
of so many degenerate kinds of the latter has lately
induced many farmers to resume the cultivation of the
former. Its root is well shaped, smooth, long, and
grows but little above the soil. Its flesh is white,
zoned with red. It contained in 1860 about seven per
cent, of sugar. In spite of this low percentage its
cultivation in the north of France is increasing. By
improved culture it produces larger quantities of sugar,
approaching in richness to the standard of the ' collet
vert ; ' it keeps well, and its color enables manufac
turers and cultivators to recognize it readily."
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 83
YELLOW CASTELNAUDARY.
Burr describes it as follows : " Root produced within
the earth, broadest at the crown, where its diameter
is nearly three inches, and tapering gradually to a
point, the length being about eight inches. Skin
orange-yellow. Flesh clear yellow, with paler zones
or rings. Leaves spreading, those on the outside be
ing on stems about four inches in length ; the inner
ones are shorter, numerous, of a dark-green color, and
rather waved on the edges : the leaf-stems are green
rather than yellow.
" An excellent table beet, being tender, yet firm, and
very sweet when boiled, although its color is not so
agreeable to the eye."
Sarrazin describes it (betterave jaune) as " growing
entirety beneath the surface, and having the form of a
pear, not very heavy, but quite sugary, producing little
foliage, succeeding well in poor soils, and yielding well
where other kinds produce small crops. The stalks
of the leaves have the same yellow color as the root."
YELLOW GLOBE MANGEL-WURZEL.
Betterave jaune globe. — Vilmorin.
" This is a globular-formed beet, measuring about ten
inches in diameter, and weighing ten or twelve pounds ;
about one half of the root growing above ground.
Skin yellow where it is covered by the soil, and yel
lowish-brown above the surface where exposed to light
and air. Flesh white, zoned or marked with yellow,
close-grained, and sugary. Leaves not large or nu-
84 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
merous, rather erect, green, the stems and ribs paler,
and sometimes yellowish.
" The yellow globe is one of the most productive of
all the varieties, and though not adapted to table use,
is particularly excellent for stock of all descriptions,
as the roots are not only remarkably sugary, but
contain a considerable portion of albumen. It retains
its soundness and freshness till the season has far
advanced, does not sprout so early in spring as many
others, and is especially adapted for cultivation in
hard, shallow soil.
" The yield varies from thirty to forty tons per acre,
according to soil, season, and culture ; although crops
are recorded of fifty tons and upwards.
" On account of its globular form the crop can be
harvested with great facility by the use of a common
plough." (J3urr.)
MAGDEBURG.
" The Magdeburg beet unites most of the qualities
of the German race ; its root is tapering, of middling
size, with few accessory or lateral roots, and grows
entirely beneath the surface, is white, and has a green
neck. Its average yield is twelve to fourteen tons per
acre in land where the white French sugar beet pro
duces sixteen to eighteen tons.
" Experiments have.shown it to be rich in sugar."
( Vtlmorin.)
IMPROVED VILMORIN.
" This kind, which is still in its infancy, is the richest
of all, experiments having proved that it contains from
sixteen to seventeen per cent, of saccharine matter.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 85
" The neck of this beet is very large ; the roots are
generally irregular, of bad shape, and have many ac
cessory roots ; harvesting is difficult, especially in wet
weather." ( Vilmorin.)
IMPERIAL.
" The imperial beet is a native of Germany. It is
said to contain thirteen and one half per cent of sugar.
The root, which is carrot-shaped, has a green neck, is
very long, and grows entirely beneath the surface."
( Vilmorin.)
WHITE SUGAR.
White Silesian. — Betterave blanche. — Vilmorin.
" Root fusiform, sixteen inches in length, six or seven
inches in its greatest diameter, contracted towards the
crown, thickest just below the surface of the soil, but
nearly retaining its size for half the depth, and thence
tapering regularly to a point. Skin white, washed
with green or rose-red at the crown. Flesh white,
crisp, and very sugary. Leaves green ; the leaf-stems
clear green, or green stained with light red, according
to the variety.
" The white sugar beet is quite extensively grown in
this country, and is employed almost exclusively as
feed for stock, although the young roots are sweet,
tender, and well flavored, and in all respects superior
for the table to many garden varieties. In France it
is largely cultivated for the manufacture of sugar, and
for distillation.
" Of the two sub-varieties, some cultivators prefer
the green-top ; others, the rose-colored or red-top.
86 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
The latter is the larger, more productive, and tlu:
better keeper ; but the former is the more sugary. It
is, however, very difficult to preserve the varieties in
a pure state, much of the seed usually sown contain
ing, in some degree, a mixture of both.
" It is cultivated, in all respects, as the long red
mangel-wurzel, and the yield, per acre, varies from
twenty to thirty tons." {Burr.)
Mauny de Mornay says, " The white Silesian beet
is generally considered the best for the sugar manu
facturer : it grows beneath the surface, has a small
green neck, the stalks of the leaves are greenish-
white ; it yields less juice, but of a richer quality, than
most other kinds ; it contains salts in smaller propor
tions, keeps wrell, and resists frost better than others.
It has the preference over all others with the manu
facturers of sugar."
CHARACTERISTICS OF BEETS FOR SUGAR-MAKING.
For the use of sugar manufacturers the kind of beet
that can be cultivated with most advantage is that
which is richest in sugar, and contains the smallest
amount of alkaline salts. It is distinguished by the
following characteristics : —
First. Its root must have neither the form of a car
rot, nor of a tuber, but be shaped more like a Bartlett
pear. It must be long and slender, gradually tapering,
and free from large lateral roots.
Second. It must not grow above the surface of the
soil.
Third. It must have a smooth white surface, and
the flesh be white and hard.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 87
Fourth. Its size must not be too large, and its
weight not exceeding five to eight pounds.
The white Silesian beet, which is the one in general
cultivation for manufacturers, unites most of these
qualities ; and of other kinds those are most preferred
whose foliage is not upright, but broad-spreading and
lying upon the surface of the ground. The roots of
beets possessing this peculiarity grow entirely beneath
the surface.
The beet, as a sugar-producing plant, is for the tem
perate latitudes what the cane is for the tropics ; but be
sides its saccharine properties, it possesses others which
render it even a greater acquisition to the human race
than the cane.
It flourishes in almost any good soil ; few plants are
more hardy and tenacious of life, or have a wider
range of cultivation.
It succeeds well in every country of Europe, from
Jtaly to Norway, and from Spain to Russia.
In the United States it has been successfully culti
vated in most of the states from Missouri to Maine,
and would doubtless thrive in all. It is, however, a
remarkable fact, that while the cane increases in saccha
rine richness as it approaches the equator, the reverse
is the case with the beet, which up to a certain degree,
north or south, secretes more sugar as it approaches
the poles.
The northern limit of the successful culture of sugar
beet on this continent is probably to be found at about
latitude 50° to 52°, which is in Canada. In Europe it
is successfully cultivated as far north as 60°.
88 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
CHOICE OF SOIL.
Although most countries and climates permit its
culture, there is of course a choice of soil, if the high
est development of saccharine qualities is desired.
The root of the beet penetrates deeply into the
ground, and is abundantly supplied with fine fibres,
through which it derives its nourishment.
The beet dislikes a too clayey, tenacious soil. Rocky
or stony land must also be avoided, as it produces
forked and misshapen roots, difficult to cleanse and
rasp.
Soil charged with mineral salts is not suitable ; for
sugar beets easily absorb its saline and alkaline ele
ments, which are obstacles to the extraction of sugar.
Marshy, sw7ampy lands, and those in proximity to
the sea, are unfavorable for the beet.
Wet lands are disadvantageous ; but by a proper
system of drainage, cultivation, and manuring, may
be rendered suitable.
The beet flourishes best in deep, rich, loose, per
meable soils, suitable for grains.
Light, rich, sandy ground furnishes beets dense,
easy of preservation, and rich in sugar.
Calcareous soils are good, and the argillo-calcare-
ous are better still.
Ground that is mellow, warm, and fertile, free from
saline and alkaline constituents, not sour, and of a
nature little liable to suffer from drought, easy to
work late in autumn and early in spring, with a
comparatively permeable subsoil, penetrable by the
tap-root of the beet, that affords natural drainage, so
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 89
that it may be worked soon after rains, is suitable
for the crop in question.
The best colors for the soil are black and brown,
provided the color is from vegetable mould, and not
due to metallic elements.
A black soil warms more readily, and retains heat
better, than that of any other color. This is favor
able to the early development of the beet in the
spring, which is important, as it tends to put the
plant beyond the reach of summer drought, its long
root penetrating deep enough into the earth to obtain
the necessary supply of moisture. The "black soil"
of Russia, which corresponds with much of our
western land, is said by Professor Witt, of Munich,
to be acknowledged the best in Europe for the sugar
beet.
Count Chaptal, a great cultivator, as well as sugar
manufacturer, says, " All grain-fields are more or
less suitable for beets, but especially those having a
depth of twelve or fifteen inches of rich vegetable
mould. Fine, sandy, alluvial bottom lands, over
flowed in winter or early spring, are favorable for
the beet, and they need no artificial manure, as they
are enriched by the inundations. Beets require to be
planted on thoroughly cultivated land in which the
sods are entirely rotted."
He was often compelled to sow a crop of oats on
land newly broken up before he planted the beet, of
which afterwards he often got two excellent successive
crops.
When the soil was very light and deep he some
times succeeded in getting a good crop on pasture
90 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
land broken up in the fall, and planted with beets
six months later ; but lands in English grass, which
were ploughed, and planted with beets, never produced
a good crop the first year. It wTas always better the
second year.
By intelligent, scientific, and well-directed labor
almost any soil can be made suitable for the beet ; but
it is to be considered whether, in an economical point
of view, it is judicious to force the culture of a plant
upon a soil naturally unsuited to it. Heavy expenses
will diminish if they do not entirely absorb the prof
its, even on large crops. This consideration is espe
cially entitled to weight in the cultivation of sugar
beets, for which it is best to select what is called in
Europe a " natural beet ground."
A clayey, sandy subsoil, which retains moisture and
the liquid manures, or a subsoil of marl, is favorable.
On the other hand, a subsoil of gravel is unfavorable ;
so also is a subsoil of sand, unless the deposit of loam
above it is at least two feet deep.
Drought in the season of early vegetation is perni
cious, but after the plant gets well established it will
bear extended dry weather. Too much rain, later in
the season, increases the weight of the crop at the
expense of sugar ; or rather it diminishes the percent
age of saccharine matter, the same amount existing,
but in a less concentrated form. The beets are more
watery, and consequently of less value for making
sugar. Too much rain early in the season, when
the plant needs warmth, is disadvantageous, and re
tards its growth.
M. Michael, in the "Journal de Chimie pratique,"
says,—
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 9!
" I. The formation of cane sugar in beets is only
favored by the proper concurrence of warmth and
rain.
" 2. Continued drought induces acid juices.
"3. The juices, during the period of storage in the
silos (pits), are converted into grape sugar, which is
uncrystallizable.
"4. Beets in the year 1859 (a very dry season)
heated in the silos, and rotted sooner than those of the
preceding year. This was the result of the drought
and consequent formation of acid juices."
J. J. Fiihling, a great Prussian cultivator, says, —
" My observations and inquiries satisfy me that in
a climate warm and moist in summer, most lands are
adapted to the beet ; that in a climate where the
summers are very hot and dry, a strong and retentive
soil is required ; and where they are colder and more
humid, fields light and permeable produce better re
sults for the cultivator.
" After planting is done, warm and moist weather
in May and June favor the early development of the
plant, which gives earnest of a good crop.
" With July and early August dry and warm, the
production of good seed is probable.
" Continued and abundant rains in July and August
insure a heavy crop. September dry produces beets
rich in sugar ; but September wet makes them watery,
and comparatively poor in saccharine matter, — not
because the beets secrete their sugar in that month,
but because with dry weather the beet ripens and its
leaves begin to wither, while with continued rain the
plant is stimulated to produce a second crop of leaves
at the expense of the sugar contained in the root.
92 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
" The three principal periods of vegetation in the
growth of the beet are marked by the successive for
mation of the leaves, the root, and the seeds.
" The first of these periods extends to July, during
which time the leaves are rapidly developed, while
there is but little increase in the size of the roots.
The beet then remains in a state of comparative re
pose."
From the middle of July to the latter part of Au
gust the root increases rapidly in size.
Seed ripens in August.
From August to the middle of September, and
sometimes until the i5th of October, the beet still
grows, but increases more rapidly in weight than in
size.
METHOD OF CULTIVATING THE SUGAR BEET * FOR
THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR.
Having selected a suitable piece of ground that is
already in cultivation, it should be thoroughly ma
nured in the fall, the manure ploughed in to a depth
of six or seven inches, and completely covered, taking
particular care that the land is dry, for working wet
land always develops in it gummy and sticky proper
ties that subsequently interfere with easy cultivation.
This superficial ploughing should be followed by a sec
ond, as deep as possible. A double Michigan plough
would probably perform the work with a single oper-
* The instructions here given are exclusively for the cultivation
of beets destined to be manufactured into sugar. The cultivation
of forage beets for feeding stock is quite different, particularly in
relation to the distances at which the plants should stand apart.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 93
ation. The depth of the furrow should not be less
than twelve inches, and if deeper, so much the better ;
for the root of the sugar beet requires a deep, rich
bed, in which it can develop itself entirely beneath
the surface of the soil. The part that grows .above
the ground contains no sugar, and if it rises much,
is always cut off at the time of harvest, that course
being mutually agreed upon in Europe by the manu
facturer and cultivator.*
If the soil is ploughed to a sufficient depth, the root
of the beet will not rise above the ground. The
farmer consequently not only gets a larger crop, and
of better quality, but the whole of it is marketable.
Whereas if the ground is not properly ploughed, the
beets rise, the part above ground is cut off, and is only
used for feeding stock.
Deep ploughing therefore is of the greatest impor
tance, not only for the beet, but also, as every farmer
knows, for succeeding crops. It renders the soil mel-
* The portion of the root that grows out of the ground contains
little or no sugar, but is rich in salts ; therefore there is not only
no good derived by the manufacturer from this exposed part, but
a positive evil ; for besides lessening the percentage of sugar con
tained in the whole root, the presence of the salts in the neck les
sens still farther the percentage that can be extracted. This is so
well understood, that in Germany, where women and children can
be hired at ten or fifteen cents a day, they are employed in the fac
tories to cut off from the beets, before they are rasped, every part
of the crown and neck that grew above the surface of the soil.
The portion thus cut off is fed to cattle. In France, where labor
is higher, this custom does not prevail ; but if the beets grow
much above the surface, the necks are cut off at the time of har
vest.
94 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
lower by more thoroughly exposing it to the action
of the frosts. This is considered so important in
Europe that the plough is often followed by laborers,
who, with a spade, take out the earth from the bed
of the furrow and lay it on the slice. Our subsoil
plough would do that work cheaper and better.
If, after the fall ploughings, any weeds make their
appearance before winter sets in, it is a good plan to
pass over the field twice with a harrow, running the
second time across the track of the first harrowing.
In Europe farmers use what they call an " extir-
pateur," which is an instrument writh teeth sharp and
strong, and about fourteen inches long, shaped like
those of a cultivator. It differs from our " extirpator."
It is used upon the stubble in the autumn, immedi
ately after the grains are harvested, to extirpate the
weeds, and is a very serviceable instrument. They
usually pass twice over the fields with it, making the
second track across the first. It is mounted on wheels,
is of various sizes, and is drawn by two, three, or four
horses.
If the land is so mellow as not to require a deep
ploughing in the fall, manure is put upon the field,
and the extirpator is passed two or three times over
it. The land is then thoroughly cross-harrowed, and
left until spring, when the treatment is the same as
if it had been subjected to deep ploughing.
As soon as the ground is sufficiently warm and dry
in the spring, it should be ploughed again, across the
furrows of the preceding fall, to a depth of about
eight inches, and again thoroughly cross-harrowed.
If the nature of the land is wet, or if the upper soil
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 95
is thin, it is sometimes thrown into ridges or beds in
Europe. This method, the culture " en billon," finds
many advocates even among those possessing lands
of the deepest and most suitable soil. In case this
method is adopted, only half the manure allotted to
the field is used in the fall, and the rest is applied in
the spring. The following is the method adopted : —
The portion of manure that is to be used in the
fall is spread upon the land, ploughed in, and the
field left in furrow through the winter. In the spring
the field is worked up with the plough into ridges or
" billons," between eighteen and twenty inches apart.
The remainder of the manure is applied, taking
care to have it placed well at the bottom of the fur
rows. The ridges are then split with a plough, the
manure in the furrows covered, and new ridges formed,
which are then levelled with a light roller, and the
seed sown in the usual manner, in the centre, directly
over the manure.
Beets cultivated in this way are more apt to be
forked than those raised by other methods.
The yellow globe ("jaune globe") is for that rea
son generally used in this culture, as its habit is to
produce smooth and well-shaped roots. The advo
cates of this mode of culture claim that it produces
larger crops, and is^ safer from the effects of drought
than any other ; but in my judgment the method is of
doubtful expediency.
If the culture " en billon " is not adopted, then,
after the spring ploughing and harrowing, the field
is again gone over with the harrow turned upside
down. This treatment serves better than rolling to
96 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
smooth and pulverize the soil, and leaves it in admi
rable condition for the succeeding operations of sow
ing. All stones and clods that would interfere with
the successful working of the seed-sower should be
removed.
SOWING THE SEED.
The proper time to commence sowing is in the
latter part of April, or as soon as the ground is in
a fit state, being warm and dry, but at the same time
sufficiently humid to promote rapid germination, and
not so wet as to induce crustation or baking of the
surface. Some European cultivators say that it should
be done when the moon is on the increase.
Sowing in Europe is done both by hand and by
machines ; but as the price of labor in this country
forbids the use of the former method, I shall give no
description of it, although it is done by women and
children very rapidly, and certainly possesses many
advantages in countries where labor is low. I shall
not describe either the method of transplanting the
beet which prevails extensively in Germany, for labor
is too high here to warrant the practice. Nor shall
I give any description of the seed-sowers in use in
Europe, because we have better ones in this coun
try. I shall assume that machines will be used that
sow several ranges or rows at a time.
The irregularity in size and shape of beet seed ren
ders it necessary to subject it to certain treatment in
order to facilitate the operation of sowing, and to pre
vent the clogging of the machine, the result of which
would be to leave long spaces in the lines without any
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET 97
seed. This preliminary treatment also facilitates its
germination, and in a measure guards it against de
struction by insects.
The seed should be passed through a screen with
meshes sufficiently fine to retain all that would not
pass easily through the gauge that regulates the pas
sage of seed in the machine.
The seed which do not pass must be rubbed between
two boards, and partially crushed, in order to reduce
those which are large and irregularly formed to a size
that permits their easy transmission through the screen.
After all the seed are by rubbing rendered sufficiently
small to offer no obstruction to their easy sowing, they
are steeped in the following solution : —
Dissolve nine ounces of sulphate of potash and an
equal quantity of sulphate of lime in from four to five
quarts of warm water. After this add five or six gal
lons of cold water. Of this solution use a sufficient
quantity to cover the seed.
After having steeped for five or six hours, the liquid
is drained off, and the seed are dried by putting them
into a vessel either with wood ashes, slaked lime,
ground plaster of Paris, or thoroughly pulverized
guano, and mixing them together, so that each seed
may be in a degree coated with the material employed.
They are then spread until sufficiently dry to work
readily in the machine. The machine should be set
so as to sow the seed from one and a half to two
inches deep, and in lines sixteen to eighteen inches
apart, although some farmers make their rows four
teen and others twenty inches apart.*
* Beets planted a foot apart will produce about four tons more
5
98 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
The amount of seed required for an acre varies, of
course, in accordance with the number of rows and
the perfection of the seed-sower. It is certainly best
to sow enough, for in seed-sowing apparent prodi
gality is often the truest economy, it being less costly
to pull out superabundant plants than to sow a second
time.
The farmer should bear in mind that the plants
must finally stand from twelve to fourteen inches apart
in the row. Knowing this, and the capacity of his
machine, he can arrive at a pretty correct estimate of
the amount of seed required.
In France the farmers employ from nine to thirteen
pounds on an acre.
Too much pains cannot be taken to have the lines
perfectly straight, and each passage of the machine
over the field exactly parallel to the preceding one.
" Marking," before the passage of the seed-sower,
should be done writh the very greatest care and exact
ness. This is of the utmost importance in every sub
sequent stage of cultivation, and cannot be too strongly
urged. For economical cultivation it is indispensa
ble. This is attained in Europe, and the lines are per
fect miracles of straightness.
A strip of land sufficiently wide for the various ma
chines and their teams to turn on should be left at each
end of the field. In this country, where land is cheap,
per acre than if planted at a distance of eighteen inches ; they will
also be from half to one per cent, richer in sugar. But the lesser
distance is not so well adapted to cheap culture, and the usual
method is to have the rows sixteen to eighteen inches apart, and
the plants twelve to fourteen inches apart in the rows.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 99
it can be afforded, and in beet culture it will be found
economical and convenient.
As soon as the seed are sown the ground should be
rolled. This hastens germination. The best roller is
a cast-iron one, in joints or sections. The roller should
follow the lines made by the seed-sower as exactly as
is possible.
The beet generally makes its appearance in about
ten days after the seed is sown ; but the time varies in
accordance with the nature and condition of the soil
and of the season. If the plant does not " show" in
the usual time, seed must be examined in several
different parts of the field, and if found generally to be
alive, more time must be allowed for its germination.
But if it be found that there is here and there a strong
plant, while the rest come up irregularly, and exami
nation of the seed in the vacant places proves them to
be rotten, then it is to be considered,
1. Are there plants enough to give a fair crop?
2. Is the field in condition to allow seed to be sown
in the vacant places ?
3. Is there yet time to re-sow the whole piece?
WEEDING.
As soon as the plants are up, if weeds begin to ap
pear, no time should be lost in setting the cultivator
in motion to destroy them, and to stir the ground
between the rows.
In Europe machines particularly designed for this
purpose, as well as for other of the various require
ments of this special culture, are in partial use. They
will soon be brought here, and probably be improved
100 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
upon by our skilful mechanics. But there are al
ready cultivators in the west, that, with trifling mod
ifications, would perform the required work admi
rably.
If the weeds should show thickly before the beet is
up, and the lines made by the seed-sower are plainly
visible, the cultivator may commence at once, for it is
absolutely necessary, if good returns of beets, and also
subsequent crops, are desired, that the fields should be
kept entirely free from weeds.
In many parts of Europe the farmer not only runs
his cultivator (u rasette a cheval ") between the rows,
but also across them, leaving his plants at the corners
of squares eighteen inches apart each way, thus doing
almost all his work with a horse cultivator. This
implement sometimes operates on one, but oftener on
three lines at once, and is drawn by a small horse,
which is led by a boy.
The cultivator for one line does better work, but at
a higher cost, than the three-line machine. There are
two-horse cultivators in use, but it is difficult to em
ploy a span of horses without injuring the crop.
Many of these machines have a device attached that
raises the leaves from the ground, and prevents their
being injured. Others, also, have an attachment that
"earths-up" the beet. The cost of these machines
varies from five to thirty dollars. The one-horse ma
chine, managed by a boy, will cultivate from three to
four acres a day.
The use of the horse-cultivator across the lines is
not recommended, as it leaves the plants too far apart
in the lines. In some cases the hand hoe (" rasette a
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. IOI
main ") is used for both operations, and oftener still for
cultivating across the lines. The " rasette a main " is
mounted on low wheels, and is a species of thrust hoe
and cultivator combined. The cultivator should not
be run very deep upon its first passage, for fear of dis
turbing or covering the young plants.
In case the field is not cultivated across the lines
either by the horse or hand rasette, it is necessary, as
soon as cultivation between the lines has taken place,
to thin out the beets, leaving single plants standing,
from twelve to fourteen inches apart in the rows.*
This can be done best when the ground is moist.
The ground should afterwards be loosened about
the plant with a sharp, short-handled hoe, four or five
inches in width, leaving the earth light and easily ac
cessible to the fertilizing influences of the atmosphere.
In case there are vacant spaces in the lines, enough
plants should be left in adjoining rows to furnish the
means of filling the spaces by transplanting as soon
as the beets are sufficiently large, which will generally
be at the time of the second weeding.
Vacant spaces in the lines should be filled by trans
planting. This can be done best when the beets are
about one half or three fourths of an inch in diameter.
A moist day should be selected, and the plants taken
up with a spade, or, better, with a transplanting trowel,
from those lines where thinning is required, and
* In thinning, particularly in dry weather, take a flat wooden
knife with which to separate the plants and hold down the earth,
while the beet to be removed is pulled up. If the earth is too dry
to remove the plant easily, use a steel " dibble," with which the
beet can be destroyed.
IO2 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
carried in a wooden tray to the spot where they are
needed.
Pains should be taken to injure the beet as little as
possible, and in replanting them to have the root kept
straight, otherwise the matured plant will produce
forked and misshapen roots.
Holes about five inches deep should be made at
proper intervals for the reception of the plant, with a
plug of hard wood, eight inches in length and an inch
in diameter at one end, tapering gradually to the
diameter of a quarter of an inch, when the end should
be rounded oft".
One careful workman should take up the beets and
carry them to another, who will set them out. The
latter workman takes a plant by the leaves with his
left hand, and makes a perpendicular hole with the
plug held in his right hand ; he then withdraws the
plug from the ground, and carefully inserts the plant
in the hole, taking pains to keep the root perfectly
straight. He holds it by the left hand, keeping the
crown of the plant on a level with the surface of the
ground ; he then plunges the plug perpendicularly
two or three times into the ground within an inch of
the root, and crowds the earth against the root with
the plug. He then places a little earth about the
plant, and with both hands presses and settles the soil
about the root. The earth is then dressed with the
fingers about the plant, taking pains to leave the
crown just even with the surface.
The long leaves are then pinched off, and the oper
ations are completed.
The first workman should have a tray in which to
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 103
carry the plants he takes up. The second should also
have one for the convenience of transporting the
plants along the line. These trays should be two feet
long and one foot wide, with rims three inches high
on each side and on one end, with holes in the middle
of the side rims to admit the fingers. One end is left
open, so that the first workman can, with little injury
to the plants, slide them from his tray into that of the
second.
Transplanting may also be done when the plants
are much larger, in which case it may be necessary to
make the hole with the spade. In that case one work
man thrusts his spade perpendicularly into the ground
to a depth sufficient for the length of the root, and by
a motion of his spade pries the ground to one side ;
another workman then inserts the root, holding it in
its proper position ; the first workman then withdraws
his spade, and presses the earth against the plant with
his foot. It is far better, however, to transplant when
the beets are small.
There is also an instrument for transplanting, called
a " deplantoir," in use in France, that moves the
plant without retarding its growth in the least. It
does the work perfectly in every respect, except that
it does not do it expeditiously.
If the " spacing" of the plants is done by the pas
sage of the cultivator across the lines, then the work
men must with their hands, or with the short hoe,
loosen the earth about each plant, leaving but a single
one standing at the corner of each square.
All weeds should be pulled up and left upon the
surface between the rows, but not in piles, for they
IO4 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
would obstruct the subsequent passage of the cultiva
tor ; whereas if they are spread, the cultivator will pass
over them, and leave the intervals between the rows
perfectly clean and smooth.
As soon after the first weeding as the ground be
comes "baked" or "crusted," or as soon as the
weeds again make their appearance, a second and
deeper cultivation, and also a thorough weeding, should
take place. The ground should at all times be kept
pulverized, loose, open, and always entirely free from
weeds. For this reason, as well as that the extirpated
weeds may die more speedily, it is highly important
that the weeding and cultivation should be done not
only when the weather is hot, for then weeds are more
easily killed, but also when the ground is dry, for it is
at that time less likely to form a crust.
The only operations in beet culture suitable for wet J
weather are thinning and transplanting. Some hand
labor is necessary, and frequent hoeings that break up
the incrusted soil are of great benefit. Care should
be taken to keep the hoes sharp, in order the more
easily to cut off the weeds. There is a proverb in \
Germany that " the hoe is the gold of the beet." J
The number of times that the beet should be weeded
and cultivated is determined by the condition of the
surface soil, and the existence of weeds. The weeds \
must be kept down, and the soil must be kept loose. /
Three weedings often suffice ; if no more are required,
so much the better. If six are needed, they must be
given. The value of the crop demands this, and it
must be done, and well done. The better it is done
the first time, the less there will be necessary to do
afterwards.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 105
As soon as the plants take such full possession of
the soil, that hoeing or cultivating cannot be done
without damage to the leaves, then those operations
must cease, for it is of great importance to preserve
the foliage from injury. This will generally be the
case early in July. The luxuriant growth of the plant
then stifles the weeds, and, shading the ground, pre
vents its incrustation. The only care required after
that time until harvest is to pull up such weeds as
may have accidentally escaped the watchful eye of
the farmer, and to cut off the flower-stalks of the few
beets that give indications of producing seed.*
Both these operations must be strictly attended to,
for the weed not only withdraws nourishment from
the beet, but if permitted to mature, scatters seed that
increase the farmer's subsequent labor ; while the
root of the beet that is permitted to " go to seed" con
tains not a particle of sugar.
It is a common but not universal practice in Europe
to " hill," or to " earth up," the beet, and the method
finds many advocates. The operation is performed
principally with a species of small double mould-board
plough, and is finished wr'ith the hoe. It is generally
done between the second and third weedings. The
practice seems to be a reasonable one, as it tends not
only to make the soil light, and thus promotes the
growth of the beet, but also causes its development
beneath the soil, thus lessening the amount to be cut
off of the neck at the time of harvest. Beets that have
* If the beet shows a tendency to go to seed while it is yet small,
it should be pulled up ; but if it is large, the flower-stalk should be
cut off.
5*
IO6 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
a tendency to grow out of the ground are improved
in quality by earthing them up in July.
HARVESTING THE BEET.
The maturity of the beet is marked by unmistaka
ble signs. The leaves of the plants, instead of look
ing green, thrifty, and vigorous, begin to assume a
yellowish tinge, to wither and drop off. This period
varies with the climate, the season, and also with the
method of cultivating and of manuring. These indi
cations are signals of the coming harvest, and the
field must thenceforward be narrowly watched, calcu
lation being made as to how much time will probably
elapse before frost sets in ; also as to the force attain
able for harvesting the crop, and also as to the prob
ability of rain. It is important that beets should be
harvested before heavy frost, although they will, before
being dug, bear a temperature of 22° to 24° without
injury. Beets that are frozen should be left for eight
or ten days before being dug, in which case they often
recover from the effect of the frost ; if they could be
left longer, it would be still better. After being dug,
the beet will bear a temperature of 28° without detri
ment. Heavy rains, after the foliage has withered
and fallen, stimulate the production of new leaves at
the expense of the sugar in the beet. This should be
counteracted by harvesting the crop as speedily as
possible ; but the longer the beet stays in the ground
without the risk of freezing or producing new leaves,
the better for the manufacturer, and of course for the
farmer, for their interests are identical.
Beets are generally ripe in France the last of Sep-
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 107
tcmber or first of October. In Illinois, by reason of
the heat of our summers being more intense, they
would ripen early in September. This is a great
advantage to the manufacturer, as he can begin to
work nearly a month sooner than is done in Europe,
and operate upon ripe beets ; while in Europe, the
manufacturer, if he has a large crop to consume, be
gins in September, but has unripe beets, that do not
contain their full proportion of sugar.
If a portion of the beets are to be taken at once to
the factory, and the rest kept in pits for future work
ing, then those that are ripest should be selected for
the pits, and of the remainder the ripest should be
first dug for immediate use at the factory. If the
beets are all to be put into pits, then the least ripe,
and also those grown on the richest ground, should
be kept separate, and delivered first to the mill when
they are required. The reasons for these rules are,
that ripe beets keep better than unripe ones, and
that beets grown on rich ground are more watery, and
consequently do not keep so well as those grown on
poorer soil.
Beets may be dug with a spade, fork, or common
plough. They are generally taken from the ground
in Europe with what is called an " arracheur," which
is a sort of plough with a share shaped like a cone,
the section of which is an oval somewhat flattened on
the lower side, about three feet in length, seven or
eight inches in diameter, and tapering to a blunted
point. It is drawn by two horses, and will dig from
one and a half to one and three fourths acres of
beets per day in excellent condition. The operations
IOS BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
of the spade or fork are too tedious and costly to be
employed in this country, and the common plough
injures a great many of the beets, thereby promoting
their decay in the pits.
In harvesting the beet, it is advisable, chiefly for two
reasons, to select dry weather and a dry state of the
soil. If the weather immediately preceding harvest
is very wet, not only is the beet rendered more watery,
and the percentage of sugar contained in it less, —
which of course is a disadvantage for the manufac
turer, — but the beets will not keep so well in the pits.
They are also more susceptible to the action of frost ;
for the richer the beet is in sugar, the better it will
keep, and the less likely is it to freeze.
If the ground is wet, the earth also adheres more
closely to the roots, and they are neither so easily dug
nor so easily cleansed of the adhering soil. When the
ground is wet and the extracted roots are very dirty,
they must be gently knocked together to free them
from the superabundant soil, but not with such force
as to bruise them. Roots keep better when some
soil adheres to them ; but too much induces vege
tation in the pits, which destroys the sugar.
When the roots are thrown out by the " arracheur,"
women and children place the beets from two rows
side by side upon the ground, all lying in the same
direction, with their leaves on one side and their roots
on the other. This is for the convenience of the
workman who cuts off the leaves. If the beets are
properly placed, his labors are lessened, and he is not
obliged to touch the beets with his hands. It takes
but little extra labor, and that of women and children,
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 10^
to place them properly and to " double up the rows,"
— that is, to place in one line the beets from two
rows, — while it not only hastens the labors of the cut
ter, but also facilitates the subsequent operation of
throwing into pits or putting into wagons. Pains
should also be taken to have two ''doubled rows"
come together, in order to allow the passage between
the rows of extracted beets of a wagon, into which
they can be loaded from both sides. This can be
done in the following manner : rows one and two
should, when dug, be laid on the ground occupied by
row one ; rowrs three and four on row occupied by
four ; rows five and six on row five ; rows seven and
eight on row eight ; and so on.
After the beets are placed in lines, the leaves are
cut off. For this operation several different methods
are employed. In some instances the work is done
by women and children, who use either a large knife
with a curved point, like a pruning-knife, or a straight
knife, with a blade about a foot long and an inch and
a half wide. In other cases it is done by a man
either with a spade or with an instrument shaped like
a sod-cutter, with a handle about four feet long. This
latter instrument is the best. Whichever is used, it
must be kept sharp, not only to render the work
easier, but also to prevent bruising the beet, which
hastens its decomposition.
If the beet is of the right kind, and has been prop
erly cultivated, so that the root has not pushed above
the surface, it will only be necessary to cut off the
foliage, just shaving the crown of the plant, so that
the leaves fall separated ; but if the root, for any rea-
IIO BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
son, has grown much above the surface, then a portion
of the green neck, which has been exposed to the air,
should be sliced off with the leaves. Mutilation of
the beet must be avoided, for every wound not only
hastens decay in the pits, but even a slight exposure
to the air induces fermentation at the wounded part,
which somewhat lessens the production of crystallized
sugar ; therefore it is advisable to cultivate the plant
so that it will not be necessary to cut off any part of
the neck. After the leaves are cut off, the beets may
be either put at once into the pits or silos, transported
to the factory, or thrown into small piles. If the
latter course is adopted, the piles should not be made
more than two and a half feet high, and should be
covered at once with the leaves as a safeguard against
frost, and to exclude them from the unfavorable influ
ence of light and air, which causes them to wither
and become flaccid, and tends to promote decay.
The treatment after harvest is of the greatest im
portance : upon it depends the ultimate value of the
crop, which may otherwise prove a total loss.
PRESERVATION OF BEETS.
The methods of preserving beets are various. In
some parts of Europe they are kept upon the surface
of the ground, and in immense solid piles, covering
acres of land to a uniform depth of about six feet.
I have even seen them between nine and ten feet deep.
In other cases they are placed on the ground in piles
ten or twelve feet wide at the base, five feet high, and
of any desired length, with the sides of the pile grad
ually converging as they approach the requisite height.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. Ill
and with the top rounded so as to shed water. In
some cases these piles are ventilated, as will be de
scribed hereafter, and in other cases they are solid.
In the opinion of many, piles should not contain more
than five tons, and should be thoroughly ventilated ;
on the other hand, I have seen more than 10,000 tons
in a pile without any ventilation, and the beets came
out in perfect condition. Some people preserve them
in silos or pits of various sizes, ventilated, in some
instances, and in others filled solid ; in some sections
the piles are conical.
In France a patent has been taken for the preserva
tion of beets by the mechanical introduction of a cur
rent of cool air through ventilators that traverse the
piles. Preservation in cellars is not practicable on a
large scale, neither do the beets keep so well as those
in pits or piles.
The best method of preserving the beet is to keep
it continually frozen ; for freezing not only does not in
jure its saccharine properties, but it facilitates the ex
traction of sugar, probably because frost ruptures the
sap-vessels more completely than it is possible to do
mechanically. The trouble of frost in Europe is, that
a frozen beet, when it thaws, quickly becomes rotten,
and it is impossible, in their climate, to keep them
frozen ; consequently frozen beets require to be worked
at once, or decomposition takes place. In my judg
ment, beets may be frozen in Illinois in November, and
by protecting them with straw from the rays of the
sun, may be kept frozen until March.
As it is impossible for the manfacturer upon a large
scale to take the whole crop at once, the usual method
112 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
in Europe is to contract with each farmer for the de
livery of his beets throughout the season. A portion is
required each day, and is drawn to the mill for imme
diate consumption, if the beets are near to the manufac
tory. There are also provisions made for the storage
of a large amount in the yards of the factory, and piles
are also made on the road-side of adjacent fields. These
supplies are drawn at the time of harvest, and are kept
as a reserve for bad weather, or when, from any cause,
the daily supply from the farmers is not sufficient.
But if the factory is far from the fields where the beets
are raised, the better course is to store the roots on the
field, and deliver them as required ; for the beets are
injured by long transportation, and do not keep well.
When the manufacturer has received all that he can
take care of, the farmer preserves the remainder for
delivery throughout the fall and winter.
In whatever way they are stored for preservation, it
will be necessary to place all the outside beets in a
perfectly symmetrical wall, gradually inclining towards
the centre of the pile. For this purpose the beets are
placed one by one, with their crowns out and the roots
in. The rest may be thrown promiscuously into the
interior of the pile. The sooner the beet is put into
pits or piles after being dug, the better. In preserving
beets, they must be kept from excessive moisture, pre
vented from heating, maintained at an even tempera
ture, and be easily accessible in wet and freezing
weather. In selecting places for their preservation,
dry land that affords natural drainage should be
chosen, and in close proximity to a road or highway,
in order the better to keep them from excessive moist-
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 113
ure, to permit their easy and frequent examination,
and their more expeditious and economical transpor
tation, without trampling upon and injuring the
ploughed fields. If the piles are in the middle of
the fields, and the ground is wet, more time and greater
power will be required to draw out the beets than if
they are at the road-side. I shall describe the method
of preserving in " silos," generally employed in Eu
rope, remarking again, that the size of these silos
varies in accordance with the different ideas of cul
tivators.
PRESERVATION IN SILOS OR PITS.
A pit is dug in dry soil, from twenty to twenty-four
inches deep, ten to twelve feet wide, and of any con
venient length ; the bottom rises a little at the centre.
If the pit is perfectly dry, it will not be necessary to
put anything on the bottom ; but if it inclines to moist
ure, then it would be advisable to give it a coating of
dry sand, and to make it sufficiently wide to have a
ditch one foot wide around the pile of beets. This
ditch should be five or six inches deeper than the bot
tom of the pile, and so arranged as to afford drainage
for any water that might otherwise remain in the pits.
The roots are then put promiscouusly into the centre
of the pit, and a symmetrical wall of beets, laid with the
crowns out, at one end and at both sides. This wall
must incline regularly towards the centre, at the rate
of about one foot in three, care being taken to have
the sides of the pile perfectly straight and even.
When the pile has been carried up to the requisite
height, or seven to eight feet from the bottom, and the
114 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
beets on the upper surface smoothly and regularly laid,
a portion of the earth that was taken from the pit
must be thrown against the pile, and a wall of earth
be built around the beets two and one half to three
feet thick at the base, and gradually diminishing in
thickness as the summit is attained. The thickness
of this wall depends upon the climate and the soil :
if the latter is very light and sandy, a greater thickness
will be required than if it were heavier and of greater
consistence. The top of the pile, for a width of three
or four feet, is not covered with earth until the weather
becomes cooler. This open space, however, is pro
tected with six or eight inches of straw, which is kept
in its place by boughs or sticks. It is better not to
put the whole of the earth about the beets at once,
but to cover them with only half the quantity at first,
increasing the thickness of the covering as the season
progresses. As the period for strong frost approaches,
the straw covering on the top should be replaced by
earth, the outside of the pile beaten smooth with a
spade, and put in condition to remain through the
winter. A transverse section of the finished pile re
sembles a haycock in form.
The end of the pile from which the beets are first
to be taken, should be coated with three or four feet
of straw, firmly secured with boards, so that access to
the beets may be easily obtained when the ground is
frozen hard.
In putting the beets into silos or pits, great pains
must be taken to have all the beets in the pile of
one condition ; that is, the beets that will keep best
should be put in one pile ; those which will not keep
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 115
so well should be put in another ; those which are at
all injured or bruised, if they cannot be used at once
at the mill, should be put into a third ; and so on, tak
ing- care to remember the character of the contents
of each pile, so that those least likely to keep may be
first delivered. This has already been referred to on
page 107, but is of so great importance that I again
allude to it.
PRESERVATION IN PILES.
Beets may be preserved in piles upon the surface
of the ground in precisely the same manner as has
been described above for their preservation in pits,
with this exception, that the depth of beets should not
exceed five or six feet. In both cases a shallow ditch
should surround the pile and silo or pit for the purpose
of drainage. In some cases a layer of beets a foot
thick is covered with two inches of earth, and then
another layer of beets, and so on until the pile is com
pleted : this is a good but expensive process. In all
cases the piles should be repeatedly examined, and all
cracks and chinks in the covering of earth repaired at
once.
VENTILATION OF BEETS.
Some persons consider it of the first importance
to ventilate beets, both those in piles and in pits ;
but I have seen such vast quantities kept in fine
condition until the i5th of February, stored with
out ventilation, in the comparatively warm climate
of France, that I doubt its necessity. When ventila
tion is practised, it is sometimes effected by placing
in the centre of the pile, at distances of twelve to fifteen
Il6 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
feet, chimneys two or three; inches square, made of
rough boards. These chimneys extend from the bot
tom to the top of the pile. In some cases a bundle
of twigs five or six inches in diameter, and in others a
pole wrapped loosely around with straw, takes the
place of the chimney. Sometimes these chimneys
rest upon the top of triangular frames or ventilators.
These are made of a piece of board, perhaps a foot
in width, and another narrow strip, say of scantling.
Laths or short narrow strips of wood are then nailed
upon the board and scantling, in such manner as to
form a triangular frame, like the roof of a house, the
board serving as the floor, the scantling as the ridge-,
pole, and the laths as the rafters.
These frames are placed end to end upon the
ground, running longitudinally in the centre of the
proposed pile, which is then placed about them in
the same manner as described for the ordinary piles ;
the chimney is placed in the centre, and is connected
with the ventilators, as has been described. Every
twenty or thirty feet a frame also runs across the pile.
The mouths of these ventilators come to the outside
of the completed pile, and are stuffed and completely
protected with straw, which can easily be removed,
and by which the supply of air can be regulated. It is
best, if possible, to have the piles and silos run north
and south, having the end to be first opened facing
the south. By this arrangement it is easier to protect
the pile effectually, with earth and straw, from the in
fluence of cold north winds ; while the end which is
to be opened, being on the south, is warmer and better
protected.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET.
117
METHOD OF PRESERVATION IN SAXONY.
A method of preserving beets prevails in Saxony
that seems an admirable one, and well adapted to
existing conditions in Illinois, where straw is super
abundant and comparatively without value.
To facilitate the explanation I present the following
diagram : —
d
d\ A
M
d
PQ
B i, B 2, and B 3 are trenches, six feet broad and
two feet deep, to be used as silos or pits, made chiefly
with the plough on three sides of a parallelogram.
The trench B 3 is fifty-two feet long, and the space
C between the trenches has a breadth of forty feet
and a length as great as may be needed. Storage
is commenced by building piles in the silo B 3, in
the manner described on page 113, beginning on the
Il8 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
end of the parallelogram, and at the same time in the
trenches B i and B 2. Line A is the outer edge of
the pit. The depth of the beets in the piles should not
exceed six feet, two of which being beneath the sur
face, gives a height of four feet above the ground. As
the work progresses, the outside should be covered
with earth and the inside with straw.
When the end is finished, and the two sides have
been extended to a length of twelve or fifteen feet,
the straw in the interior is removed, and other beets
thrown promiscuously into space C, against the wall
of beets in the trenches. The beets are eventually
piled up to the level of the top of the wall ; but in the
early harvest, before the weather gets cold, it would
be better to pile them only two feet deep, and put in
the rest later in the season. The beets on the top,
when the pile is finished, require to be carefully placed
with their crowns on the outside and their roots ex
tending into the pile. The pits are covered, as soon
as they are finished, with straw, with which the inner
part of the walls are also kept constantly protected.
Beets should not be left uncovered any longer than
is absolutely necessary, from the time they are dug
until they are consumed in the factory. As the weather
grows cooler, the straw should be removed from the
top of the pile, and a layer six inches thick of earth,
or of short stable manure, spread, thoroughly smoothed,
and rendered as compact as possible, upon the top
of the pile. This layer may be succeeded, still later
in the season, by a second or third layer, as circum
stances require. When sufficient thickness has been
obtained, the whole may be covered with straw. Sep-
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 119
arate compartments may be made with walls of earth
in the space C, to separate different qualities of beets.
The ends of the side walls in the silos must be covered
with earth, like the rest of the outside ; and when the
whole crop has been harvested, the last of the beets
must be employed to build a wall in the usual manner
across space C. It will be necessary, in preserving
beets in this way, to have a greater amount of earth
for covering than the pits furnish ; and in ploughing to
procure it, furrows should not be run nearer than line
d, say within three feet of the pile, lest the walls of beets
should be disturbed. The advantages of this method
are, that it allows the farmer to store large quantities
safely on spots the most conveniently located. It also
facilitates the daily opening of the pile, when the beets
are to be carried to the factory ; for the entrance is
small compared with the size of the pile, and can be
easily protected by straw, which it requires but little
time to remove. It also saves, to a considerable ex
tent, the comparatively tedious and costly process of
building the walls which are required, when the
smaller and consequently more numerous piles are
constructed.
METHOD OF PRESERVING ROOTS IN MASSA
CHUSETTS.
I annex the instructions given for the preservation
of root crops in Flint's " Agriculture of Massachu
setts."
" Dig a pit six feet wide, ten or fifteen feet long, and
eighteen inches deep. Pile the roots as steep and high
as the base will carry and keep them. Cover the heap
120 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
with a layer of straw six inches thick, and follow with
a covering of earth six inches deep, patting it down,
so that the rains shall not furrow it. Set one or more
tile ventilators loosely rilled with straw. In covering
the heap, throw up the earth so as to leave a ditch
around it about two feet from the base line, being sure
to so construct it as to drain the water away. Cover
the heap with an additional six inches of earth as late
as the season will allow. Heaps of roots, however
stored, must be properly ventilated. Vegetable mat
ter is invariably decomposed by heat ; hence the fre
quent loss invariably resulting from a want of care in
storing them. Let them be kept at as low a tempera
ture as possible above freezing point."
SEED.
The saving of seed is a matter of the greatest con
sequence, in connection with the production of the
sugar beet. In the infancy of beet-sugar manufacture
the ordinary forage beets, such as the red mangel-wur
zel, that contains only five to six per cent, of sugar, and
often less, were generally employed ; * but varieties far
richer were gradually introduced, and by judicious
selections and crosses of different varieties, the char
acter of the plant has been improved, and its saccha
rine properties largely increased. Experiments have
* This accounts, in some measure, for the low percentage of
yield, and also for the high cost of sugar in former days ; for the
expenses were greater to work the poor beets, and less sugar was
obtained, than is now done. In 1840 it required eighteen tons
of beets to make a ton of sugar in the Zollverein. It now requires
less than twelve tons.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 121
conclusively shown, that seeds from beets rich in
sugar, produce richer beets than are raised from the
seed of those poorer in saccharine matter.
Beets containing sixteen per cent, of sugar are not
rare, and in one instance twenty-one per cent, was
found in a variety produced by M. Vilmorin, near
Paris. There is no reason to believe that the sac
charine quality of the beet has yet attained its com
plete development.
The German method of selecting the white Sile-
sian beets to bear seed the succeeding year is as fol
lows : —
They are chosen, not from the piles after they are
gathered, but while they are still standing in the field
rows. Medium-sized beets, grown in moderately rich
soil, are preferred to those grown in land very highly
manured. Plants should be selected whose roots,
growing entirely beneath the surface, are shaped like
a pear, and not like a turnip ; whose crown is single,
and presents no cavity ; the longitudinal indentations
on whose main root incline to a spiral rather than a
straight direction ; whose foliage is not too luxuriant,
but, standing close together, grows low to the ground
in form like a large plate ; and the color of whose
leaves is not tinged, spotted, nor fringed with red, but
of a clear, bright green.
If varieties other than the white Silesian are used,
then the properties to be sought for in the plant for
future seed-bearing, should be those which most nearly
approach perfection in the given variety.
The richness of a beet, either in saccharine, saline,
or alkaline constituents, is determined by its specific
6
122 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
gravity. But as the saline and alkaline properties are,
to a certain extent, developed under different circum
stances from those which produce the highest saccha
rine qualities, and as it is well known under what
circumstances the one or the other properties are most
fully developed, it is necessary to choose good seed-
beets from those growing under conditions most fa
vorable for the production of sugar, and from these to
select those having the greatest specific gravity.
A soil rather sandy, and not too highly manured
with stable manure, although it does not yield such
heavy crops as one more fertile, nevertheless produces
a beet that not only ripens earlier, but is also richer
in sugar, comparatively free from saline and alkaline
elements, and well suited for seed.
The salts in stable manure are readily absorbed by
the beet ; consequently the best course to take, in order
to secure good seed-beets, is to sow the seed the pre
ceding year on a part of the field that has not been
manured for two or three years, and is best adapted
by nature to the purpose. Bone-dust, however, may
be used with advantage in the drill as a fertilizer.
From the time the plant first makes its appearance,
the cultivation should be most thorough. When the
beets are ripening, select those having the qualities
described, and mark them to be dug when fully ripe.
When this period arrives, the roots are very carefully
taken up, the extreme end of the tap-root removed,
the leaves cut off with a sharp knife to within an inch
of the crown, instead of close, as in the case of those
to be used in the factory. A trench in a dry, well-
drained soil, and in a sheltered spot, is then dug two
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 123
feet deep, five or six feet broad, and of the requisite
length. The beets are carefully laid side by side in
the trench, layer upon layer. Between each layer
just sufficient soil is spread to separate the rows of
beets. As soon as the trench is full, the beets are laid
so that the sides of the pile converge rapidly, assum
ing the form of an angular roof, the top of which is
three feet above the surface of the ground. Earth is
then put on to a thickness of eight inches, which is
to be increased as the weather becomes colder.
As early in the following spring as the soil is in
suitable condition, a piece of land, sheltered from the
wind, and that was deeply ploughed in fall, is se
lected for the plantation of the seed-beets. Land
should be selected for this purpose which is as dis
tant as possible from other beets, in order to prevent
the plants, when in flower, from being " crossed" by
other varieties.
Deep furrow's are made three feet apart, and holes
are dug two feet apart in the furrows, of ample size
for the reception of the root ; the earth in each hole
is made mellow with the spade, and two handfuls
of bone-dust are incorporated with the soil. The
beets are placed perpendicularly in the holes, without
being bent, and the earth gradually put in and pressed
about them with the hand. The crowns must be kept
just below the surface. After the roots have been set
out, and the earth thoroughly pressed against them
with the foot, the ground must be dressed with the
hoe, and one inch of earth, with a handful of bone-
dust, placed on the crown of each plant, to protect it
from frosts.
124 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
As soon as the beets are up, thorough cultivation
and weeding must be persistently followed. The beets
should be earthed up with the double mould-board
plough and the hoe, the poorest and weakest flower-
stalks removed, and as the seed begins to form, the
tips of the stalks should be pinched off. Harvesting is
done before the extremities of the seed-bearing branches
turn brown. The stalks are cut off near to the ground,
bound into small sheaves, containing eight or ten
stalks, and kept until they are dry in a sunny and airy
place. As soon as the stalks are well dried, the seed
is thrashed out, dry, hot weather being more favorable
for the operation. It is then winnowed and spread two
or three inches deep on a dry and sunny spot, and occa
sionally stirred. When perfectly dry, it is put into
sacks, not over a foot wide, and two and a half feet long,
with labels attached, to describe the kind of the seed
and the date of its production. The sacks are then
suspended by cords in a dry, airy loft, in such manner
that they do not touch each other, and are inaccessi
ble to rats, which are very fond of the seed. Seed
thus saved retains its germinating power for several
years. In fact, seed only a year old should not be
sown, as it produces beets more liable to "go to seed "
than those obtained from old seed.
In some parts of Germany, after the seed-beets are
taken from the pits in which they have been kept
through the winter, they are subjected to a test, by
which those only having the greatest specific gravity
are retained for planting. The beets are all thrown
into water, and the earth carefully washed from them ;
those which float are rejected, and the rest are reserved
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 125
for the next test. Four or five vessels containing brine
of different degrees of strength are then prepared, and
the beets are placed one after another in the weakest
brine. Those are rejected which float, and the re
mainder are subjected to the test in the next strongest
brine, and so on, until those only are planted which
sink in the brine that is strongest.
M. Vilmorin, the great seedsman of France, selects
his seed-beets by making an accurate philosophical
test of the density of the juice of each beet. For this
purpose, with a sharp punch like an apple-corer, he
cuts a piecejout of the middle of the beet, punching it
out with a wooden plug fitted to the aperture. This
piece of beet he rasps, presses, and then filters its
juice through a linen cloth into a " prover," in which,
with the densimeter and aerometer, he ascertains its
exact density. He retains only, beets of a certain
standard of density. The holes in these are filled
with sand, and they are planted in the usual manner.
A custom, borrowed from the Chinese, prevails in
some, parts of France, of making, before planting,
three or four shallow, longitudinal cuts on the side of
t) e seed-beets (beginning an inch or two below the
crown), which open during vegetation. The theory
is, that roots are thrown out from these cuts, and the
beet is thereby enabled to draw sustenance from a
more extended area, throwing up a stouter flower-
stalk, less likely to be influenced by the wind, and
producing better and more abundant seed.
Too much pains cannot be taken to plant the best
seed, for beets vary so much in saccharine richness in
districts where little attention is paid by farmers to
126 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
selecting the best kind, that many manufacturers test
the beets before purchase, and pay according to quality,
not quantity, some beets being really worth twice as
much as others.
Crops very rich in sugar are not so large as those of
a poorer quality.
Where beets are sold by the ton, and not by degree
of richness, those containing twelve to twelve and a
half per cent, afford the density upon which the
interests of the farmer and manufacturer can best be
united.
In the infancy of the industry in this country, we
shall be compelled to import seed. All varieties, and
of the best qualities, not only of beets, but of all other
plants, may be obtained, with certainty of being true
to description, from Vilmorin, Andrieux & Co., of
Paris.
MANURES.
FOR the profitable production of beets in Europe,
the liberal use of fertilizers is a necessity. The virgin
soils of the west may not absolutely require it, in order
to secure good crops, but there is no doubt that pro
ductiveness can be increased by the judicious use of
manures ; and it is quite certain that the time will soon
come when it will be absolutely necessary. The best
fertilizers to produce large crops of beet, are human
ordure, and that of horses, cattle, and sheep. The
urine, and all liquid manures, should be saved, because
they are richer in fertilizing properties, and assimilate
more readily with plants than the solid portions of
dung. There is, however, this objection to the use of
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. I2J
all those fertilizers which are rich in salts, that, when
freshly applied to a crop of beets, they cause the latter
to flourish vigorously and give large returns, but the
presence of salts is prejudicial to the economical ex
traction of sugar, and the roots abound in saline ele
ments that are absorbed from the manures. In Ger
many, where beets are taxed, and quality is of more
importance than quantity, the beet is not sown on
freshly manured land, but on soil that has not been
enriched for one or two years. In France, on the
contrary, where the sugar is taxed, and the object of
the farmer is to get large crops, the beet is sown on
soil highly manured the preceding fall. The conse
quences of these two systems are, that the crops in
France, although considerably heavier than those of
Germany, do not possess as rich saccharine properties.
The German beet is more than one per cent, richer
than the French, owing to the facts, that it is by nature
richer, that it grows in a colder climate, and, follow
ing the law of latitudes, secretes more sugar, while,
at the same time, its growth not being so much stimu
lated by manures, the same amount of sugar is diffused
through a smaller space. The average production of
sugar on an acre of land in the two countries is about
the same.
The ordure of cattle produces cleaner, smoother,
and handsomer roots, containing fewer salts, than that
of men, horses, sheep, or swine. Indeed, there is
quite a general prejudice against the use of sheep and
hog manure on beets in Europe, whether well or ill
founded I am not able to say. Many farmers fatten
sheep on the pulp of beets, upon which they thrive
128 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
admirably ; but the method is not universally approved
even by those who practise it. They say that sheep
manure is bad for the beet, but the disadvantage is
in a measure compensated for, when the pulp is fed to
sheep, by the excellent quality of mutton produced.
Well-rotted, strawy manure is preferable to that
without straw. If applied to the beet, without any
preceding crop, it should be done in the fall, as directed
on page 92 ; if employed in spring, it should be
thoroughly " worked over," and made as fine as possi
ble. Stable manures may be advantageously com
posted with muck, with wood or coal ashes, or with
the young beets which have been thinned out, if they
are not all required for stock. Muck may be com
posted with lime, or ashes, either of wood or coal.
The refuse of the sugar manufactory furnishes great
quantities of fertilizing materials, most of which are of
the very highest value. The earthy refuse of the
wash-house, where the beets are cleansed before rasp
ing ; the little roots and fibres ; the decayed portions of
such beets as it may be necessary to trim ; the scum
of defecation ; the incrustations of the boilers, reser
voirs, and cisterns ; the worn-out sacs ; the waste and
exhausted bone-black ; the ashes from the boilers ; and
the exhausted lime of defecation, are of great value.
They are all sources of revenue to the European manu
facturer, and I have even seen mill-owners, besieged by
applicants for the privilege of buying the mud accumu
lated in their factory yards from soil that fell off the
wheels of wagons used in transporting beets.
The scums and incrustations, the lime and the bone-
black, should be mixed thoroughly together with an
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 129
equal quantity of fine soil, and applied either broad
cast in the spring before harrowing, or sprinkled about
the plants at the time of cultivation. It is also an ex
cellent compost for seed-beets, and can be put into the
holes and incorporated with the soil at the time the
beets are " set out."
Bone-dust and superphosphate of lime, particularly
the former, are excellent fertilizers. Peruvian guano
is a powerful stimulant, but its effects, when used
alone, are not favorable ; it is better when mixed with
the two previously named manures in the proportions
of one of guano to two, or even three, of bone-dust or
superphosphate of lime. These manures should be
thoroughly mixed, and kept from the air for one week
before they are used.
Such of the beet leaves cut off in the fields as are
not wanted for stock, when spread upon the ground
and ploughed in while green, furnish an excellent
manure, equal, if all are left, to six or eight loads of
stable manure per acre. Linseed oil cake powdered,
and sown broadcast before harrowing at the rate of
half a ton or a ton to an acre, or sprinkled about the
plants at the time of cultivation, is an excellent ferti
lizer. Bone-dust and wood-ashes, or bone-dust, ashes,
and lime, in equal proportions, are excellent. Lime
from gas-houses, thoroughly mixed with stable ma
nure, makes an excellent compost for the beet. Chlo
ride of sodium or common salt, which on some soils
and for certain crops makes a good compost, is very
unfavorable for the sugar beet, unless mixed with
certain other materials in the form of an artificial
6*
130
BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
fertilizer, which I shall hereafter describe, and which
has produced great results.
An artificial manure, manufactured by Emil Giis-
sefeld, of Hamburg, by treating the guano from Baker's
Island with sulphuric acid, is in high repute in Ger
many. It is called Giissefeld's superphosphate of
Baker's guano, and is thus composed : —
Phosphoric acid, 19.9
Magnesia and lime, 17.3
Sulphate of lime, 42.1
Water, 16.2
Organic substances, 2.9
Alkaline salts, i.
Other matters, 6
100.
Three adjoining pieces of land, containing .63 of
an acre each, were cultivated with beets in the fol
lowing manner, and showed the given results. For
the convenience of the reader the table is made on a
basis of one entire acre : —
Number
of the
Amount of
superphos
Peru
guano,
Quantity
of beets,
Quantity
of beets,
Contents
of sugar,
fields.
phate, Ibs.
Ibs.
Ibs.
tons.
per cent.
I
177
29.524
J3i
12.49
2
355
177
29.524
I3l
13-23
3
531
265
30-r58
*32
13.62
All manures having a basis of potassa, or that contain
soluble phosphates, are of the highest value in the cul
ture of beets.
It is said that the use of sulphate of potash, as ma-
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 131
nure, increases their saccharine contents two or three
per cent. Instances are recorded of beets so fertilized
containing twenty per cent, of sugar.
Giissefeld also makes an artificial manure contain
ing fourteen per cent, of potash and thirteen per cent,
phosphoric acid. Experiments go to show that it
increases the yield of beets over that obtained on
unfertilized land from twenty-five to thirty per cent.,
and the percentage of sugar about one half per cent.
An artificial manure, containing seventeen per cent,
of soluble phosphates, made by Gils & Co., of Ant
werp, costing $48 a ton of 2,240 pounds, was ap
plied to land in Saxony at the rate of 325 pounds
per acre, or at a cost for manure of about seven
dollars.
The following were the results, as compared with a
field precisely similar and well manured with stable
manure : — Crop on an acre, with stable manure,
31,064 pounds, or 13.87 tons ; with artificial guano,
48,741 pounds, or 21.76 tons. Difference in favor of
guano, 17,677 pounds, or 7.89 tons.
In seventeen cases recorded in Saxony, fields ma
nured with Peruvian guano, mixed with this fertilizer
in the proportion of two of the former to three of the
latter, produced, as compared with unmanured land
of equal original condition, an increased crop of 3^
tons per acre.
It is used in Saxony at the rate of over 12,000 tons
a year.
A Mr. Frank, of Stassfurt, in Prussia, near Magde
burg, has compounded an artificial manure from the
refuse rock salt of the mines in his neighborhood.
132 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
This manure, costing at Stassfurt about forty dollars
per ton, contains the following constituents in tlie pro
portions set forth : —
Sulphate of potash, . . . 1 8 to 20 per cent.
" " magnesia, . . 18 " 20 "
" " lime, .... 3 u 5 "
Chloride of sodium, . . . 40 " 42 "
" " magnesium, . . 2 " 3 "
Magnesia, 2 " 3 "
Water and sand, .... 17 " 7 "
TOO 100
This manure is spread upon the land at the rate of
175 to 350 pounds per acre, either in fall or spring,
and ploughed in ; or it may be mixed with guano in
the proportions of two of the former to three of the
latter ; or it may be mixed and thoroughly incorpo
rated with stable manure. Experiments were tried
with it in Waldau, Prussia, in 1864, on a large scale,
no less than 500 tons of the manure having been em
ployed, at the rate of 180 to 350 Ibs. to an acre. Fields
containing from twenty-five to fifty acres were chosen
for the trial : these were manured in the usual manner ;
were then divided into equal parts, and the Stassfurt
manure added to one of the parts. The greatest pains
were taken to give it a fair test, and the following
results were obtained. The yield of beets slightly
exceeded that on other fields. To give an idea of the
astonishing excess of sugar contained in beets pro
duced with the Stassfurt manure, the following table
is submitted : —
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET.
'33
Fields.
Stassfurt ma
nure per acre,
cwts.
Sugar in juice with
Stassfurt manure,
per cent.
Sugar in juice with
out Stassfurt ma
nure, per cent.
• ft
none )
I- J
14.04
12.42
• U
none )
LO
16.20 ^
I2-83 A
3 { \
none )
i. J
I3-I7 &
* !!
none )
2F' y
cS
^
C«
H-43 ?
* IJ
none )
I- f
14.38
13-3°
The following also shows the effect of the Stassfurt
fertilizer in other parts of Prussia : —
Applied at the rate of 533 pounds to an acre, it
increased the quantity of sugar in the juice of the
beets over those raised without the manure from 12.82
to 14.42 per cent. In another instance the increase
was from 13.6 to 14.8 per cent.
The best method of employing it seemed to be with
bone-dust or phosphate of lime, in the proportions of
one of the former to three of either of the latter.
Guano and Stassfurt manure, with bone-dust or phos
phate of lime, in the proportions of one each of the
former to three of either of the latter, have been ap
plied with excellent results.
Stable manure alone will not supply the materials
taken from the soil by crops. For this purpose arti
ficial fertilizers are required. Chemistry not only
teaches us of what materials these fertilizers should
be composed, but also provides them. According to
Hall and Ogston, English chemists, the amount of
134 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
solid material removed from a field with every ton
of beets is as follows : —
Roots. Leaves.
Ibs. Ibs.
Potash, 4.99 . . . 7.86
Soda, 3.02 . . . 2.52
Lime, 41 ... 3.31
Magnesia, 43 ... 3.27
Oxide of Iron, ... .12 ... .52
Phosphoric acid, . . .66 . . . 1.94
Sulphuric acid, . . . .65 . . . 2.20
Chloride of soda, . . 5.29 . . . 12.82
' Silica, 54 ... .76
16.11 35-2°
Calculating the average yield at twenty tons to an
acre, and assuming that the leaves, as well as the
roots, are removed, there would be taken from each
acre 1026^°^ pounds of solid material.
In order to maintain the fertility of the soil, it will
be necessary to return this amount to the land. Sta
ble manure will not provide all the requisite materials,
and the deficiency must be supplied with properly
composed artificial fertilizers.
Barral says to French agriculturists, " Buy artificial
manures, but above all increase your stable manure."
ROTATION OF CROPS.
The necessity of a rotation of crops is too well
established to be discussed — the only question is,
What is the best succession ? I am aware that some
farmers, particularly at the west, proceed upon the
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 135
theory, that the fertility of their land is inexhaustible,
cultivating the same crop year after year upon the
same soil, and in too many instances without manure
I have seen fields upon which corn had been raiseJ.
for twenty-two successive years without manure —
a folly even greater than Crespel records, when he
states that he cultivated sugar beets for fifteen succes
sive years on the same land. This method of farming
— if it can be called farming — is pernicious and sui
cidal, and should never be copied. In many parts of
Europe the system of rotation is biennial, namely,
wheat and beets ; but it is never adopted by the best
cultivators, and is rapidly falling into disfavor. In
some countries beets are raised on the same land
twice, and in others three times, in five years. The
triennial system is the one generally in use ; but among
the very best cultivators, beet is raised on the same
soil only once in four, or even five, years.
I shall give the crops often employed in Europe in
the triennial and quadrennial systems of rotation : —
Triennial System.
ist year, oats manured, Or oats,
2d " beets, beets manured,
3d " wheat. wheat.
Quadrennial System.
ist year, wheat, Or clover,
2d " beets manured, rye or oats,
3d " barley or oats, beets manured,
4th " clover. • wheat.
Where wheat is not much cultivated, rye may take
136 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
its place. Potatoes, if well manured, or barley, may
take the place of oats.
The beet is excellent to precede all grain crops. It
is a good successor of potatoes well manured, or of
corn, and especially of rye or oats. It is a good suc
cessor of tobacco.
It is a bad successor of clover ; and worse still of
turnips, carrots, or forage beets.
The quadrennial system of rotation permits quite a
range in the selection of crops, and change is bene
ficial to the soil, and consequently to the crops. It
would be desiraHe so to arrange the fields, that clover
should not be raised on the same soil oftener than
once in eight years.
BEET PULP.
After the juice is expressed from the rasped beet,
the dry pulp remaining is an admirable food for cat
tle, sheep, swine, or fowls, of which vast numbers are
fed in the sugar-producing districts of Europe. The
average amount of pulp is twenty per cent, of the
original weight of beets, and it is almost a universal
custom for farmers to contract with manufacturers
to receive back in pulp twenty per cent, of the weight
of beets furnished. For this the farmer pays two
to two and a half dollars per ton. If the manufac
turer has any pulp remaining after his contracts with
the farmers are filled, he sells it to others at two dol
lars and seventy-five cents to three dollars per ton.
Repeated experiments have proved that for feeding
stock, three tons of pulp are fully equal in value to
one ton of the best hay. Cattle are very fond of it,
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 137
and by its use are fattened for the market in one hun
dred days.
The method of feeding stock upon it, employed at
Masny, by the Messrs. Fievet, the model farmers of
France, was the following : —
Each ox was allowed daily
80 pounds of pulp,
5 " " chopped straw,
5 " . " oil-cake.
Each cow was allowed daily
70 pounds of pulp,
5 " " chopped straw,
5 " " oil-cake.
Each sheep was allowed daily
6 pounds of pulp,
£ " " chopped straw,
£ " " oil-cake,
i " " chaff.
They fattened in this manner 800 head of cattle
and 3000 sheep every year.
The Messrs. Fievet recommended the use of chopped
cornstalks and a small quantity of Indian meal for
the Western United States.
Chaptal says of the pulp, " This food is almost
dry ; it has not the disadvantages of grasses or roots,
nor of dry forage. It does not ferment, and is not
laxative, like the former, nor does it heat and produce
constipation, like the latter. It contains almost all the
nutritive principles of the beet."
In fact, water is the chief article taken from the
138 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
beet by rasping and pressing, and there still remains
from four and a half to six and a half per cent,
of sugar in the residuum, besides other nutritious
matter.
Dombasle recommends it, especially for sheep, and
also for milch cows, stating that the quantity, as well
as the quality, of the milk, and the color of the butter,
^re much improved by its use.
M. Cail, the wealthy and enterprising owner of
" La Briche," — a splendid farm in the department of
Indre et Loire, — mixes his pulp with chopped straw,
in the proportion of five sixths of the former to one
sixth of the latter. To the oxen, for fattening, he gives
150 pounds of this mixture in the winter months ; to
milch cows, no pounds; and to working-cattle, from
100 to 150 pounds daily.
A liberal daily allowance for an ox is 75 pounds,
for a cow 60 pounds, and for a sheep 6 pounds, with
chopped straw, and a little oil-cake, or meal. Conse
quently, if a farmer raises 100 tons of beets, and takes
back from the manufacturer 20 tons of pulp, he has
the means of feeding, during the five months from the
first of November to the first of April, 4 oxen, or 5
cows, or 50 sheep. The manufactory that consumes
24,000 tons of beets provides 4,800 tons of pulp, with
which may be fed, for the five most costly months of
the year, when there is no pasturage, 960 oxen, or
1,200 cows, or 12,000 sheep.
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 139
PRESERVATION OF THE PULP.
Beet pulp may be kept perfectly good for several
years. I have seen at Masny cattle eat with avidity
that which was two years old.
The method of preservation there adopted was to
dig a ditch of any required length, eight or nine feet
deep, and of the same width, in a soil so dry and
hard that there was no danger of the sides crumbling.
The bottom of this ditch was a little lower on one
side than on the other, to permit any water that might
exude from the mass to settle in the lower part. The
pulp was then packed and trodden solid into the ditch,
raised one or two feet above the surface at the sides
of the trench to allow for the settling of the mass,
then built up into the form of a sharp roof, and the
whole covered with one and one half to two feet of
earth, beaten solid with the back of a spade.
Where the soil is not of a nature to allow the walls
to stand safely, the pit is walled with bricks laid in
cement.
LEAVES.
The practice of plucking from the beets a portion
of their leaves for feeding stock prevails in some dis
tricts, but it is entirely unadvisable. When it is done,
the stripping begins in the month of August. Two
or three leaves are taken from each plant, until a suffi
cient supply is obtained for the daily wants of the
herd.
The reasons why the practice is a bad one are, that,
the leaves having important functions to perform, the
140 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
removal of the foliage impairs those functions. Na
ture also makes an effort to repair the loss, and new
leaves form at the expense of sugar in the root. The
period of maturity is also retarded ; consequently the
crop is less likely to keep well, beets perfectly ripened
being more easily preserved than those which are less
ripe.
The general custom is at the time of harvest to feed
to the stock all the leaves they require, and to spread
the remainder on the fields when they are cut off, and
plough them in while yet fresh and green. In this
way they serve an admirable purpose as manure.
But they are sometimes gathered and put in layers
into trenches. Between each layer coarse salt is sprin
kled ; the pile is then covered with a layer of straw, and
finally a thick coat of earth is added.
LEAVES USED AS FODDER FOR MILCH Cows.
The effect produced on milch cows by this food,
and also the method adopted for preserving the leaves,
are shown in the recorded experiments of Drs. Wels
and Tod of Maiz-Blanco, in Moravia.
The experiment was made with six cows of the
race of that country. Their conditions were as nearly
similar in age, size, weight, yield of milk, and dura
tion of milking, as could be desired for a fair test.
For eight to twelve weeks they were fed daily with
thirty-five pounds of beet pulp, five pounds of salted
leaves, and six pounds of chopped barley straw. They
gave regularly about the same quantity of milk in the
aggregate and individually. After that time, com-
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 141
mencing February 7, three of the cows, designated as
A, received each forty pounds of pulp, six pounds
barley straw and half an ounce of salt per day for
four weeks. During the same time each of the three
cows, designated as B, received daily twenty-six and
two thirds pounds of pulp and six pounds barley straw ;
they also received daily, of salted leaves, in addition,
for the first week, thirteen and one half pounds ; for
the second week, sixteen and one half pounds ; for
the third week, twenty pounds ; and for the fourth
week, twenty-six and one half pounds.
The result was, that the amount of milk given by
the cows A fell gradually in the four weeks from an
average of 25.78 pounds per day to twenty pounds
per day, while the cows B increased their average
daily production from 26Tfu- to 3i-nnr pounds.
During the next four weeks the cows A were fed in
the same manner that .he cows B had been, and the
cows B were put upon the old diet of the cows A, with
this exception, that they received, besides the daily al
lowance of forty pounds of pulp and six pounds of
barley straw, an additional daily allowance of pulp
to the extent of twenty-six and one half pounds the
fifth week, twenty pounds the sixth week, sixteen and
one half pounds the seventh, and thirteen and one
half pounds the eighth week.
The result was, that the cows A, now fed on the
leaves, gradually increased their average flow of milk,
until, at the end of the second period of four weeks,
the yield had risen from 20 to 29T5^ pounds, or con
siderably more than that at the beginning of the ex
periment eight weeks before, while the daily yield of
142
BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND
cows B, fed chiefly on pulp, fell from 3iT4o°o- to 21-f^
pounds.
The following is a tabular statement of the result
for the first four weeks, and of the yield of cows A
for the last four weeks: —
Cows.
Quantity
of pulp.
Quantity of
straw.
Quantity
ot leaves.
Yield of milk,
first four weeks.
Yield of milk5
last four weeks.
A
B
A
Ibs.
336°
2240
2240
Ibs.
5°4
504
504
Ibs.
1610
1610
Ibs.
618.44
834.69
Ibs.
761.36
The daily yield of milk from cows A, when fed
upon leaves, rose from 20 pounds to 23.75 in the fifth
week, 26.87 m the sixth, 28.44 'm the seventh, and
29.53 in the eighth.
The milk produced by cows, —
A in ist and 2d week, on pulp, averaged 2.8% butter.
B " " on leaves, " 3.7 "
A in 3d and 4th week, on pulp, " 3. "
B " " on leaves, " 3.9 "
A in 5th and 6th week, " " 3.2 "
A 7th " 8th " " " 3.6 "
The experiment ended April 3d.
The conclusions are, that salted leaves can be pre
served ; that their use, in conjunction with pulp, in
creases the flow of milk and yield of butter ; and that
they are preferable to pulp alone.
The weight of leaves is about twenty per cent, of
the weight of the roots ; therefore a factory that con
sumes 24,000 tons of beets annually furnishes 4,800
CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 143
tons of pulp, and the beets furnish 4,800 tons of
leaves — an amount of fodder sufficient to feed nearly
2,000 oxen, or 2,500 cows, or 24,000 sheep for five
months.
The following method is adopted for preserving
leaves of the sugar beet : —
Ditches are dug and walled with brick, backed with
clay, and laid in cement, so that the interior is nine
feet long, seven feet wide, five feet deep, and perfectly
impervious to water. A layer of leaves, three or four
inches thick, is spread on the bottom ; this is sprinkled
with coarse salt ; then a layer of chopped straw one
inch thick ; then another layer of leaves ; and so on,
until the reservoir is filled. These are all packed
down as solid as possible, and are then covered with
six or eight inches of long straw ; the whole is pro
tected with earth, or, better still, with boards, held in
their places by stones. About 225 pounds of salt
are required for each pit.
Advantages of Beet Culture to Farmers.
The introduction of beet sugar manufacture into the
United States would be of great benefit to farmers. It
would insure to them superior methods of agriculture,
increased crops, more remunerative prices, home mar
kets, and enhanced value of farms. It would create
industry, and diversify labor, thereby increasing the
general prosperity, intelligence, and happiness of the
community. It would eventually reduce the prices of
sugar, of bread, and of meat, and render the United
States more independent of foreign countries.
APPENDIX.
SINCE the foregoing pages were written, considerable in
formation has been acquired, which throws additional light
upon the subject treated of in this volume, particularly in re
lation to the cost and quality of American beets.
As regards cost, the estimates of cultivators, based upon re
sults on their own farms, vary from 75 cents to $3.75 per ton.*
P. T. Quinn, of Newark, New Jersey, manager of the farm
of the late Professor Mapes, says, that after land has been
" broken up" he can cultivate sugar beets at $16 per acre, in
the best manner, " not letting a weed show itself," and ob
tain crops of from 25 to 30 tons per acre. The above cost
covering every expense, including that of harvest.
J. C. Thompson, of Staten Island, says he has obtained 40
tons of sugar beets from an acre, and that he can certainly
get 30 tons at a cost not exceeding $25, and by extra pains,
could obtain 50 tons.
Emory Rider has raised 30 tons per acre, at Hackensack,
New Jersey, and counts with certainty upon 20 tons, at a cost
not exceeding $28, including "pitting" the beets.
Hon. Ezra Cornell, of Ithaca, New York, has raised 20 tons
per acre, and is confident that all expenses cannot exceed $30,
or at most $35 per acre. He believes that beets would be a
profitable crop at $2.50 per ton. t
Sugar beets have been cultivated on a large scale in
Illinois, upon the farm of a wealthy land owner, at a cost
* As the ton is generally reckoned at 2000 pounds in the United States,
the figures in this Appendix will be based on that weight, although in
the preceding volume the ton was reckoned at 2240 pounds.
(144)
APPENDIX. 145
of $30 per acre, including breaking up the prairie. Crop
on raw prairie ground 10 tons per acre ; crop on improved
land 15 tons per acre. He believes there is no difficulty, after
two or three years of cultivation, in raising beets at $2 per
ton.
The late William H. Belcher, of St. Louis, believed, as the
result of very extended and particular inquiries and observa
tion, that beet could be raised at $2 per ton.
Theodore Gennert, of Chatsworth, Illinois, who raised 400
acres of beets last year, staced that they cost less than $3
per ton, and believes that when the soil is fully subdued they
can be raised a good deal cheaper.
Maurice A. Mot raised in 1862 ten acres of beets at Cherry
Valley, near Newark, Ohio. The soil, with the exception of
little more than an acre, was quite poor, and the crop very
light on the poor land, but his beets cost him only $2.65 per
ton. Several of the neighboring farmers offered to cultivate
another crop of beets on the same ground the following year
at $10 per acre.
Joseph Sullivan, of Columbus, Ohio, says, "I have no
doubt that an average yield of 30 tons of beets per acre, upon
good, suitable soil, moderately well cultivated, can be secured.
Corn ground which produces sixty-five bushels per acre, may
be easily made to produce 30 or 35 tons of beets."
The late John W. Massey, of Morris, Illinois, wrote in
1865, in relation to cost of cultivating beets, and their yield
in his region, " that it would take a little more work per acre
than corn, and probably less than potatoes. His experience
of more than 20 years in Illinois led him to believe that the
cost of cultivating an acre of beets would be about the same
as for sorghum, say about $30, and that the crop was 15 to
20 tons per acre.
John W. Walsh, of Chicago, published in 1863 a pamphlet,
11 Observations on Beet Sugar and Sugar-beet Culture," in
which he stated that 15 tons per acre was a fair yield, but 18
to 24 was not uncommon. That he had known of frequent
instances of crops of 36, 39, and 42 tons, and even as high as
90 tons being produced on rich loams.
IO
146 APPENDIX.
Mr. Sanford describes, in the Genesee Farmer, a crop
grown by him of 63 tons per acre.
T. E. Payson, of Deer Island, Boston Harbor, raised 73
tons long red mangel-wurzel on an acre of land in 1866.
Dr. Lettson has raised in England 120 tons mangel-wurzel,
tops and roots, on one acre. This is equivalent to about 96
tons of roots. Even this enormous yield has doubtless been
surpassed in the same country by scientific culture, for the
writer has heard descriptions of crops that he cannot now
authenticate, of over 100 tons of roots per acre. The yield
of sugar beets is usually about two thirds that of mangel-
wurzel.
The average yield of sugar beets in France is over 20 tons
per acre. It often rises to 50 tons, while instances of 60, 70,
and even 90 tons are not uncommon.
In Germany the yield varies from 10 to 25 tons.
Figures, made by Mr. Walsh, to whom reference has just
been made, indicate that in his judgment beets can be raised
in the West for less than $2 per ton, and that at $3 per ton
they would prove to be very profitable to the farmer. The
average price paid by European manufacturers is less than
$3 per ton.
- The estimate of the Agricultural Department of the United
States is, that they can be raised at a cost to sugar manufac
turers of $2.60 per ton.
In the light of all this testimony, as well as that on pages
26 to 39 of this volume, together with the additional fact that
beets were furnished by Western farmers in 1866, on contract,
for $3.50 per ton, it is not deemed extravagant to assume that
sugar manufacturers can be supplied with beets in the West
at $4 per ton.
The next point to establish is the saccharine property of
the beet of America as compared with that of Europe.
The average percentage of sugar in the French beet is ni,
and in the German beet 13. This is the result of many years
of scientific culture, by which the original saccharine proper
ties of the beet have been increased.
There have been hundreds of tests made in this country
APPENDIX.
147
within a short time, showing a range of from 8 to more than
17^ per cent, of sugar. These experiments were made for the
most part upon poorly cultivated beets, grown for feeding to
stock, and not for sugar making, consequently bulk, and not
quality, was the desideratum. It is well known that a skill
ful use of manures will increase the saccharine properties of
beets. None of the American beets tested were grown under
the most favorable circumstances, yet the result of the tests
is entirely satisfactory.
The following table, showing the results of a few tests, in
dicates the richness of American beets :
Kind of Beet.
White Sugar,
Red Top 7
Mangel-Wurzel
Green Top
Mangel-Wurzel
Where raised.
Hackensack, N. J., .
(t II
Roxbury, Mass.,
tt u
Dedham, "
Shirley, "
it a
Deer Island, "
Chatsworth, Illinois,
Dedham, Mass., . .
Deer Island, " . .
Morris, Illinois, . .
Percentage
of Sugar.
I2JL.
. 9 (a) 14.
average 12.
Yellow Globe, . . Deer Island, Mass., . . . 8^.
It will be seen by the above table, that the white sugar beet,
exclusive of those raised at Chatsworth, averaged T.2-^%.
That those raised in Chatsworth averaged 124$. The
Mangel-Wurzel average 9$j?o, and the Yellow Globe con
tained 8Ai % •
148 APPENDIX.
These tests, made in 1866, as well as others made during
the past six years, prove conclusively to the writer's mind
that American beets are richer in sugar than the French.
That they are as rich as those of Germany, and that by prop
er culture, their saccharine properties may be increased at
least one per cent.
If, then, it has been proved that we can economically raise
beets in the United States as rich or richer in sugar than
those of Europe, it only remains, in order to insure inde
pendence of the rest of the world for our future supplies of
sugar, to prove that sugar can be extracted from them at
prices enabling the manufacturers to compete with foreign
countries.
The Germania Sugar Company of Chatsworth, Illinois, to
which reference is made on page 62, has solved the problem,
and although the enterprise has not as yet proved an entire
success, yet the causes of its partial and temporary failure are
so clear, and so easy to avoid, that no person conversant with
the facts can deny that the Company has proved that the
manufacture of beet sugar is not only entirely practicable,
but must inevitably be highly remunerative.
I annex a report, made to the Directors of the Illinois Cen
tral Railroad Company, by R. W. Bender, of New York, who
visited Chatsworth in January, at the request of the Com
pany, to inquire into the cause of the troubles which were
encountered. Mr. Bender is a practical refiner of large ex
perience, and his opinion on the subject of which he treats is
conclusive with all who know him, for in his great desire not
to mislead others, he is very conservative in the expression
of his opinion, taking care to understate rather than to over
state his estimates of the practicability of manufacturing beet
sugar in the United States.
To the Directors of the Illinois Central Railroad Company :
GENTLEMEN :
Having recently returned from a visit to the Beet Sugar
Works at Chatsworth, Livingston Co., Illinois, I now report
the result of my investigation of this subject.
APPENDIX. 149
The works are owned by the Germania Beet Sugar Com
pany, located as above, and are under the management of the
Messrs. Gennert, the original projectors of the enterprise.
They commenced operations for the season of 1866, by
planting four hundred acres of land, mostly fresh prairie,
from which they have raised a crop of more than four thou
sand tons of fine beets, at a cost, according to their estimate,
of less than four dollars per ton.
The beets are of the White Silesian and Imperial varieties,
and both have done well. At the time of harvest, Messrs.
Gennert tested the roots from all parts of their farm, and
found the juice to contain from nine to thirteen and a half
per cent, of sugar, by the Soleil Polariscope. The average
of all the tests showing twelve per cent.
This result is confirmed by the investigations made by
direction of the Belcher Sugar Refining Company of St.
Louis ; the tests they made, showing an average of twelve
per cent, of sugar in the juice, and in some cases as high as
fourteen per cent.
At the time of my visit (Jan. 29th, 1867), I obtained what
I considered fair samples of the beet roots, and found them
to contain from nine to eleven per cent, of sugar (in the
juice), with foreign substances amounting to about five per
cent. ; not a very undue proportion, considering the fact that
the roots were principally grown in fresh prairie soil, and
that the fall season was a wet one. My analysis of the juice
fully confirmed the results obtained by the Messrs. Gennert
and the Belcher Refining Company three months previously,
at the time of harvest, and when the process of sugar manu
facturing should have commenced.
The quality of beets, shown by the foregoing experiments,
would yield 7& per cent, of raw sugar, in color equal to fair
refining, but intrinsically much superior; or it would yield
5-i per cent, of sugar equal in every respect to New York re
fined "B."
The beets raised by the Messrs. Gennert, if successfully
and rapidly worked up, would have produced not less than
450,000 pounds of refined sugar.
150 APPENDIX.
I learned from Mr. Gennert the following particulars of the
difficultities they have met with in carrying on their opera
tions since harvest :
In the first place, their machinery, instead of being com
pleted during the summer, so as to be ready for work by the
time when the beets were ripe (in September), was only got
in starting order by the 5th of December last. They then
commenced operations with green inexperienced hands, and
during the first few days made very slow progress, notwith
standing the beets were found to work and yield well.
After five days o'f work, December loth, the vacuum-pan
collapsed, which misfortune entirely stopped all work until a
new pan could be obtained. This was ready with the be
ginning of the new year, when they commenced again, only
to meet with new discouragements. First, the supply of
water proved to be inadequate to their requirements, and
steps were immediately taken to deepen the wells, so as to
reach below the hard pan, and they expect now to have ob
tained a full supply of water. The next, and to a sugar man
ufacturer the most serious difficulty of all, was a too limited
supply of steam, which they were trying to remedy at the
time I was there. They have depended on five two-flue boil
ers, which were not well set, the smoke being carried through
a narrow breach flue into a narrow and low sheet-iron smoke
stack ; the entire arrangement being not well adapted for the
proper consumption of the Lasalle or Fairbury coal. The
workmen about the place seemed to think the insufficient
supply of steam the main drawback to success. In all other
respects the works appear to be well appointed. They are
built to run on the centrifugal system, and are provided with
clarifiers, scum-presses, bone-black filters, retorts, vacuum-
pan, and such other machinery as is generally found in a
manufactory of this class.
All machinery is of modern construction and well adapted
to the work. The capacity of the manufactory is estimated
to be equal to 50 tons of beets per day. During the few days
the works have been in operation they have turned out about
eighteen thousand pounds of sugar (two thirds of which was
APPENDIX. 151
equal to N. Y. Ref. B.), which was the product of an unknown
quantity of beet roots, as I found they had not kept any rec
ord of the quantity brought from the pits to the factory.
The pulp was not watered in the centrifugals, so as to save
evaporation. The juice was boiled blank, and placed in
large tanks to crystallize. This course was mainly taken to
economize the use of steam. The first product granulated in
twenty-four hours and the second in three days, so as to go
in centrifugal machines. I could see nothing of the third
product. I very much regret that the Messrs. Gennert could
not give me an accurate account of the cost of cultivating
their beets ; the estimate, as I have already said, was less
than four dollars per ton. It is also to be regretted that no
account of the weight of beets taken to the factory was kept,
although any calculation made on that basis would be un
fair, considering the irregular operations of the factory and
the deterioration in the saccharine properties of the roots
from long delay in working.
Notwithstanding all the difficulties the Messrs. Gennert
have encountered (most of which, however, were avoidable
and should have been foreseen), I found that they manifest
no feeling of discouragement, and I fully anticipate their suc
cess another season. The result of my investigations, added
to my previous knowledge of the subject, more than ever con
firms my belief in the speedy and successful development of
this branch of agricultural industry. And this feeling is al
ready widely entertained through the West, where suitable
lands and abundance of fuel can be had at low prices, in the
immediate vicinity of a ready market for all products of the
manufactory.
In conclusion I will say, that I know of nothing to prevent
an individual or company, possessed of a knowledge of the
subject, making this a business of large profits from the be
ginning.
Very truly yours,
(Signed,) R. W. BENDER.
NEW YORK, Feb. 12, 1867.
152 APPENDIX.
I also annex extracts from a letter written by Charles
Belcher, President of the Belcher Sugar Refining Company
of St. Louis.
* * * * *
To-day Mr. Holm had a short letter from Theodore Gen-
nert, who returned a fortnight since. He states that they
are still making sugar, and with satisfactory results, and will
continue to work their beets until it becomes necessary to
look after out of door work. He speaks well of the quality
of the juice.
*****
From all I know or have heard, I would suppose $4 per
ton, $40 per acre, a very liberal estimate for the cost of rais
ing and harvesting beets. Gennert told me he kept a pretty
accurate account of the cost of raising his crop of beets two
years since, and that $3 per ton would cover it. I would
think also that if properly prepared for the work, with suita
ble buildings, machinery, apparatus, and fixtures, and with
well-informed and judicious management, the cost of mak
ing sugar from the beets should not exceed $4 per ton of
beets.
I cannot see any good reason why, with the right prepara
tions and good management, about as good results cannot
be obtained from beet sugar making in this country as in
Europe.
*****
Mr. Gennert was not properly prepared for working his
beets advantageously and profitably; he has made mistakes
in his calculations and arrangements, and his business this
year will not be a success ; but he seems to have shown us
that beets can be raised in sufficient quantity, and we have
evidence that they have sugar in them that would pay well
for the working in Europe.
I have felt that it would be a great advantage to this coun
try if the manufacture of beet sugar could be successfully
introduced, and we have assisted Gennert's enterprise by
loaning him machinery and subscribing to his company, to
APPENDIX.
153
aid in developing it ; and I have all along had strong faith
in its practicability, and still have it.
* * * * *
Yours truly,
(Signed,) CHARLES BELCHER.
ST. Louis, March 19, 1807.
I also annex an extract from a letter written by Mr. Ben
der on the subject : — .
NEW YORK, March 10, 1807.
*****
Ere long I expect to see general attention directed to this
industry. An impetus once, and properly given, must de
velop the manufacture of domestic sugar rapidly, spreading
its benefits all over the land, enriching the farmer and the
mechanic, opening new channels of support to thousands,
stimulating good husbandry and inventive genius. As early
as 1861 I felt convinced that the "sorghum cane," from the
chemical nature of its juice, and from the difficulty of bring
ing it to maturity, would prove a failure as a sugar producer,
and only a partial success as a syrup producer, and that for
the range of the Northern States, the sugar beet only pos
sessed all the qualifications for extensive and reliable pro
duction of sugar in an eminent degree. I induced, at that
time, William H. Belcher, of the St. Louis and Chicago refin
eries, to import some beet seed from Europe, which, for exper
iment, we distributed amongst farmers in the West, and the
results were of the most encouraging character. Further
investigations by us and others in the following years satis
fied us that the yield per acre was 10 to 20 tons, at a cost of
less than $4 per ton ; that the saccharine qualities of the
American beet are equal to those of the European, and that
there is no more difficulty in making sugar in America from
beets than there is in Europe ; and further, that from sugar-
beet a good merchantable raw sugar can be produced at a
cost of less than jive cents per pound, such sugar being worth
in New York to-day, taking the color as a standard, 10 cents ;
but intrinsically, its value would be much greater; the small
er admixture of grape sugar warranting to the refiner a
larger yield of refined sugar, and less in syrup.
154 APPENDIX.
By the death of Mr. Belcher, two years since, this industry
lost one of its warmest supporters. For my own part, I never
had sufficient liberty of action to engage myself in this business,
although I have constantly endeavored to interest people in a
matter which I consider of the utmost importance to this nation.
(Signed,) R. W. BENDER.
I also annex extracts from a letter written by A. J. Cor
ning, a chemist and sugar refiner, who has been for several
years engaged in the Adams Sugar Refinery of Boston :
NEW YORK, March 15, 18GG.
*****
All my inquiries tend to convince me that beets can be
raised under $4 per ton, and from my experience in refineries
I should say that the sugar can be extracted easily at 3 cents
per pound. Assuming the yield of sugar to be 6 per cent.,
which is much below the usual yield (a German who has
had charge of a manufactory in Germany told me that he
obtained 95 %, while a neighbor obtained 9! $), we would
have the following as the cost per pound of sugar :
2240 Ibs. beets $4.00
6 % sugar = 134 Ibs. (a) 3 cents 4.02
Total cost per ton $8.02
134 Ibs. sugar (a) 6 cents 8.04
Giving the cost of producing at 6 cents per Ib. for sugar a
great deal better for refining than the sugar we import for
that purpose at from 9 to 12 cents per Ib. The sugar is what
refiners term "strong" (containing very little foreign mat
ter), and yields a larger percentage of refined sugar than that
of Cuba.
The sugar of the beet is identical with that of the cane, and
possesses the same sweetening power.
The manufacture of beet sugar in this country is deserv
ing of the highest consideration, both as regards the de
velopment of our agricultural, manufacturing, and commer
cial interests.
(Signed,) A. J. CORNING.
APPENDIX. 155
Mr. Bender and Mr. Corning are both confident that an
abundant supply of beets can be obtained by manufacturers
at from $3 to $4 per ton ; that they can be manufactured
into sugar at from $3.50 to $4 per ton ; and that they will
certainly yield 6 % of white sugar, worth in Chicago at least
fourteen cents per pound.
Assuming that their figures are correct, of which there is
not a particle of doubt, and taking their highest estimates as
the basis for a calculation, the following result could be pro
duced by a company with $350,0x30 capital, which is sufficient
to erect a mill of a capacity to work 30,000 tons of beets each
season.
30,000 tons of beets, costing $4 per ton . . . $120,000
30,000 " " to work $4 " ... 120,000
$240,000
Producing
i, 800 tons sugar (being 6 %} at 14 cents per lb.,
or $280 per ton $504,000
6,000 tons pulp (a) $2 12,000
900 " molasses (a) $20 18,000
Less expenses 240,000
Profit (being 84 % on capital), ..... 294,000
In the pamphlet of Mr. Walsh, to which reference has been
made, he says, —
" The introduction of beet sugar as a staple product of the
United States, but especially for the vast fertile prairies of
the West, has claimed the profound attention of statesmen
and eminent practical citizens for more than a quarter of a
century. Much has been written upon it; much information
has been diffused; many interesting and thorough experi
ments have been made, and the general results have been
in the highest degree satisfactory. All the inquiries and
investigations that have been made, and facts gathered,
156 APPENDIX.
strengthen the conviction that it is only necessary to engage
systematically in the culture of the root and the manufacture
of sugar in the United States, to insure results of the highest
national importance, and establish in our borders a tillage
that will improve our system of husbandry, an employment
that will give a wider scope to our energy and industry, and
a manufacture that will supply us in abundance with a great
staple of consumption, for the largest portion of which we
are now dependent upon other countries to supply.
" In 1837-8 Henry Clay was actively interested in the ques
tion of beet sugar as a crop for the United States. He had
watched the rise and progress of this industry in France :
had made himself familiar with the details of the culture of
the root, the manner of extracting its sugar, the success at
tending it as an economical measure, and his sagacious mind
grasped at once the full importance of this grand national
resource for the great West, which he loved so well. He
made it a topic of his letters ; he introduced it in his speeches ;
his conversation abounded with allusions to it; and he has
left on record full evidence of the constant faith he had that
the West would some day be as famous for its production of
sugar as it has become for the production of the cereals.
The granary of the world, it may also be the sugar-grower
for the world. It is the home of intelligence, and industry,
and enterprise; and these forces, united to the exhaustless
producing capacity of the soil, will secure success in what
ever undertaking her farmers and her men of activity may
engage.
" But it was not Mr. Clay alone whose inquiries kept pace
with the progress and improvements in the beet sugar manu
facture, and who, with a full knowledge of the qualities of the
root, the nature of our climate, and the capacities of the soil,
had full faith in the peculiar adaptation of this culture and
manufacture to a very large portion of the Uuited States.
"From time to time fields have been cultivated with beet
root, for the express purpose of sugar-making; and in
numerous instances that could be cited, — that are indeed
recorded in the pages of agricultural journals of the day. — the
APPENDIX. 157
success of the efforts and experiments has proved fully com
mensurate with the expectations that had been entertained.
Sugar of the first quality has been produced, and with no
more trouble than is experienced in the manufacture of
maple sugar. These processes have been carried on in
Maine, in Massachusetts, in New York, in Pennsylvania, in
Ohio, and in Illinois, with equal success.
" But, though the experiments alluded to amounted to
actual demonstration, no experiment or enterprise on a large
scale, with machinery or equipments to manufacture sugar in
large quantities, was attempted. Indeed the prevailing idea
seemed to be, at that time, to introduce beet-sugar as a do
mestic manufacture, and efforts were directed rather to the in
troduction of processes and machinery whereby each farmer
might make his own sugar, than to the establishment of the
business on a large scale. If this was an error, as we are
disposed to think it was, no great harm arose from it, inas
much as, from the prevailing low price of sugars, interest in
the subject subsided, and finally it was laid aside altogether.
" The truth is, the country was not ripe for the enterprise.
It did not feel the need of emancipating itself from depend
ence upon the sugar of other nations. The people were re
covering from the great commercial disaster of 1837, and new
enterprises and new speculations that promised readier and
greater returns engaged their energies,
" Besides, the country was not ripe for it in another respect.
We were less than twenty millions of people. The emigra
tion to the West was draining the young and active elements
of the population from the old States, and the emigrants
were more intent upon establishing their domiciles in new
locations than upon engaging in new manufactures. Those
great States, which have outstripped in population, wealth,
and influence so many of the older States, were then set
tling; their character had not been determined; their re
sources had not been ascertained ; their great and glorious
future had not been revealed.
" We are now in a changed condition of things : our twenty
158 APPENDIX.
millions have increased to more than thirty millions, and the
ratio of increase is undiminished. The West has become
settled. It wants and must have new staples from the teem
ing" soil, new employments for labor, and cannot afford to
let any source of wealth go unimproved.
" Besides, the war has disturbed the routine into which we
had fallen, imposed new burdens and new duties upon us,
and has pointed significantly to the controlling duty which
devolves upon us to strive to render the country independent
of foreign supplies for those great articles of consumption
which form the necessities of life. If the war has taxed our
means, it has aroused our energies ; if it has disturbed our
peaceful pursuits, it has developed our strength ; if it has
tried our system of government, it has shown us that we have
unequalled elements of greatness.
" The exigencies of the war have aroused the nation to an
attentive consideration of everything that will make for the
common advantage ; and new employments are opened be
fore us for our abundant land, capital, and men. Situated
midway between the continents of the old world, in temper
ate latitudes, with every variety of soil, and land sufficient for
the sustenance of one half the estimated population of the
globe, there is nothing to hinder us from producing, in the
most profuse abundance, everything which is produced in
the same zone in other lands."
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
BRANCH OF THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW
UCD LIBRARY
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[SEP 21 P'
Sw-8/26
3329
3B221
Beet-root sugar*
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