| 
 
 i 
 
 
 w 
 
 dl 
 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 

 CULTURE OF THE BEET, 
 
 AND 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF BEET SUGAR, 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID LEE CHILD. 
 
 BOSTON, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY WEEKS, JORDAN & CO. 
 NORTHAMPTON, 
 
 J. H. BUTLER. 
 
 1840. 
 
* * \V *^*~**4 -'-\^ f : % iy 
 - . , - - < % - 
 
 jfe.- v--^^ - : ^\% 
 
 '\f 
 
 Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1839, 
 
 BY COITVKRS FRANCIS, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 
 
 PRESS OF I. R. BUTTS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THIS little work is the result of the observations, study 
 and experience of three years. The first half of that period 
 was passed in the Sugar Factories of France, Belgium and 
 Germany, and in intercourse with cultivators and manufac- 
 turers distinguished for science and success. The last half 
 was spent in forming an experimental establishment, and 
 making Sugar at Northampton in Massachusetts. 
 
 In consequence of these facts, numerous inquiries have 
 been addressed to the writer on the subject of Beet Sugar, 
 which could not conveniently be answered in any other 
 form than the present. It is supposed that information, 
 which has been sought by many, may be acceptable to 
 more. 
 
 The design of this'treatise is to bring together in as small a 
 compass as is compatible with clearness and precision, all 
 that seems essential to enlighten the judgment, and direct 
 
the measures of American fanners in relation to this new 
 and pleasant branch of rural economy. 
 
 In pursuing this design, we propose to treat : first, of the 
 Culture of the Beet ; secondly, of the Manufacture of Beet 
 Sugar ; and, lastly, of the History and Prospects of this 
 Business. 
 
 Northampton, Nov. 26th, 1839. 
 
PART I. 
 
 CULTURE OF THE BEET 
 
 SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 
 
 THE following are the principal ones cultivated in France. 
 
 1. Mangel Wurtzel or Scarcity Root. It has large, 
 thick succulent leaves ; the root is white within and with- 
 out ; grows much out of the ground, and attains a size su- 
 perior to all other species. Many cultivators have remark- 
 ed that though it is very good for fattening cattle, it is not 
 equally favorable to the production of milk. 
 
 The variety cultivated in England has a reddish or whitish 
 red root. It is not much valued for domestic use, although 
 the leaves are considered good to boil as spinach, and the 
 leaf-stalks and midrib to stew and eat as asparagus. Dr. 
 Lettsom states that on his land, which was not propitious 
 to its growth, it weighed, on an average, full ten pounds, and 
 the leaves half as much, so that the whole produce was 
 fifteen pounds of nutritious aliment to every square of 
 eighteen inches. 
 
 2. Red or Blood Beet. It has a long, red, eatable root, 
 and darkish red or purple leaves. Sown at suitable dis- 
 tances, much greater of course than are ordinarily allowed 
 
 1* 
 
it in our gardens, it becomes nearly as productive as the 
 sugar beet. The larger the roots grow, the tenderer they 
 are, and the deeper their color, the more they are esteemed. 
 The varieties of this species are the common red beet, 
 the early turnip-rooted beet, the green-leaved red beet, and 
 the yellow-rooted red beet. 
 
 3. Yellow Beet. It has yellow, or greenish yellow 
 leaves and yellow roots, which are frequently very long and 
 large. It has been cultivated for making sugar, but most 
 manufacturers have discarded it, finding that its juice, though 
 next in richness to that of the sugar beet, contained from one 
 eighth to one quarter less saccharine matter, than the latter. 
 It is prone to degenerate. A field sown with genuine seed 
 will sometimes yield a fifth, sixth or greater part with a coat 
 of a rose color and flesh white, or coat yellow and flesh 
 white. A single seed will occasionally produce three yel- 
 low beets, and one rose colored ; though what is com- 
 monly called one seed, does in fact contain from one to 
 five seeds. 
 
 4. White Silesian or Sugar Beet. It has pale green 
 leaves, the root pear-shaped, and shorter than the other spe- 
 cies. It grows entirely within the ground, except it meet 
 with some obstruction, in which case the exposed part be- 
 comes green, and looses a portion of its sugar. 
 
 There is one variety of this species, the red- vein -leaved, 
 with rose-colored rings in the flesh. This is considered a 
 degeneracy. 
 
 In Germany, besides the yellow and sugar beets, they 
 cultivate principally the following, which appear to be vari- 
 eties of the mangel wurtzel, or as it is sometimes called, the 
 great German beet. 
 
 1. Red and White. It is usually red and white 
 within and without. This beet grows seventeen or eight- 
 een inches long, of which one foot is above ground ; and 
 it sometimes weighs twenty-five pounds. Its juice is very 
 watery, and in proportion to its size it contains the least 
 nutritive substance. 
 
 2. Yellow and White. It grows half out of the 
 ground. It is rather smaller and less woody and aqueous, 
 
keeps better and is more nutritive than the preceding. It 
 sometimes weighs twenty pounds. 
 
 3. Pale-red. It penetrates the earth more than the 
 others, and weighs as much as sixteen pounds. 
 
 There is no limit to the varieties of the beet. They 
 may increase like the crosses of sheep. This will always 
 be the case, if different sorts for seed are not set at a 
 good distance apart. Soil and climate have sometimes the 
 same effect. Some fields will produce only the red-vein 
 leaved, although none but seed of the pure white Silesian 
 beet, was sown. 
 
 It is supposed by some that the wild sea beet, so called, 
 is the parent of all our cultivated beets. It is a native of 
 Holland and Great Britain on the sea-coast and salt marsh- 
 es. It is found about Nottingham in England. The first 
 beet planted in France, was however, a native of the south- 
 ern and maritime regions of Europe, and was brought from 
 Italy. The Romans were acquainted with the white beet, 
 which they called cicla, sicula or Sicilian. 
 
 * 3. 
 
 USES OF THE BEET. 
 
 Although the beet has become so interesting as a source 
 of sugar, it has been scarcely less so for half a century in 
 Europe as food for domestic animals. In France, exten- 
 sive as the cultivation is for manufacturing sugar, it is still 
 greater for forage. It is particularly valuable for milch 
 cows, improving their milk both in quantity and quality, and 
 imparting a richer color and finer flavor to the butter. This 
 effect is not diminished in winter, nor on the approach of 
 calving. 
 
 A cow requires eighteen pounds of sliced or mashed 
 beet per day, with a sufficient quantity of good hay. 
 Swine, sheep, bullocks, and, in some districts, horses also 
 are fed upon the raw root ; but for swine it is considered 
 pre.erable to boil it. 
 
8 
 
 Hitherto the mangel wurtzel has been generally cultivated 
 for feeding cattle on account of its superior volume ; but 
 the white Silesian beet is beginning every where to be re- 
 cognised as the most profitable for this purpose as well as 
 for making sugar. Beets designed for animals, may have 
 their lower leaves removed, and fed out during two or three 
 months, say, August, September and the first half of Oc- 
 tober. 
 
 The beet, besides furnishing sugar, is also used for mak- 
 ing coffee, beer, brandy, spirits of wine, potash and pa- 
 per. There are establishments on the continent and in 
 England, where these respective products are obtained in 
 abundance from this remarkable root. Recently it has 
 been reported that the French are making wine of the 
 beet-juice. 
 
 THE WHITE SILESIAN, OR SUGAR BEET. 
 
 It was found by the first manufacturer of beet sugar, 
 after amply experimenting on all sorts, that this contained 
 the most saccharine matter. Subsequent experience has 
 constantly confirmed this result. With equal culture, its 
 juice is found to be 1 to 3, ie. from 12 to 40 per cent, 
 richer than that of the other species. Taking 7 as the 
 average density, by saccharometer, of the juice of the su- 
 gar beet, then the other species will disclose 6, 5 or 4 ; 
 and yield most usually three quarters, two thirds or only 
 half as much sugar. Some allowance however is to be made 
 for the greater abundance of juice in the weaker sorts. 
 But this is not the only reason of the preference. The 
 juice of the sugar beet is least degraded by impurities, 
 which are to be separated before sugar can be obtained in a 
 large quantity or a good state. A further reason is, that it 
 keeps better, in consequence of the firmness of its texture, 
 and the richness of its juice. 
 
9 
 * 4. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 It has been supposed by some that a northern climate is 
 the only suitable, and perhaps possible one for the produc- 
 tion of beet sugar. This impression appears to have been 
 derived from the fact that many of the establishments, and 
 especially the early ones, of the South of France miscar- 
 ried. Mr. Dombasle, in accounting for the immense in- 
 crease of sugar works in the North, and their rarity in the 
 South, says it was because agriculture, and the growing of 
 the beet were better understood in the northern departments, 
 or old French Flanders. This was the first cause, but this 
 created others. Engineers, machinists, and mechanics, con- 
 nected with the business, and experienced sugar-makers^ 
 would be found where they could find employment ; and a 
 sugar factory, besides incurring little or no risk of failure, 
 would get into regular operation a great deal sooner in the 
 midst of the sources of information, and of the means of 
 assistance, than it could in a department remote from them. 
 He does not even allude to climate as of any importance in 
 the case. Nevertheless it grew into a dogma that the bu- 
 siness could not be carried on south of 45 north latitude. 
 This opinion was warmly contested by the editor of the 
 Manufacturer and Refiner's Manual, in 1833, and is 
 now rapidly giving ground to facts and maturer reflection. 
 This editor pronounces it both incorrect and anti-scientific ; 
 for in the first place all plants are found to be richer in 
 oleaginous, aromatic and saccharine properties, the further 
 we go towards the equator ; and in the second place, that 
 the beet did not depart from this law, he knows by having 
 experimented upon samples raised at Perpignan, and other 
 places in the extreme South. Humboldt found that the 
 same law applied to different altitudes on the table lands of 
 Mexico. In 1836, eight factories then in activity in the 
 department of Vaucluse and in Languadoc, made 1,131,000 
 pounds of sugar. These are all situated south of 45. 
 
 The business has been introduced into the kingdom of 
 
10 
 
 Naples, where one of the principal advantages expected, 
 is the production of two crops a year, and the supplying 
 of fresh material from the field, all or nearly all the year 
 round. We are not yet informed of the result of this en- 
 terprise, nor of a similar one undertaken in one of the West 
 India Islands, where beet and cane have been placed side 
 by side for a fair race. 
 
 5. 
 
 SOIL. 
 
 The best soil for the beet is a deep, rich, sandy, alluvial 
 soil, with an open and fair exposition to the sun. But any 
 soil, which will answer for Indian corn, will answer for su- 
 gar beet. There is no land except the peaty or mossy 
 upon which it may not be tried with success. Strong, 
 clayey and loamy lands will produce the greatest bulk of 
 beets, if humidity does not too much predominate, but these 
 beets will not necessarily yield a greater quantity of sugar, 
 than a much smaller quantity grown upon an equal extent 
 of light and upland soil. The beet however is not un- 
 grateful for a rich soil. Such an one is undoubtedly to be 
 preferred, for although the juice will not be as rich, yet the 
 superior quantity may be expected to more than make up 
 the deficiency. As a general rule, a soil inclining to sandy 
 is to be preferred. A clayey sand, is better than a sandy 
 clay, provided the subsoil is tolerably retentive. There is 
 danger from excess either of moisture or of dryness. A mid- 
 dling degree of moisture must be sought. The balance, if it in- 
 cline either way, had better be in favor of the dry, inasmuch 
 as the beet does not require a great deal of moisture ex- 
 cept during a few weeks of the spring, when rains are usu- 
 ally frequent and abundant. After that its leaves shade the 
 surface, and prevent rapid exhalation, while its long tap- 
 root penetrates the earth and draws up fresh supplies as 
 from a well. 
 
 Those who cultivate the beet largely for manufacturing, 
 
11 
 
 will do well to sow extensively on both low and upland. 
 If the season prove either wet or dry, one of them will 
 yield well ; if it be neither, both may yield well. 
 
 Calcareous soils are not unfriendly to the beet. A con- 
 siderable proportion of the beet growing region of France is 
 of this nature ; and very fine crops of beets have been 
 gathered from it, even where there was only three or four 
 inches of vegetable earth, resting on a bed of chalk. This 
 species of soil uses up manure quicker than others. 
 
 A gravelly soil is not very good for the beet. The 
 large tap-root, in penetrating the earth to get its food, en- 
 counters stones and pebbles, which retard its progress and 
 split it into forks ; then, in order that nourishment may be 
 conveyed laterally, radicles, which are of little value, are 
 multiplied. Still it must be admitted that the beet may 
 flourish on gravelly soil ; but it would be well to appropri- 
 ate it to forage rather than to manufacturing. The stones, 
 as far as practicable, should be removed. 
 
 Saline soils are to be eschewed, but they are consid- 
 ered favorable for beets designed for feeding and fattening 
 cattle. 
 
 Soils too sandy may generally be amended with consider- 
 able facility. For the most part they rest upon a clayey 
 bottom, five or six feet below the surface. This may be 
 taken up, pulverized and mixed with great advantage. 
 Clayey marls produce surprising effects on this soil, and 
 favor in an eminent degree the growth and saccharification 
 of the beet. Sandy, like calcareous soils, consume manure 
 too quick. 
 
 It follows that stiff, cold, clayey land may be benefited 
 by sand, but it ought to be mixed with lime and stable 
 manure. Calcareous marls are also proper and perhaps 
 preferable. 
 
 Calcareous soils of the heavier sort, may be benefited 
 by the application of sandy loam. The lighter sort by clay 
 and clayey marl. Gravelly soils may be improved by 
 clayey loam ; peaty soils, by draining, and by the applica- 
 tion of coarse earth, common sand, sea sand, chalk and 
 calcareous marl, 
 
In all cases it will be prudent before establishing a beet 
 sugar factory, to try the soil, by raising a quantity of beets, 
 and ascertaining the proportion of sugar they contain. It 
 has been found in several instances after erecting large 
 works, that not a grain of sugar could be obtained by reason 
 of some local peculiarity. 
 
 6. 
 
 ROTATION. 
 
 Every farmer knows that a piece of mowing, which has 
 ceased to produce grass worth cutting, may yield great 
 potatoes ; and that pastures, not worth their fence for feed, 
 may bear superior crops of rye, Indian corn and wheat. 
 This comes of the rotation of crops. Rotation sends to 
 each soil such a messenger as is likely from the known 
 state and disposition of each, to meet with the most favora- 
 ble reception and obtain the largest contribution ; and if an 
 improper messenger should come away empty, or be turned 
 out of doors, it does not follow that there is not wealth in 
 the house. It is stated in a report made in 1837 to the 
 Central Society of Agriculture, in France, that several 
 beet sugar factories in Hungary had been unsuccessful ; 
 and that a saline efflorescence manifested itself on the 
 surface of the soil. The reason was that salts of potash 
 and soda are prejudicial to the formation and extraction of 
 sugar. Such lands should be turned to the production of 
 beets for feeding and fattening sheep and cattle, to clover 
 and tobacco crops, until those salts are exhausted. 
 
 The following principles are well established. 
 
 1. That a naked fallow, or a weeded crop, called also 
 from its taking the place of fallow, a fallowing crop, must 
 be the basis of every rotation. 
 
 2. That ameliorating or enriching crops, and exhaust- 
 ing or scourging crops should follow one another. Those 
 are called ameliorating crops which are cut or gathered 
 green, such as clover, ray-grass, peas, beans, potatoes, tur- 
 
13 
 
 nips, ruta-baga, cabbages, beets and carrots. Wheat, rye, 
 barley, oats and sugar-cane, are generally considered ex- 
 hausting crops. 
 
 3. That the weeded crop should recur often enough 
 to keep the land clear of weeds. This period cannot often 
 be more than four years. 
 
 4. That the manure should be applied to the weeded 
 crop, so that the weeds, of which the manure contains the 
 seeds, may be immediately eradicated, and none suffered to 
 go to seed. 
 
 The quadrennial rotation is now recognised in France as 
 the best for the sugar-beet. Mr. Dombasle recommends 
 the following: Wheat, Beets, Barley or Oats, Clover. 
 Where wheat does not enter much into the system of agri- 
 culture, as is the case to a considerable extent in New 
 England, a substitute must be found for it. Rye will 
 probably answer the purpose. The following model of a 
 rotation is recommended by Mr. Brame Chevalier, a sugar 
 manufacturer and refiner of Lille, and an able writer on the 
 culture of the beet: Rye, Oats, Potatoes, Beets. 
 
 The Editor of the French Library of Arts and Trades, 
 proposes this : Wheat, Clover, Oats or Barley, Beets. 
 
 The following has been found by an ingenious cultivator 
 in the South of France to be a successful rotation for that 
 region : Beet, Wheat or Rye, Clover, Wheat. 
 
 There is one triennial rotation which is much followed 
 in the North of France : Oats manured, Beets, Wheat. 
 
 Mr. Dubrunfaut, author of the earliest complete treatise 
 on the beet sugar manufacture, considers the beet excellent 
 to precede Wheat, or any other Cereal crop ; and on the 
 other hand as a very proper successor of those crops, espe- 
 cially of Rye and Oats. He also recommends Potatoes as a 
 suitable predecessor. 
 
 In Europe, Oats, Wheat, Rye or Barley always follows 
 Clover, but Oats is the general favorite for this succession. 
 The editor above-mentioned, proposes winter oats, as leav- 
 ing the land earlier at liberty to be prepared for the next 
 crop. 
 
 Perhaps more extensive rotations may be found better 
 2 
 
14 
 
 adapted to the United States. We are inclined to think 
 that the practice of pasturing so much land as our farmers 
 do, will have a peculiar bearing on the question of a sugar- 
 beet rotation in North America. But this had better be 
 submitted to experience than to speculation. One thing is 
 certain, and in the beginning of the beet culture may be 
 quite important. Grass land of good or middling quality, 
 either pasture or mowing, may be broken up, and beets 
 sown on the fresh furrows, after well pulverizing with the 
 harrow and roller all the earth, that can be disengaged from 
 the roots of the grass. The ploughing must be deep, eight 
 inches at least, and the furrows so laid, as to permit no 
 spires of grass to grow between them. To this effect a 
 heavy rolling immediately after ploughing, may be very 
 useful. The harrow must never cross the furrows. " If it 
 do," said Mr. Dombasle, " you are undone." The rows 
 should also run with the furrows, and then the horse-hoe or 
 cultivator may be used. Compost may be spread upon 
 the sward before it is turned. In this way, and even with- 
 out manure, very fine sugar-beets, have been obtained both 
 in Europe and the United States. 
 
 In Northampton wheat has succeeded beets the pre- 
 sent year w r ith 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 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 com section of the field, but with this difference, 
 that the best grew nearest to the river, where it is consid- 
 
 "* Mr Hiram Ferry. 
 
15 
 
 ered that wheat is most likely to blast. We had the ad- 
 vantage of examining 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 smallest, 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, v 
 
 These details seemed to be proper in relation to phe- 
 nomena, connected with a crop so desirable to our farmers 
 as wheat. 
 
 7. 
 
 TILLAGE AND MANURE. 
 
 This is by far the most important division under the head 
 of culture. Farmers and gardeners, who are accustomed to 
 raise the beet for the table and stall, and justly regard it as 
 one of the least chanceable fruits of the earth, will probably 
 hear with surprise, that the greatest part of the sugar 
 manufacturers, who have failed in France, owed their fall 
 to bad cultivation. We believe it may be safely said that 
 the manufacturer, who does not either raise his own beets, 
 or stipulate with great exactness for suitable soil, manure, 
 and tillage, cannot prosper. With good and considerate 
 husbandmen, we need not urge this point. They know 
 that a diligent and judicious use of the means of art, will 
 make a world of difference in results even in relation 
 to the most simple and ordinary objects of agricultural 
 industry. But when it comes to a question of manu- 
 facturing sugar, and incurring and maintaining a great 
 expenditure, a difference of a ton to the acre in quantity, 
 or of half a. degree out of seven or eight of richness in the 
 
16 
 
 quality, may settle the fate of an establishment. They 
 have often done so, and will no doubt in hundreds of in- 
 stances to come. 
 
 The number of ploughings must depend upon the nature 
 and state of the soil and of the weather. Mr. Dombasle, 
 being inquired of by us how many ploughings he gave to a 
 certain field, which carried a superb crop of sugar-beets, 
 replied that he gave it one, that it ought to have had/owr; 
 but that the season for ploughing was so wet that it could not 
 be done, and he had been obliged to make it up with the 
 horse-hoe, of which he has invented a superior model. 
 
 As a general rule, three thorough ploughings are neces- 
 sary. The land for beets must be mellow. If it be hard 
 and lumpy, it cannot derive fresh fertility from the air, 
 which will not in that case penetrate it, and if it could so 
 derive it, or contained ever so much, it could not impart 
 nourishment to the root. Large tap-roots in these circum- 
 stances, fare worse than the fibrous. The latter can in 
 some measure accommodate themselves to the soil ; the 
 former must have the soil accommodated to them. If there- 
 fore a mellow soil be good for wheat and Indian corn, it is 
 indispensable to the sugar-beet. This is well understood in 
 gardening. The nearer field tillage can be brought to that 
 of the garden, the more perfect it will be. 
 
 The first ploughing ought to be done in August or the 
 beginning of September, when there will be a thick green 
 growth on clover and other early mowing land ; and an 
 abundance of green herbs among the stubble of wheat, oats, 
 barley or rye. These herbs will be a plague, if they re- 
 main above ground, but an energetic manure if buried. 
 The stubble, which in the United States is often permit- 
 ted to vanish, is extremely valuable both in communicating 
 fertility, and maintaining the soil in a light and permeable 
 state. If stubble be on fields seeded down, it ought to be 
 mowed, raked together and transported to the barnyard, 
 or laid up to be used as litter in the stables. Beet-tops, if 
 not used for feeding, ought to be ploughed in. They are 
 considered by some equal to a half, and by others to a 
 quarter manuring. 
 
17 
 
 In these ploughings the farrows should be laid flat. We 
 now have ploughs which perform this operation to great 
 perfection. In case the instrument is defective, it might be 
 well to pass the roller afterwards. 
 
 The French usually give two ploughings in the fall, the 
 first at the time we have mentioned, or a little earlier, two 
 or three inches deep ; the second about a month after, and 
 ten or twelve inches deep, if the soil will bear it. It is a 
 question which must be determined by experience, whether 
 two fall ploughings will be necessary in this country. 
 The frosts in France are much milder than in any of the 
 farming states of the Union. We therefore have the ad- 
 vantage of that powerful assistant in breaking and pulver- 
 izing the arable earth, to a degree, which France can never 
 have. 
 
 If fresh stable manure be applied to the sugar-beet 
 crop, it must be done in the fall, between two ploughings, 
 if two are given, and if not, before ploughing. Such man- 
 ure is excellent, if so applied, but if put on in the spring, 
 it gives roots containing a feeble juice, an inferior quantity 
 of sugar, and that difficult of extraction. Besides, there 
 will be more water to be evaporated, and consequently 
 more fuel to be consumed in the manufacture. 
 
 The manure is to be well buried with the plough. In 
 France they have a neat method of executing this process, 
 if the manure be, as usual, long. A boy follows the plough 
 with a fork, and pokes into the last furrow all the strawy 
 stuff, which rests on the next furrow slice. When the 
 plough passes again it is perfectly buried. This is no in- 
 crease of labor, because the boy would otherwise have to 
 go by the side of the plough to clear the coulter ; and 
 then in spite of his efforts it would sometimes be thrown 
 out, and parts of furrows be lost. By pursuing the method 
 we have described, it will run smoothly, and the work will 
 be well and easily executed. 
 
 Undoubtedly we lose much of the virtue of our stable 
 
 manures by exposing them to the sun, air and water. 
 
 The manure being once buried in the soil, those agents are 
 
 straightway employed in improving, refining and diffusing 
 
 2* 
 
18 
 
 them throughout the mass, where the plants will in due 
 time come to claim them. 
 
 If manure be applied to the beet crop in spring, it must 
 be thoroughly decomposed, otherwise that degradation of 
 the quality of the beet will ensue. Further, the sugar- 
 beet cannot be produced in its most perfect state, if any ma- 
 nure be applied. The crops combining in the highest de- 
 gree productiveness and richness, have been raised on land 
 highly manured the preceding year for tobacco crops, 
 which have a powerful tendency to take up salts, and thus to 
 leave the soil in a genial state for the sugar-beet. This then 
 takes its place in the ground, when the manure has become 
 assimilated, and the mass is in the best state to form the del- 
 icate cellules, and fill them with white sugar. 
 
 Whether one or two ploughings are given in the fall, 
 there must be one at least in the spring. This ought to be 
 deep and fine. But every soil will not bear such a depth 
 as we have recommended, nor any thing near it. In some 
 cases, a portion of the sub-soil may be advantageously 
 turned up. This, however, demands a good deal of intel- 
 ligence and discretion. It may ruin the crop, and for a 
 time the land itself. If the sub-soil cannot safely be in- 
 vaded, the cultivator must content himself with the surface, 
 such as it is, and let his beets grow partly out of the ground. 
 That portion exposed to the sun and air will not be as rich 
 as that within the earth. This evil may be remedied in a 
 great measure by hilling with a hilling plough or cultivator. 
 Another remedy is to lay the earth in beds, warps, or 
 lands ; or to raise high furrows at the last ploughing, and 
 sow upon the summits. By these means the farmer may 
 feel sure of a satisfactory return from a very thin soil. 
 
 The sugar-beet will not grow out of the earth unless it is 
 compelled so to do. If it find sufficient depth, fertility and 
 friableness, it will grow twelve or fifteen inches in length, 
 and some experienced cultivators have recommended to 
 plough fifteen inches deep. 
 
 After the spring ploughing, a deep and thorough harrowing 
 is to be given ; and this is to be repeated, if necessary, un- 
 til the earth is well pulverized. Rolling after harrowing, is 
 excellent for crushing lumps, and should be used without stint. 
 
19 
 
 The French have a cheap harrow, which appears to be 
 admirably adapted to the beet culture. It is generally 
 composed entirely of wood. The teeth are set not only in 
 the sides, but also in two or three slats, to the number of 
 twenty-five and sometimes more. These teeth are from 
 one to one and a half feet in length, and the points project- 
 ing beneath the frame and penetrating the earth, are from 
 six to twelve inches in length. They are not placed per- 
 pendicularly to the frame, but obliquely, forming with the 
 timbers in which they are inserted, an angle of 60 to 70 
 behind. They are driven downwards, and the heads left 
 three inches above the frame, so that when much worn they 
 can be let in, and maintain their length and efficiency for a 
 long time. The short teeth being placed forward stir the 
 earth to a certain depth ; the second set follow and pene- 
 trate and tear still deeper ; finally the third, the longest, 
 largest, and nearest together, come to increase the depth 
 and worry the lumps worse than ever. Such an instrument 
 is wanted in the United States, independently of its bearing 
 on the beet culture. We have some improved iron har- 
 rows, but not many, and none very good. The common 
 angular iron harrow was undoubtedly invented for newly 
 cleared land, and it is of very little value for any other. 
 In many parts of the country it has outlived its useful less. 
 There may be cases where it will still be of some use ; 
 but, in general, we should say that if a better harrow can- 
 not enter, it is a proof that the plough and the crowbar 
 ought to be recalled. 
 
 This harrow, strongly made, costs $2.85 in France. 
 Almost any farmer can make it for himself. The sides may 
 be straight, though they are most frequently a little curved, 
 as in the figure. 
 
 There is another harrow called the Valcourt or Rhomb 
 Harrow, which is beginning to find favor with the cultivators 
 of the beet. It is spoken of by those who have had experience 
 with it, as unrivalled in the execution of its work. Mr. 
 Dombasle observes that " he did not know how to appreciate 
 the benefit of harrowing until he adopted this model." The 
 teeth are of iron and round. It costs in France 
 
COMMON FREJYCH HARROW 
 
 Fig, 1. 
 
 to mc^. 
 
 A. Clog, to be attached to the pin, B, and serving, when the harrow is 
 reversed, as a shoe. 
 
 C. C. C. Wooden teeth, separate from the frame, showing the propor- 
 tion of the forward, middle and hind teeth. 
 
 D. D. Braces of iro. or wjod. 
 
21 
 
 VALCOURT, OR RHOMB HARROW. 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 1 foot to I inch. 
 
 E. Traction Chain. By attaching the team at different links, the imple- 
 ment divides the soil finer or coarser at pleasure. 
 
 F. F. Hooks by which to attach the team, when a gentle operation, as 
 covering seed, is required. 
 
If manure be put upon a beet field in spring, it must be 
 well rotted, and it would be well to screen it. It can be 
 conveniently thrown through a screen in filling it. It may 
 then be spread upon the spring furrows. Such a harrow as 
 we have described will mix it sufficiently with the soil. A 
 harrowing and rolling should always complete the prepara- 
 tion for the seed, except where ridges are raised as a remecy 
 for a thin soil. 
 
 Thus far in the present section we have necessarily mixed 
 with the subject of tillage a good deal about manure. But it 
 is now time to attend more specially to that important matter. 
 
 Wherever we find good husbandry, we find that manure 
 is the soul of it. Where the earth is so fat and so favored 
 by climate as to produce without manure, there will never 
 perhaps, be good husbandry ; not at any rate until there is 
 a great improvement in the education and moral habits of 
 mankind. A majority of the states of this Union are so sit- 
 uated, or getting to be so, as to render good husbandry not 
 only possible but indispensable. It has become the more 
 so, because it has been greatly neglected ; for it is a fact 
 that the fertility of our country has been declining ever since 
 its settlement. We speak of the country at large, and 
 it is no answer to say that there are farms equal or superior 
 to the maiden soil, which our fathers found. Probably a 
 century with the best system of agriculture, and the best 
 disposition to execute it, could scarcely restore an amount 
 of fertility equal to that which has been dissipated. This is 
 not good husbandry, it is barbarous waste. Good husband- 
 ry increases or keeps up the fertility of the soil. The truth 
 is that we have generally sought to get from our lands the 
 most that we possibly could, in the shortest possible time. 
 In this as in other things, haste makes waste. We kill the 
 goose that lays the golden eg;s. 
 
 The preparation and use of manure is therefore a subject 
 of deep concernment to the farming interest generally, but to 
 the sugar-beet cultivator it is more especially so. We do not 
 mean to intimate that other crops can better dispense with 
 it, but only that the application of it to the sugar-beet crop. 
 is a matter of more than ordinary delicacy and importance. 
 
23 
 
 The manure best adapted to the beet, with one or two 
 small exceptions, of which we shall speak, is the ordure of 
 horned cattle. This is particularly suited to sandy soils, 
 supplying in a measure by its viscous and tenacious proper- 
 ties, the natural want of compactness in such soils. Next 
 to this, horse, sheep and hog clung may be used, but they 
 are of too hot a nature to do the greatest good on sandy soils, 
 unless mixed with other matters, and formed into a compost. 
 These manures, however, are most excellent for moist, 
 clayey and loamy soils, and there they ought always to be 
 bestowed. The liquid manure of the stables ought to be 
 carefully conducted into a general reservoir, where it is pre- 
 served for clover and grass land, or to be distributed among 
 the beets in case of severe drought. At the same time that 
 it relieves this, it gives a surprising impulse to the growth of 
 the plant. It must be confessed that it tends to make it 
 watery, and we would restrict its use to the case of drought. 
 Lime is not contrary to the nature of the beet. If used, 
 it must be mixed with treble the quantity of vegetable mold, 
 or street sweepings, or scourings of ditches, ponds and stag- 
 nant pools. The mass should be mixed with a shovel and 
 stirred once a month until the lime is completely slacked. 
 The compost thus prepared, may be spread upon the spring 
 furrows and harrowed in. 
 
 But the most stimulating and at the same time innocent 
 manures, which can be used for the beet, are the refuse of 
 the sugar-house. These consist of scums and sediment 
 from the pans, and of animal charcoal, or bone black in 
 powder, which has been used in clarifying. 
 
 This powder is mixed, equal parts, with pulverized and 
 sifted earth. In this state it is thrown with the hand in the 
 manner of broadcast sowing, at the rate of ten to twen! , 
 bushels of charcoal to the acre. It may, perhaps more ad- 
 vantageously, be deposited in drills or holes with the seed^ 
 or distributed like ashes among the plants. Some horse 
 drilling machines carry and deposite powdered manure with 
 the seed. It may also be put in the holes, pricked for 
 transplanting beets, around the root of each plant before the 
 loose portli is: pressed home. A child can perform this ser 
 
24 
 
 vice. In either of these ways it animates vegetation in an 
 extraordinary manner without any injury to the saccharine 
 richness of the plant. One of the benefits of this manure 
 is, that it imparts such vigor to the infant growth of the 
 plant as to put it promptly beyond the reach of insects, 
 disease and drought. But its efficacy is not spent in the 
 outset, but continues unabated during the entire season, 
 with this signal advantage over almost every other manure, 
 that it never harbors the seed of parasite plants, which may 
 subsequently exhaust its own strength, nor the eggs of in- 
 sects which may devour the plant it is designed to nourish. 
 
 This manure is almost equally beneficial to every kind 
 of soil. The only difference is that three or four bushels 
 more to the acre are to be put upon strong than upon light 
 lands. Its deep black enables it to absorb and accumulate 
 heat to an uncommon degree ; hence its more than usual 
 activity in clayey, cold and humid soils. On the other 
 hand its antiseptic property retards in a ratio happily ad- 
 justed to the increasing demands of the young plants, the 
 decomposition of manures on sandy and calcarious soils ; 
 and thus corrects the tendency of those soils to devour their 
 food too hastily. And while it effects these objects, it is all 
 the time administering directly a copious supply of carbonic 
 acid, one of the most important articles of sustenance to the 
 vegetable creation. 
 
 This manure has the most pleasing effect upon lawns, 
 carpets, borders, and gardens generally, producing a swift 
 and wholesome growth, and embellishing them with a depth 
 and beauty of coloring, which contrasts finely with the pale 
 gravel or sand of the alleys. 
 
 This precious manure was unknown until 1822. Pre- 
 viously to that time many millions of pounds had been an- 
 nually thrown into the public discharges. It had been used 
 for a number of years, as it still is, though not so much in 
 powder, for clarifying juice, liquor, and syrups, both in the 
 manufacture and refining of sugar. In that year Mr. Pa- 
 yen, a distinguished manufacturer, refiner and chemist, at 
 Paris, suggested the idea of its value as manure. Experi- 
 ments were immediately made in various parts of Fiance 
 
25 
 
 with striking results. At first it sold for two francs the 
 hectolitre, about sixteen cents a bushel, but soon rose to 
 seven francs the hectolitre. It is now manufactured at a 
 large establishment near Paris, expressly for manure, and 
 the calcination bein managed with exclusive reference to 
 this object, more of the animal and stimulating matters are 
 retained. 
 
 The scums and sediments of the sugar-house having 
 been dried, reduced to powder, and mixed, equal parts, with 
 earth, may be applied in the same manner as animal char- 
 coal. These scums and sediments are the residuums 
 of the defecation, or first clarification of the beet juice. 
 They consist of a number of compound substances, in which 
 lime occupies the first place. 
 
 The finest effects of these manures are undoubtedly pro- 
 duced on strong loams, but the farmer need not hesitate to 
 give them in proper doses to any sort of soil. 
 
 Animal manures, such as blood, flesh, fish, ground bones, 
 and night soil, are the most stimulating of all ; but the 
 sugar-beet cultivator who aims at a good quantity and qual- 
 ity of sugar, rather than a great bulk of beets, will abstain 
 from them. Fields manured with ground bones and night 
 soil have been known to yield forty-five tons to the acre ; 
 but exceedingly aqueous, giving not more than half the due 
 proportion of sugar, and that difficult of extraction. ]f the 
 animal manures are admitted at all in the cultivation of the 
 sugar-beet, it should be only on stiff, cold soils, in moderate 
 quantities, mixed, if possible, with animal charcoal, which 
 allays ihe violence of their decomposition. 
 
 Plaster of Paris is good for beets. Street sweepings, the 
 scouring of ditches and the slime of standing water, treated 
 with lime as already described, make a manure very grate- 
 ful to the beet. Ashes are generally to be avoided ; they 
 make growth, but they also form salts of potash, in lieu of 
 sugar. Nor is this their only or perhaps worst effect. Be- 
 sides preventing a natural and plentiful formation of sugaV, 
 they are very liable to injure, in the processes of manufac- 
 ture, that which is formed. 
 3 
 
26 
 
 <, 8. 
 
 SOWING. 
 
 The practice is now almost universal to sow in rows, and 
 in the place where the plants are to remain. 
 
 The first step is to determine the distances which the rows 
 and roots shall occupy. These vary according to the rent 
 of land, the wages of labor, the nature of the soil, and the 
 circumstances and habits of the cultivators. If beets are to 
 be hoed and weeded wholly by hand, one square foot is 
 deemed sufficient for each plant. This gives forty-three 
 thousand five hundred and sixty plants to the acre. Small 
 cultivators, who wish to economize to the utmost their 
 ground, and have not working animals, adopt this distance. 
 But on a large scale it is seldom done. In France the dis- 
 tance of the rows is commonly 18 to 20 French inches, 
 equal to 19 to 21 J inches English. They sometimes go to 
 the extent of 25 to 30 inches. The smallest of these inter- 
 vals will admit the horse-hoe, as we shall hereafter more 
 particularly explain. The distance of the roots in the rows 
 is most generally 8 inches. 
 
 Only one plant must stand in a place. At the rate of 
 8 inches between the plants, and 18 inches between the 
 rows, the French still preserve the space of one square foot 
 to each plant. In Germany the distance of the rows is the 
 same as in France, but they leave 15 inches between the 
 plants. This probably arises from their habit of cultivating 
 the largest species. In a country where land is cheap and 
 labor dear, 2J feet between the rows, and 8, 10 or 12 
 inches between the plants, will be found the most convenient 
 and profitable. With such intervals, the plough, horse-hoe, 
 or cultivator can pass without fear of injury, between the 
 rows, and the hand-hoe betwixt the plants. There will 
 then be nothing for the fingers, except the weeds directly 
 round the plants. The following table shows the number 
 of beets which an acre will bear, the rows and plants 
 being placed at various distances. 
 
Rows. 
 
 Plants. 
 
 Number of Plants per acre. 
 
 18 in. 
 
 8 in. 
 
 43,560 
 
 20 " 
 
 ( 
 
 39,204 
 
 24 " 
 
 
 
 32,664 
 
 30 
 
 ft 
 
 26,136 
 
 30 " 
 
 10 " 
 
 20,908 
 
 30 
 
 12 
 
 17,424 
 
 These last intervals may at first view appear unnecessa- 
 rily large. It must however be considered, that a sugar- 
 beet root of medium size, is three or four inches in diameter, 
 and that the top, if permitted to expand in freedom, will be 
 two feet in diameter. The tops will bear a mutual com- 
 pression, and to this they must submit in the direction of the 
 rows, though placed at the greatest distance we have recom- 
 mended. But if confined that way, they will expand with 
 the more force over the space between the rows, and starve 
 out the weeds that may rise after the last hoeing. 
 
 The preference we have expressed for ample spacing, has 
 reference only to horse-hoeing. If the beet sugar business 
 should take root and flourish in America, it will undoubtedly 
 be advantageous to the proprietors of one or two acre lots, 
 such as mechanics and day laborers in this country may 
 generally own, to plant one foot apart in every direction, 
 and employ children before and after school in weeding 
 them. Half an acre, enriched by the ordure and litter of 
 the cow-house and pig-stye, soap-suds, and the wash of the 
 sink, which commonly creates a nuisance, would yield 
 eight or ten tons. The weeding could all be done by two 
 little children before and after school, and the value would 
 be twenty-five to thirty dollars, the interest of four or five 
 hundred dollars. Besides this, a great deal of excellent feed 
 would be made for the cow and pig. 
 
 It is a point of the greatest importance to procure seed 
 that is not too old ; for although it retains its germinating 
 
23 
 
 power seven years, yet it comes tardily, and gives a degen- 
 erate root after three or four years. Good fresh seed is 
 heavy, and of a whitish yellow, slightly tinged with green. 
 Old seed is recognised by its deeper yellow. Plunged into 
 tepid water, the worthless seeds assume a clear brown, and 
 when opened, the kernels appear blackened ; whereas the 
 sound seed presents in the interior two or three white points. 
 
 Some think the seed ought to be committed to the ground 
 in its natural state ; others are of opinion that some prepa- 
 ration is useful, especially for sowing the second time. In 
 France they generally plunge the seed in water, or lime- 
 water blood warm, or they sprinkle it until a handful com- 
 pressed, moistens the hand. They then lay it in heaps six 
 inches in depth, until it is near sprouting. Mr. Crespel 
 Delisse soaks it in hot water, and dries by mixing with it 
 powdered lime. 
 
 It is difficult to sow the beet with uniformity, unless it be 
 done with the fingers, on account of the jaggedness of the 
 seed. Powdered lime, used as above-mentioned, is in some 
 degree a remedy ; but in this case the seed must be passed 
 through a sieve or cullender to separate those which adhere 
 together. Another and better remedy is to beat or grind the 
 seed gently in a wooden mortar, and winnow it. The ope- 
 ration is to be repeated, until the seed is deprived of its asper- 
 ities, and is capable of falling freely through the tube of a 
 small tunnel. It loses by this operation one third of its 
 weight. This manipulation will be peculiarly important in 
 the United States, where the hand and horse-drill will proba- 
 bly be much used, and the free and regular transmission of the 
 seed from the hopper to its place in the earth, will be essen- 
 tial to the success of the crop. We have not yet seen a 
 field in the United Slates sown with a drill, which had not 
 many and wide vacancies in every row. Our farmers think 
 that labor is too dear to be expended in transplanting. 
 There is therefore the more need of good seeding. We 
 shall describe various methods of sowing, because farmers, 
 who are not provided with the most convenient implements, 
 have complained of the sowing as a heavy labor. 
 
 An instrument, called in France a rayonneur, and which 
 we shall call a furrower, may be formed thus. Take a piece 
 
29 
 
 of oak, or large pine scantling, or any straight timber of a 
 size, which would answer for the stock of a bush-harrow ; 
 insert in it three or more wooden teeth at such distances as 
 are desired between the rows of beets, and projecting four 
 inches. In the centre, and perpendicularly to the teeth, insert 
 a handle like that of a rake, bracing it, if necessary, on 
 each side. This is for the hand. If a horse is to be used, 
 insert a pair of long fills. This instrument, if well guided, 
 will trace accurate lines one or two inches deep, over an 
 acre of ground in an hour. Drawn by a horse, and in that 
 case being so made as to take a wider sweep, it will exe- 
 cute the same work in less than half an hour. Men, wo- 
 men or children may follow, depositing the seed. 
 
 In France they commonly put one seed to every four 
 inches, expecting that half will perish either in the seed or 
 the plant. If the seed be good, cleaned and purified in 
 the manner we shall describe in treating of raising the seed, 
 we should not be afraid to risk a single seed at the distance 
 intended for the plant. The seed may be covered by en- 
 verting a harrow and passing it over the surface, or with a 
 roller, if the ground has not been much rolled previously to 
 sowing. 
 
 Another method of sowing in rows, is to stretch a cord, and 
 make a drill with a hoe-handle or a stake. This will take 
 about six times as long as the hand-furrower. In Germa- 
 ny they have a method, which answers very well if there 
 be many hands. A small cord forty to fifty feet in length 
 is tied into knots at such distances as the plants are to stand. 
 Each end is attached to a stake. Two men seize the 
 stakes, haul the cord taught, and plant them in the earth, 
 where the first row is to run. On the outside of 
 the cord, and facing the field, men, women and children 
 take their stations, each provided in a bag or apron with 
 seed. Each of them takes charge of as many knots as he 
 can reach without getting out of position. As soon as the 
 stakes are planted, he deposits a seed before every knot 
 within his division. Meantime the stake-men apply to the 
 surface of the ground small batoons, which they carry in 
 their hands, and measure the distance at which the stakes 
 are to be placed next. By the time this is done, the first row 
 
30 
 
 is planted and covered. The stakes are then removed, plant- 
 ed anew, and the former operation repeated. Two men and 
 a dozen women and children can sow three acres in a day. 
 
 Many cultivators sow with a dibble. One man can make 
 as many holes as several women and children can fill. 
 This affords the opportunity of putting a little powdered 
 manure, mixed with earth, atop of the seed. On with- 
 drawing the instrument, the earth falls back so as to leave 
 the holes not too deep. The general rule is one inch for 
 clayey land and two or three inches for light. In the south 
 of France this method has been happily modified, so as to 
 ward off the danger of drought. There the surface of the 
 earth may get so indurated before the tender germ appears, 
 that it cannot pierce it. Sand thrown into the holes as a 
 covering of the seeds, is a complete remedy. 
 
 On light lands the French sometimes sow with the 
 plough, but in this case it will not do to strike a furrow more 
 than three inches deep. A woman or child follows the first 
 furrow, placing the seeds at the desired distances. The 
 next furrow covers them, and when enough furrows are 
 turned to form the space between the rows, more seed 
 is deposited. A man, a woman or child, and horse, can 
 sow an acre and a half a day. 
 
 In Bohemia they apply this method on a great scale in 
 a peculiar manner. Two or three ploughs follow one 
 another. Sixteen or twenty men arranged in pairs along 
 the line of the furrows, thrust the seed with three fingers in- 
 to the ridge of the last furrow ; the first one of each pair 
 doing it at the distance of twelve inches and to the depth of 
 two inches. His second follows, and inserts a seed to the 
 depth of one inch between every two already planted. If 
 the weather be wet, the last will come up ; if it be dry, the 
 first. If the earth be lumpy the seeds are placed in the 
 slope of the furrow. This method is attended with the 
 advantage of always placing the seed in fresh moist earth. 
 
 We have now described the methods of sowing, which 
 are considered most sure, but we have not yet mentioned 
 that which is most used, viz.; that of the horse-drill. 
 
 There is a variety of this sort of machines. Some of 
 them make the drills, deposit the seed, drop some powdered 
 
31 
 
 manure with it, and cover the whole ; and most of them 
 perform all these operations except the third. They exe- 
 cute their work with such rapidity that a man, boy and 
 horse can sow ten acres in a day. Hughes's horse-drill ap- 
 pears to be most approved in France. Mr. Edward 
 Church in his useful Notice of Beet Sugar, highly com- 
 mends Hill's. 
 
 These machines are provided with handles which are 
 held by a man, while the horse is guided by a boy. It re- 
 quires vigilance and tact on the part of the man. The 
 hoppers or capsules are liable to get empty ; and the tubes, 
 which deliver the seed into the furrow, to get clogged with 
 dirt, especially if the ground be moist. In either case a 
 row, or part of a row remains without seed, and what is 
 worse, it cannot be ascertained where the deficiency begins, 
 until the seed comes up. 
 
 These horse-drills will serve equally well for Indian corn, 
 wheat, turnips, mulberry, ruta-baga, &c. The horse-drill 
 of Mr. Crespel Delisse has been highly recommended in 
 this country, but it is not approved by the farmers of 
 France. They object to it that it does not deliver the seed 
 well in ascending a rising ground, so that such portions of 
 the field are always badly sown. 
 
 The barrow-drill, called in the United States the planter 
 or seed-sower, is also used in France. It will answer for a 
 limited cultivation. 
 
 Rollers have been invented in France, which facilitate 
 the sowing. One of these, six feet in length, is armed with 
 nipples, which make rows three feet apart, and holes four- 
 teen inches apart. Women and children follow and deposit 
 seed, and powdered manure in the holes. Another is 
 formed of stout staves fixed on cast-iron hoops and wooden 
 heads. Holes are made in these hoops and in the staves at 
 various distances. Nipples are attached by means of these 
 holes so as to make the distances both of plants and rows, 
 such as the nature of the soil, and other circumstances may 
 render convenient. It is considered that in light and dry 
 soils the rows should be nearer, than in moist and stiff, in 
 order that the entire surface may be sooner covered by the 
 leaves. This last roller distributes powdered manure, which 
 
32 
 
 being thrown inside, passes the holes and is lodged in or 
 near the place of the future plant. 
 
 A pound of beet seed contains about 20,000 seeds. Of 
 course if the seed be good, two pounds will be enough to 
 sow an acre. But it is better not to spare the seed, not at 
 least until the cultivator raises, cleans and cures it himself, 
 and feels perfectly sure of its quality. Seed ought to be 
 procured and tried in a box in winter. 
 
 The time for sowing begins the last days of April, and 
 continues until the first days of June. If the crop be for 
 manufacturing there ought to be a succession of sowings 
 from week to week during that period. If it be for feeding, 
 the first of June is early enough. It is true that in France 
 they generally sow a month earlier, but experience has 
 convinced us that earlier will not do for our climate, except 
 that we wish to take up the ,beets by the first of August, in 
 order at that time to commence the manufacture, which 
 will be an important advantage. Seed may be sown in au- 
 tumn, and we have had a little sown at that time, which 
 did extremely well. 
 
 The French sometimes sow beets broadcast, and this in 
 the beginning was general ; but it is now for the most part 
 repudiated. They also, to a small extent, sow in nurseries, 
 and transplant. Very fine crops of beets can be raised in 
 this manner, if proper pains be taken, and it is an excellent 
 way of supplying a garden or a small field from the super- 
 fluous plants of a neighbor, when one's own seed has failed. 
 If nursery planting should be tried, the seed ought to be sown 
 in a good garden with a southern aspect, two inches apart, in 
 the month of April, and transplanted before the middle of 
 June. There is the advantage in this way of destroying 
 the first irruption of weeds with the plough. The plants 
 are set out when they are as large as a little finger. They 
 are commonly dotted in with a dibble, and a little powdered 
 manure put around the root by a child. 
 
 If the weather be dry beet seed will lie in the ground 
 some weeks without germinating. In this case the farmer 
 must have patience. Sowing again would not help him. 
 When rain comes, the seed will come, and a second seeding 
 would do no more. 
 
33 
 
 It is better to seed ?o thick as to have many plants to pull 
 up, than to do it so thin as to have a few to set out. We 
 have used twelve pounds of seed to the acre, but then it 
 was broadcast, or with a barrow- drill, poorly contrived for 
 this seed. In France they use eight or ten pounds to the 
 acre. 
 
 * 9. 
 
 WEEDING. 
 
 Beets should he weeded when the ground is dry. Three 
 times is the general rule, but a better rule is to weed and 
 hoe just as often and as many times as the weeds make 
 head, or the surface of the ground gets caked. The 
 weeding is to commence as soon as the plant shows four 
 or five leaves, and to continue, if necessary, as long as a 
 person can enter the field without breaking the leaves. 
 Good manufacturers about Arras weed five or six times, 
 and think it labor well bestowed. It is an established fact 
 that an acre well weeded, thinned and stirred, produces 
 twice as much as an acre negligently kept. When we 
 reflect that the labor and expense of rent, ploughing, ma- 
 nuring, harrowing, rolling and sowing are the same in both 
 cases, it is plain on which side economy lies. 
 
 In France, the first weeding is commonly executed with 
 the hand and hand-hoe, for fear that the horse-hoe would 
 injure the young plants. But at the distance of two and a 
 half feet, there cannot be much danger of this, and we are 
 persuaded that in this country the horse-hoe, and in the 
 absence of that, the cultivator may be used with great ad- 
 vantage at every weeding except perhaps the last, when it 
 might break the leaves. The horse-hoe is incomparably 
 the best. Mr. Dombasle has invented an admirable one 
 which, among other advantages, has that of going close to 
 the rows without danger of injury to them. It also lifts 
 and stirs the earth effectually, and makes clean work of the 
 weeds. It opens and contracts so as to work between rows 
 eighteen to thirty inches apart. 
 
ROVILLE HORSE-HOE. 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 1 foot to )$ inch. 
 
 A. Beam. 
 
 B. B. Side bars. 
 
 C. Triangular Steel Share. 
 
 D. D. Hookshares, entering the earth as a scythe enters grass. 
 
 E. E. The same, separate from the frame. 
 
 F. F. Rack. 
 
 G. Regulator. 
 
 H. H. Extra holes to which hookshares may be shifted, when by the 
 contraction of the instrument, they would interfere with one another. 
 
35 
 
 It should be borne in mind that cleaning the field, though 
 the first, is not the only object of weeding beets. The 
 earth, particularly where the soil is strong, is apt to become 
 indurated. In that case the horse-hoe is eminently servicea- 
 ble. It enters and pulverizes, where the hand-hoe might 
 rap long without getting admission. In case of drought 
 it becomes more than ever needful to stir the earth though 
 there be no weeds upon it. It opens it to the dews and to 
 the air, charged with vapor, just in proportion to the inten- 
 sity of the drought. 
 
 10 
 
 DIGGING. 
 
 The beet ripens earlier in the United States than in 
 France. The summer heat is more intense, and the devel- 
 opment of the plant is proportionably accelerated. At 
 Northampton beets sown the first of June this year, were 
 perfectly ripe on the first of September, and some of them 
 were beginning to put forth new leaves. The period of their 
 growth and maturity is never estimated in France at less 
 than four months. Last year, 1838. beets sown the first 
 of May, dropt their leaves entirely about the first of August, 
 and soon after were crowned with an entire new set of 
 leaves. On the 30th of August we procured a quantity of 
 these beets for the purpose of ascertaining the effects 
 accompanying these phenomena. 'The roots, having been 
 cut across the grain, presented a remarkable appearance. 
 Between the layers of the elongated cellular tissue, i. e. in 
 the rich and pulpy parts of the root, there was a reddish 
 brown color, resembling that which a crushed apple ac- 
 quires after a short exposure to the air. The diffusion of 
 this discoloration throughout the concentric strata, contain- 
 ing the vesicles of the sugar, reminded us of the appear- 
 ance of clefts of a rock, into which gunpowder has been 
 flashed. These beets had lost their savor. They had an 
 insipidity approaching to that of chips. Having carefully 
 dried the slices, reduced them to powder and extracted the 
 
36 
 
 soluble matter, we found that they did not contain an atom 
 of crystallizable sugar, but yielded only a syrup of a dull 
 and disagreeable taste, with scarcely a trace of saccharine. 
 A case resembling this in effect, though it is not stated that 
 there was a second set of leaves, is given by Chaptel, and 
 is copied into most of the books on the beet sugar culture. 
 The substance of it is, that in the Department of Landes in 
 the extreme south of France, a gentleman, being about to 
 start a beet sugar factory, experimented on his beets every 
 eight days from the first of July to the last of August, and 
 constantly obtained three to four per cent, of good sugar. 
 Feeling now sure of his crop, he discontinued his experi- 
 ments, and devoted himself exclusively to the completion 
 of his sugar-house and apparatus. But what was his aston- 
 ishment and dismay, when on recurring to his beets towards 
 the end of October, he found that they yielded syrup and 
 saltpetre, but not a particle of sugar. 
 
 It is evident that the plant ought not to remain in the 
 ground long enough for a second set of leaves to commence. 
 If the first have generally drooped and withered, and the 
 weather is still so warm as to keep up vegetation, the beets 
 ought to be taken up without delay, though it be in July. 
 The secondary foliage is formed at the expense of the 
 sugar. If the beets are for forage this is bad ; if they are 
 for sugar, it is fatal. We however look upon this precocity 
 of the American beet as an advantage to the country, as it 
 will enable the manufacturer to begin his operations a month 
 earlier than they do in France, and of course to have seven 
 months for working up the green beet in lieu of six, the 
 most that they reckon upon there. Another advantage 
 will be that the American manufacturer will not be obliged 
 to lay up so large a proportion of his material in pits. This 
 will save him considerable expense, and augment the 
 amount of his product. To those who proceed upon the 
 plan of dessication, the advantage, though not to be de- 
 spised, will be somewhat less. 
 
 We have observed under another head that the beet 
 sugar manufacturer, should sow different fields, or different 
 parts of the same field at intervals of a week, from the latter 
 part of April to the first part of June, during a period of 
 
37 
 
 five or six weeks. If he has done so, his crop will come 
 forward in echelon, both for weeding and digging ; two, 
 three, five or ten acres, according to the size of his works, 
 will be ready for digging by the 1st or 5th of August, an 
 equal quantity by the 10th or 15th, and so on until the 
 season of vegetation is closed. All the stock, except that 
 for the daily supply of the works, should be left in the ground 
 as late as possible ; and not more than three or four days' 
 provision should be on hand at the factory, until the ap- 
 proach of the season for frost. If at that time there is any 
 portion of the crop which is not ripe, that ought to be 
 worked up first. The same remark applies to those beets 
 which, though ripe, are very large, hollow and aqueous. 
 These ought to be separated and worked among the first. 
 
 Beets will bear more or less cold according as they are 
 more or less rich. Ordinarily they will bear before they 
 are digged 22, or 10 below freezing point. After digging 
 they will bear 28, or 4 below freezing. If, unfortunately, 
 any beets should be frozen in the ground, it will be best to 
 let them alone for eight or ten days. The plant has a re- 
 cuperative power, by which its organization, deranged by 
 the shock, is gradually re-established. At Northampton in 
 1838, there was a severe frost about the last of October. 
 On the beets taken up the nex-t day, there was a loss of 
 20 per cent. On those which were permitted to stand ten 
 days longer there was no loss at all. They appeared per- 
 fectly sound. 
 
 Undoubtedly the digging ought to be done before the 
 days arrive in which severe frost is expected. From the 
 15th to the 25th October is late enough in Massachusetts. 
 Dry days are preferable for the operation, but it would be 
 imprudent to wait beyond the 20th October for them. 
 Notwithstanding their long experience in France, and the 
 comparative mildness and uniformity of their temperature, 
 heavy losses by frost are not infrequent. 
 
 If the land be light, and the beets grow out of the 
 ground, they may be readily pulled, and no implement will 
 be necessary to dislodge them. When this cannot be 
 done, a spade, fork or plough is employed. 
 4 
 
38 
 
 The fork has two stout tines, 1 foot long, and 3 or 4 
 inches apart. 
 
 The root digging plough has no mold board, but a tri- 
 angular bit of wood, resembling the point of the chip. It 
 enters deep, and lifts and loosens the earth under and around 
 the roots without displacing it.* The roots being loosened 
 by either of these means, a boy seizes them by the tops, 
 shakes, and lays them two and two, heads one way, tails 
 the other, and necks even. A workman with a keen spade 
 passes, and by a well directed blow, decapitates them pre- 
 cisely at the foot of the lower leaf-stalks. This is executed 
 with such address and despatch that he continues all the 
 time upon a moderate walk. One person can cut as fast as 
 several can lay. After this it used to be the practice to let 
 them lie two or three days in the sun, but this is now recog- 
 nised as an error. They are not to be exposed to the sun 
 any more than can possibly be avoided. Heat and light 
 dispose them to enter into decay much sooner than if they 
 are kept in coolness and obscurity. As soon as they are 
 topped, they should be gathered into small heaps, and well 
 covered with the leaves. In this situation they will dry. 
 
 KEEPING/ 
 
 On removal from the heaps, the beets will go to the fac- 
 tory, if they are wanted there, and if not to the pits. If 
 they are to be dried, they will be submitted to that process 
 before severe cold comes. They ought to be placed in 
 sheds to protect them from the sun, and covered with straw 
 to protect them from frost. Beets which are to be worked 
 green must be pitted, and even if they are to be used only 
 
 * In the agricultural machine shop of Mr. Dombasle, at Roville, six 
 leagues from JVanci, such ploughs of his invention are constructed. At 
 the manufactory of Thurn Sf Taxis, at Dobrawitz, near Yungbunzlau 
 in Bohemia, a very admirable instrument of this sort is sold for three or 
 four dollars. It not only serves for digging roots, hut also for hoeing, 
 Billing, lifting the subsoil and cleaning ditches. 
 
39 
 
 for feeeding, it is profitable to pit a part of them. If it be 
 well done, they will come out fresher and finer than from 
 any other situation. We leave cellars and store-houses out 
 of the question. They would be very expensive fora large 
 manufactory, and not so good as pits. When small manu- 
 facturers shall arise, good, capacious, dry and well aired cel- 
 lars may be of service to them. 
 
 The cheapest and best way of keeping a large quantity 
 of beets or other roots is in pits. These should be sunk 
 more or less deep, according as the spot chosen for the pur- 
 pose is more or less dry. We have never seen them less 
 than one nor more than three feet deep. In high and sandy 
 ground they might well enough be made somewhat deeper. 
 The width now generally adopted is only 2 to 3 feet, and 
 the length sufficient to contain three tons. The large heaps 
 which used to be formed, were found to be too liable to 
 heat and take hurt. Those were 4 to 6 feet wide, and of 
 indefinite length ; or they were conical, and 4 to 6 feet in 
 diameter at the base. Great attention is now paid to vent- 
 ilation, an indispensable requisite to the preservation of roots. 
 Various means are employed for obtaining at pleasure a re- 
 newal of air. We shall describe each, and leave the Amer- 
 ican manufacturer and farmer to select for himself. The 
 simplest is to sink in the bottom of the pit a gutter or cul- 
 vert through its whole length, of the depth and width of a 
 spade. By continuing it up the ends of the pit, it will have 
 orifices at the open air. Across this gutter beets are laid 
 with regularity, after which the pit is filled to the surface 
 promiscuously ; but there are those, who prefer to lay the 
 whole with regularity. In either case they should be stowed 
 with such gentleness as not to bruise or wound them. An 
 ingenious and experienced manufacturer at Arras assured us, 
 that a bruise or wound was as bad for a beet as for a winter 
 apple. Hence the old practice of striking them together or 
 against anything to rid them of dirt, is discarded. In fact, 
 it is now thought that beets keep best with their dirt on 
 them. A manufacturer near Arras, both a scientific and 
 practical man, declares that " the best preserved beets have 
 been those which were committed to the pts all covered 
 with mud." Above the surface of the ground, the heaps 
 
40 
 
 are continued by laying up the roots with regularity, so as 
 to taper off at 4 or 5 feet from said surface. The form re- 
 sembles that of the old fashioned gable roof, without its an- 
 gles. It is called in France the ass^s back. The heap is 
 now to be covered with earth in the manner that coal-pits 
 are covered ; but it is not to be completed at once. The 
 covering being carried up two thirds of the height, the work 
 is to be abandoned for a week or two, while the roots dry, 
 and the first heat of the heap passes off, care being taken 
 to keep the exposed beets covered with tops or straw. 
 After such an interval the covering may be completed. On 
 arriving at the summit, wooden air flues, or old joints of 
 stove pipe, 5 or 6 inches in diameter, or bundles of faggots 
 of that size, are to be placed endwise on the ridge of the 
 heap, every three feet of its length. This being done, the 
 dirt is heaped on between and around them to the usual 
 depth, which in France is 18 inches. Here, in the Northern 
 States, it ought to be 2 feet. The whole of this"covering 
 must be compactly laid and beat down with a shovel or 
 spade, so as to turn off the rain. When freezing weather 
 comes on, the culvert and air-flues are to be well stopped 
 with straw. On mild days they should be opened. By 
 introducing a thermometer into one of the air flues, (unless 
 fascines have been used) the manufacturer may at any time 
 perceive the temperature of his heaps. The most favorable 
 point for their perfect preservation is 52 of Farhenheit. 
 
 The pits should not be in the same place in successive 
 years. And in cellars for keeping sugar-beets, the sand on 
 the bottom should be changed every year. The best place 
 for the pits is in the field where the beets grew. This earth 
 is said to be more congenial to them, and to preserve them 
 better. In any other place it makes large mounds of earth, 
 and if there be a change every year, it would require a vast 
 surface. Care however should be taken to make the pits in 
 a situation where they can be conveniently reached in win- 
 ter by carts and sleds. The freezing of the beets in the 
 transition to the factory is not the slightest injury, provided 
 they are worked up before they thaw. On the contrary, 
 some think, and not without good reason, that they yield 
 their sugar more easily in consequence. 
 
41 
 
 If the ground be low and moist, it is advisable not to dig 
 at all for the heaps, but to form the gutter, and lay up the 
 heaps on the surface. Where there is the least danger of 
 an accumulation of wet about the bottoms of the heaps, it is 
 necessary to make trenches deeper than the heaps, running 
 parallel to them. This may be done without additional 
 labor in the mere act of covering the heaps. If these are 
 situated in ranges, one trench serves for two. The pits 
 should present their ends to the north, or to the cold blasts, 
 whencesoever they come ; and should be, as far as practi- 
 cable, in a sheltered situation. 
 
 Another mode is to form circular pits, and to lay up the 
 beets in the shape of a cone, putting a pole in the centre, 
 as in a stack of hay. After the heap is completed and 
 covered, the pole is withdrawn, and the hole it leaves serves 
 as an air flue. This fashion has nearly gone out. Instead 
 of the culvert, bundles of faggots are sometimes disposed 
 along the bottom of the pit, and others placed transversely 
 above the surface passing through the heap, and its cover- 
 ing. In this case holes are to be left at each end of the 
 heap, to be closed in cold weather, as also at the ends of 
 the fascines, placed transversely. 
 
 In Bohemia, in the year 1836, an improvement in keep- 
 ing beets was supposed to be made. This consisted in 
 placing a large tube made of boards on the surface of ihe 
 ground, the length of the proposed heap. This tube is 
 pierced with holes and traversed every two or three feet by 
 shorter ones, extending far enough to have their orifices 
 outside of the covering. At the place of intersection of 
 each of the horizontal tubes, perpendicular ones of smaller 
 diameter, (5 or 6 inches,) are raised, which reach out at 
 the summit, like the air flues before described. These pre- 
 sent the opportunity of introducing a thermometer. Of 
 course the orifices are to be all stopped in freezing weather. 
 With this apparatus for ventilation, they make their heaps 
 five feet wide, four feet high, and of indefinite length; but 
 it must be desirable in all cases to make heaps no larger 
 than the factory can work up in one day. 
 4* 
 
42 
 $ 12. 
 
 RAISING SEED. 
 
 Every cultivator of the sugar-beet, ought to raise his own 
 seed, otherwise he will be liable to get that which is old 
 and bad. 
 
 The seed beets must be selected at the time of digging. 
 The middling-sized roots, say two to three pounds in 
 weight, being solid, regular, cone-shaped, and small-necked, 
 are to be selected. The tops must be cut above the chit. 
 Beets with white leaf-stalks only are to be chosen, the red- 
 vein-leaved being considered degenerate. The seed beets 
 are to be dried in small heaps as before described, and then 
 removed to a dry and well aired cellar and buried in sand, 
 all except the head, which is to be left free. Their posi- 
 tion should be slightly oblique. They may be still better 
 preserved in pits two feet deep, covered at the top with 
 cat-sticks laid close, and earth thrown upon these. 
 
 As soon as the fear of frost will permit, these beets are to 
 be set, or transplanted. The soil must be rich, deep and 
 mellow, and the roots entered with a spade two to two and 
 a half feet apart. Some are of opinion that light land mod- 
 erately manured, is preferable, as producing better seed. 
 The situation should be sheltered from boisterous winds, and 
 the aspect sunny. When the stalks are fifteen inches high 
 they must be protected with stakes, and straws or strings. 
 Several stakes may become needful according to the size of 
 the plant. It must not be blown about and prostrated. 
 The ground is to be kept clean and loose. 
 
 About Septembar the seed is to be gathered. For this pur- 
 pose the main stalk, or only the branches may be cut with a 
 sickle or bill-hook, bound with straw in small bundles, and 
 suspended in a garret, which is well aired. When they are 
 perfectly dry, they are thrashed, like wheat or oats, and 
 cleaned with a winnowing machine. Then a sieve, which 
 will permit all the seeds to pass and retain nothing but bits 
 of straw and dirt, is to be used ; and after that another sieve, 
 which will pass all the little and imperfect seed, and retain 
 only those of a large and uniform size. This is the seed to be 
 preserved. Let it be spread on sheets in a dry, airy place, 
 
43 
 
 and after a while put up in casks and placed in a dry situa- 
 tion. Bags will do if they are kept out of the way of mice. 
 Each seed-beet will yield about seven ounces of seed. 
 If they are set two feet apart, there will be 10.890 plants 
 to an acre ; if at two and a half feet, there will be 6,969. 
 
 13. 
 
 PRODUCE AND EXPENSE OF THE CULTURE. 
 
 In the Department of the North, in France, the average 
 produce of an acre is 15 tons. 600 Ibs. This is the highest 
 in that country. In the two adjoining Departments (Aisne 
 and Pas de Calais,) it is 12 and 14. As we recede from old 
 Flanders, the head-quarters of the beet sugar industry and 
 of French husbandry, the rate declines to 10 tons per acre. 
 The general average is 13 tons. In Germany the general 
 average is 15 tons. 
 
 At Northampton the results have not varied essentially 
 from the above. The best fields have yielded 15 tons, but 
 they were not trimmed as closely as they usually are in 
 France ; if they had been, i. e. if the neck with all its 
 leaves, dry and green, had been removed, the gross weight 
 would have been reduced 10 to 20 per cent, and the mer- 
 chantable produce would have been 13 tens to the acre. 
 Beets with thick and unshaped necks, are more common in 
 our fields than in the French. This is owing to want of 
 depth and mellowness in the soil. Sugar-beets of a perfect 
 form, {. e. cone-shaped, with small, well defined necks, are 
 seldom found unless they grew entirely in the ground. When 
 the root rises above the surface, the neck becomes unnaturally 
 enlarged, and the superior part of the root, scragged, with 
 secondary necks and dwarf leaves ; so that it is sometimes 
 hard to say where the root ends and the neck begins. 
 
 Our beets, with slight exceptions, have not attained a de- 
 gree of saccharine richness equal to that of the French. 
 Instead of 10 to 10J per cent, of sugar, they have con- 
 tained but 7i to 9 per cent. We attribute this inferiority 
 to the inexperience of cultivators, and mainly to improper 
 
44 
 
 The probability is that, \vith equal culture, our 
 beets will surpass in saccharine richness those of France. 
 Enormous crops are frequently obtained in that country. 
 Thirty tons an acre are not uncommon, and 45 have been 
 produced. In England they considerably exceed this. 
 We have been informed by Mr. Kyan, the inventor of the 
 anti-dryrot process, and interested in an establishment for 
 the manufacture of paper, brandy, and vinegar from beets, 
 that there the average, crop is oO tons per acre, and the max- 
 imum 50, being, at 8 Ibs. to the bushel, no less than 1931 
 bushels ; and capable, if as rich as the beets of France, 
 of making 896U Ibs. of brown sugar. But it is by no 
 means to be supposed that they are thus rich ; still it is 
 not impossible. One root to every square foot, and of the 
 weight of 2J Ibs., would be 54 J tons to the acre. It 
 would be strange if a plant easily attaining the weight of 
 7 Ibs., and usually ranging between f Ib. and 5 Ibs., could 
 not by care and skill be brought, on an average, to J Ibs. 
 But the English ton is 20 cwt. of 112 Ibs. In that case 
 50 English tons would be 5J tons nearly, more than the 
 like number in Massachusetts.* 
 
 * Why an alteration of the cwt. should have heen made in our State, 
 before a general revHon of the system of weights and measures, known 
 to be in the contemplation of Congress, to whom that duty is assigned 
 by the Constitution, was made, is not apparent. 
 
 Every one knows that it is not so important what the standard and de- 
 nominations of weights and measures are, as that they be uniform and 
 established ; and this was the reason of delegating the power over this 
 subject to the general government. 
 
 Whatever may have been the design of this local interruption of the 
 harmony of the existing system, the effect of it, and the only important 
 effect, is to facilitate extortion. We are informed by various classes of 
 consumers that no reduction of price has taken place in conformity with 
 the reduction of quantity. We presume that many persons purchase 
 without being aware of the change, and pay for 2000 Ibs. of hay, coal, 
 fyc. what they suppose they are paying for 2240 Ibs.; and for 100 Ibs. of 
 sugar or other merchandize, what they intend and would only consent to 
 pay for 112 Ibs. A like injustice in all charges for freight and transport 
 tation is created by this law. 
 
 Those dealers, who had produce or merchandize on hand at the time of 
 its passage, and those who purchase at English weight, which we be- 
 lieve is also the weight of all the States except New York, have sold 
 and are selling at a profit of 12 per cent, on weight in addition to their 
 legitimate profit on the cost. 
 
 Whenever the ton is mentioned in this treatise, the present, ( may it 
 soon be past, ) ton of Massachusetts is meant. 
 
 
45 
 
 Some extravagant stories have been told in the public 
 journals of the yield of sugar-beets in this country. For 
 instance, a gentleman of Pennsylvania is represented to 
 have raised 62J tons on one acre. There have however 
 been acres of mangel-wurtzel in Massachusetts, which have 
 carried premiums for 33 to 43 tons. 
 
 The cost of raising sugar-beets in France varies from 10 
 to 20 francs, the 1000 Kilogrammes ; which is $ 1 ,72 to 
 $3,44 per ton. The prevailing price in that country is 
 $2,75 per ton. In the United States the little experi- 
 ence we have had in raising root crops, would make the ex- 
 pense of cultivating exceed that price. It may be pre- 
 sumed that this expense will be reduced, when we shall 
 have become thoroughly acquainted with the management 
 of the crop, and especially when we shall have become 
 familiar with the most improved implements for its cultiva- 
 tion. At present W 7 e know no account of the actual cost of 
 cultivating beets in the United States. We have seen a 
 number of estimates, based on more or less practice, and 
 the great agreement which we find among them, satisfies us 
 that the general result may be relied on. They are all 
 very near $40 an acre. The lowest is $35 and the high- 
 est $44. The following is from a farmer of Northampton, 
 who has had the advantage of several years' experience in 
 raising the sugar-beet.* 
 
 Rent and manure 
 
 Ploughing and harrowing 
 
 Carting manure 
 
 Seed and planting 
 
 First hoeing 
 
 Second do. and thinning 
 
 Third do. 
 
 . Digging and carting, or pitting 
 
 Total $42 00 
 
 It is probable that some of these items will apply nowhere 
 except to the low lands on Connecticut River. Estimates 
 
 '* Mr. Hiram Ferry. 
 
46 
 
 or accounts made in different localities, or by different per- 
 sons in the same locality, will never precisely agree. This 
 has been the case in France, where unusual pains have 
 been taken to perfect the statistics of beet sugar. 
 
 The above estimate brings the cost of raising beets at 13 
 tons an acre, to $3,23 a ton ; and at 15 tons an acre, to 
 $2,80. Suppose them to be sold at $4 a ton, ($5 is too 
 great to be long sustained,) the proceeds would be at 13 
 tons an acre, $52, and the net gain $11 an acre. At 15 
 tons an acre the proceeds would be $60, and the net 
 profit $19. We suppose that a crop, which will fully 
 pay the rent of land at 6 per cent on its value, the price of 
 manure, and the wages of labor, is considered an advan- 
 tageous one. We believe it to be rare for a crop in New 
 England to do more than this. Take, for example, our 
 principal one, Indian corn ; the account will stand thus, 
 Rent and manure $1500 
 Ploughing twice .... 3 00 
 (/anting manure * 2 00 
 
 Planting ...... 1 00 
 
 Hoeing 3 50 
 
 Cutting and stacking 3 00 
 Carting and husking 4 00 
 
 Total $31 50 
 
 The average produce is about 25 bushels an acre. The 
 stalks and husks are estimated at $5. We suppose the 
 stalks to be left on the corn, not cut or topped, a pernicious 
 custom, by which most of our farmers destroy 20 bushels 
 out of every 100 of their Indian corn.* Thus a fair crop 
 of this corn oives a return of $30, scarcely covering the 
 cost, and this without allowing anything for shelling We 
 are well aware that many farmers get more than 25 bushels 
 an acre. The Connecticut River meadows give SO bushels, 
 but this very fact proves that the general average must be 
 a good deal less. In the case of wheat, rye, barley and 
 
 * See the details of experiments on this subject by Hon. Wm. Clark, 
 Jr., of Northampton. 
 
47 
 
 oats, the account would be still more unfavorable. Either 
 of them, or Indian corn itself, is a more uncertain crop than 
 sugar-beets. 
 
 Thus far we have not seen in this country nor heard of, 
 an enemy to the beet except the cutworm; nor of this ex- 
 cept in one instance. This insect may be destroyed by 
 ploughing in the fall and exposing the eggs to the frosts of 
 winter, or, if this has been neglected, by pouring around 
 the plants a decoction of elder or walnut leaves. Lime 
 compost would probably be of service for the same purpose. 
 
 Broom corn is the most profitable crop, carried by the 
 Connecticut River meadows. The expense of produc- 
 tion will not vary a dollar from that of the sugar-beet. 
 The average quantity of brush to an acre is 600 Ibs., worth 
 at the price of the last season $48- The seed seldom 
 ripens. When it does, it is worth $15 ; when it does not, 
 it is worth nothing ; $5 is considered a fair average, which 
 added to $48, makes $53, giving a net profit in this bu- 
 siness of $11 per acre. But neither of these crops is an 
 enriching or a cleaning crop : the beet is both, extermina- 
 ting every noxious plant, and leaving green stuff on the 
 ground, which ploughed in is equal to a quarter or half ma- 
 nuring, i. e. to 5 or 10 loads of manure per acre, and the 
 expense of carting it. The addition which the beets, 
 worked up in a sugary, makes to the stock of manure, is a 
 subject which belongs to the SECOND PART of this treatise. 
 
 NOTE. Mr. Harrison O. Apthorp, of Northampton, one of the early 
 cultivators of the sugar-beet in this country, has informed us of the re- 
 markable growth of herdsgrass as a successor of sugar-beets on his 
 grounds. The crop was pronounced by the oldest farmers in Northamp- 
 ton village, superior to any of the kind they had ever seen in the 
 Meadows. 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE MANUFACTURE OF BEET 
 SUGAR. 
 
 THERE is such a variety of methods and machinery for 
 making heet sugar, and the art is still in such a state of pro- 
 gression, that it is hard to decide which of the several sys- 
 tems to choose, or whether it be not best to reject them 
 all, and await further developments. In this state of the 
 case we propose to describe every method and modification , 
 which is anywhere deemed important, adopting as the foun- 
 dation of our work, the common French system of grating 
 and pressing. Here at all events there is something solid. 
 Here at least is a boon to agriculture, which we are per- 
 suaded has no parallel in the history of that art, since the 
 invention of the plough. 
 
 CLEANING. 
 
 In the former part of this treatise, we have cautioned the 
 diggers not to smite the beets together, nor against any hard 
 substance. The consequence must be, especially if they 
 grow in a moist or clayey soil, or were taken up in wet 
 weather, that they will be more or less encumbered with 
 5 
 
50 
 
 dirt and mud. This is now considered a help to their pre- 
 servation, though it may be difficult to say how far the ef- 
 fect is owing to the presence of dirt, or to the absence of 
 bruises. We know that the latter are sufficient to make 
 the beet enter prematurely into decay, but experienced and 
 careful manufacturers are convinced that an envelope of its 
 native earth has a considerable agency in preserving the 
 beet in a sound state. We are inclined to this opinion, be- 
 cause it is agreed on all hands that the beet is best pre- 
 served, so long as the temperature of the weather will 
 admit, in the ground where it grew. It seems to follow 
 that a portion of the same earth carried with it, and par- 
 tially covering it, will contribute in a degree to the same 
 end. 
 
 That the dirt be removed when the roots are to be sub- 
 mitted to the grater, is not material, as respects the quan- 
 tity or quality of the sugar, but it is of much importance to 
 the safety and efficiency of the grater. Pebbles and sand 
 break and wear the instrument. Moreover, the pulp is in- 
 jured as feed by a great deal of dirt. The presence of it is 
 also disagreeable to the workmen in every stage until it is 
 arrested by the sacks at the press. Finally, this same dirt 
 being the richest of the field, and very minutely divided by 
 the process of removal, becomes valuable for the manure 
 heap. 
 
 The beet is often cleaned by simply scraping and sepa- 
 rating the small and fibrous roots with a knife. We have 
 known a number of manufacturers who contented them- 
 selves with this operation ; but a great majority submit their 
 beets either before or after trimming to a plentiful wash. 
 This is executed in two ways. 
 
 1. In a large tank or cistern, composed of planks and a 
 frame six to eight feet long, three feet wide and four feet 
 deep. Within a foot or a foot and a half of the top is a 
 false bottom formed like a fire grate, of bars or slats, or of 
 thick boards pierced with holes. The water flows into 
 the tank until it rises half a foot above the false bottom, 
 which, it will be perceived, is so high as to give ample 
 room for dirt to accumulate beneath. The beets are cast 
 
51 
 
 into the tank and rest upon the false bottom, raising the 
 water higher, and themselves rising to its surface. A 
 workman, standing upon a banquette, or a platform by the 
 side of the cistern, stirs and scrubs them with a birch broom. 
 When they are clean, he takes a shovel, resembling a com- 
 mon cider-shovel, pierced at the bottom of its concavity 
 with a number of large holes, and throws them from the 
 tank into a heap ready to be borne away to the grater. 
 This mode of washing is most complete, and one man, if 
 the beets be served to his hand, can perform it fast enough 
 to supply a pretty large establishment. The reader will 
 readily conceive that such a shovel as we have described, 
 will take up the beets and leave the water. The bringing 
 of the beets to the tank is occupation for a second man. 
 He should place them in baskets by the side of the washer, 
 not empty them into the tank, otherwise this will often be 
 too full, and fresh dirt be added, when a charge is cleaned 
 and about to be removed. The washer should take the 
 entire care of pouring in and shoveling out the beets. The 
 cistern must be placed at a slight inclination lengthwise, 
 and have a man-hole in the lower end, which must be 
 opened every day, and the mud hauled out with a scraper. 
 It flows off in a thick current to a field or dunghill. 
 
 2. The other and most usual way of washing is with a 
 machine moved by steam, or any first mover. To form an 
 idea of the washing machine, let it be supposed that a hol- 
 low cylinder is mounted upon the tank, and revolves in such 
 a manner that nearly half its diameter is plunged in the 
 water. In this case the tank has no false bottom. The 
 cylinder is formed by bolting to three or four wooden rims, 
 fixed upon spiders, long and thick staves two to three inches 
 wide and one and a fourth inches apart ; of course as the 
 cylinder turns, the water passes through the interstices of 
 the staves. One end of the cylinder is placed four inches 
 higher than the other. A hopper terminates against the 
 upper end, which is wholly open, except that it is crossed 
 by four arms of the spider supporting the rim at that end. 
 
 Into this hopper the beets are cast, and slide from it into 
 the cylinder, which constantly revolves. The beets, by the 
 
52 
 
 inclination of the cylinder, tend towards its lower end, and 
 undergo the action of the water, while traversing its entire 
 length. To increase the efficacy of this action, fumblers, 
 resembling enlarged teeth of geering, are firmly attached to 
 the interior sides of some of the staves. Sometimes also 
 iron pins, six inches long and three quarters of an inch in 
 diameter, are placed in a spiral row, eight inches apart, for 
 the same purpose. This appendage is called the snail, 
 and occupies four or five feet of the central length of the 
 cylinder. 
 
 By these means the beets are rubbed and shaken in the 
 water, in a manner analogous to the application of the hand 
 to the same purpose. 
 
 The beets discharge themselves at the lower end of the 
 cylinder by an opening, which is only one sixth of the area 
 of that end, the remainder being closed by a disk or head. 
 Upon this open sextant there terminates interiorly an Ar- 
 chimedes' screw, which takes up the beets in the cylinder 
 and casts them from it into a hopper, a basket or a heap. 
 If the grater be placed on the pavement, level with the 
 washing machine, the beets are deposited by the latter 
 near it. But if the grater be placed aloft, the reasons in 
 favor of which arrangement will be explained, the beets are 
 raised by an elevator or windlass up to the apartment or 
 platform of the grater. If the beets are neatly fand 
 closely decapitated in the field, and arrive at the wash- 
 ing machine free from decay, they may pass through the 
 process now described without any scraping or trimming in 
 the factory, which will be a great economy of labor. If 
 any of them arrive at the grater, unfit by reason either of 
 dirt or decay, to be submitted to it, they may be thrown 
 aside by the boys who serve the grater, to undergo the 
 needful dressing. 
 
 The most perfect washing machine which we have ex- 
 amined, was that of Mr. Roseau, at Feuchy, near Arras. It 
 consisted of two cylinders, mounted on their separate tanks, 
 one placed high, so that the beets when discharged from it, 
 were conducted by an inclined plane into the other, from 
 which they issued perfectly clean. This contrivance, ac- 
 
53 
 
 cording to the statement of the superintendent, saved the 
 labor of fifteen hands in scraping and trimming. In a great 
 establishment it is necessary to haul the mud from the tank 
 once in six hours. 
 
 * 2- 
 
 GRATING. 
 
 The grater, called in France a rasp, is a cylinder either 
 solid or hollow, and set as to its exterior surface with many 
 saws. This cylinder bears on a solid frame, either of wood 
 or iron, and revolves at least 400 times a minute. Some 
 manufacturers it is said, have given it a velocity of 1300 
 times a minute. It turns in part within a case or box, made 
 perfectly close, except a small section, where a hopper ter- 
 minates upon the periphery of the cylinder, and a hole in 
 one side near the floor, where the grated material, now 
 called pulp, is withdrawn. This is effected with a wooden 
 shovel, similar to that already described except that it is 
 without holes. The superior part of the cylinder is com- 
 pletely covered by a movable sheet iron or wooden cap. 
 At one side of the cylinder is a small hopper, divided into 
 two compartments by a longitudinal partition. In each 
 compartment and exactly filling its breadth, is an oblong 
 block, rolled at its exterior end, so as to be seized and pro- 
 pelled by the hand. The interior ends are concave, so as 
 to correspond with the surface of the cylinder. These in- 
 struments are called pushers. They act much in the man- 
 ner of clothiers' fullers, but in their descent towards the 
 cylinder they are arrested by shoulders, so that they can 
 never come quite in contact with the cylinder. 
 
 The essential part of the grater is the cylinder, of which 
 there is a variety of constructions, but the form and dimen- 
 sions are everywhere nearly the same. We shall content 
 ourselves with describing two, which operate perfectly well, 
 and which the proprietors themselves mainly constructed. 
 
 The first has two cast iron heads, fixed to an arbor or 
 5* 
 
54 
 
 axle, 1 foot apart inclusive of the rimg. To the rims are 
 confined by bolts, stout oak staves, 4 inches thick, 2J inches 
 wide and 1 foot long ; thus the staves complete a barrel 
 or drum. In these staves the saws are embedded length- 
 wise by cutting small channels with a handsaw. The saws 
 are of equal length with the staves, 1 inch in width, and 
 toothed on both edges. The teeth are in the form of equi- 
 lateral triangles, and the distance between the points is to 
 ^ of an inch. The fineness with which the grater divides 
 the material depends entirely upon the teeth, and the quan- 
 tity of juice expressed by a given power depends upon the 
 fineness of the grating. Mr. Dombasle suggests that it 
 might be advantageous to make the extremities of the teeth 
 square, as Achord, the first manufacturer of beet sugar, in 
 fact, did. This would scrape rather than tear the beet. It 
 would probably protract too much the operation. Of late, 
 they have reduced the dimensions of the teeth, and to com- 
 pensate for the comparative slowness with which these ex- 
 ecute the work, they have sought to give the cylinder that 
 enormous velocity which we have mentioned. The diam- 
 eter of the cylinder is usually 18 inches, but sometimes it is 
 22. The number of saws varies from 120 to 160, some 
 disposing them at f of an inch apart, others at -, and oth- 
 ers at J an inch. The saws being sunk till the bases of the 
 teeth coincide with the surface of the cylinder, the whole is 
 plunged in water until, by the dilatation of the wood, the 
 saws are firmly fixed in their homes. Each extremity of 
 the arbor carries a wooden pully. After the grater has been 
 used about one month the cylinder is turned end for end, 
 and thus the opposite side of the teeth presented to the 
 material. It will then serve for an equal time ; after which 
 the saws are inverted, and the fresh teeth of the other edge 
 employed in the same routine. To make this change, as 
 also to provide against accidents from pebbles concealed in 
 the forks of the beets, a second cylinder is to be kept always 
 in readiness to take the place of the first, while this is shrunk, 
 and* the saws taken out, filed or repaired, or new ones sub- 
 stituted. 
 
55 
 
 GRATER, 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 A. Cylinder. 
 
 B. Case. 
 
 C. Table, or trough, 
 
 D. Hopper. 
 
 E. Pushers. 
 
 1 foot to inch. 
 
56 
 
 The action of the grater is as follows. The cylinder is 
 put in motion by a band or by geering, though the latter is 
 not so much approved. A man seated at the upper end of 
 the hopper, which is but slightly inclined, puts the pushers 
 in alternate motion. Two boys, having a supply of beets 
 at hand, place one or more, according to their size, betwixt 
 the pusher ( as it recedes,) and the cylinder. The pusher 
 returning closes upon the charge, and drives it firmly against 
 the cylinder, which, revolving at the rate we have mention- 
 ed, reduces it instantaneously to a fine pulp. One grater 
 will reduce in this manner 30 tons of beets in 24 hours. 
 The pushers are often moved by a double crank, precisely 
 like that of a clothier's fullers, and thus the labor of one 
 man is saved. 
 
 The other grater is still more simple and economical. 
 The cylinder is solid and formed of a sufficient number of 
 disks, made of two-inch plank and bolted together, the 
 grain of each disk running at right angles to that of the con- 
 tiguous one. This cylinder must be turned. The saws 
 are embedded and confined, and the apparatus managed in 
 the manner already described. Other graters are more 
 complicated, more expensive, require more power, and more 
 repairs, and do their work no better. The last, which is an 
 excellent one, can be made by an ingenious farmer, except 
 that he must get it turned and the arbor inserted by a me- 
 chanic. The saws cost in France four or five cents apiece. 
 In cutting the channels, the handsaw must be carefully di- 
 rected towards the centre of the cylinder. 
 
 * 3. 
 
 PRESSING. 
 
 At the foot of the grater, and at the side, where the pulp 
 is taken out, is planted on the floor or pavement, a wood- 
 en table or trough, ( Fig. 4. C. ) lined with copper or 
 zinc. This is capable of retaining the liquid which falls 
 upon it. On this table a workman takes his station with the 
 
57 
 
 shovel, and another presents the open bags m rapid succes- 
 sion over the table. The first deposits a shovel full in each 
 bag ; the second passes each bag as soon as it is filled, to a 
 pivot-table, lays it upon an osier hurdle, and folds down the 
 mouth so as to secure the contents. A third workman, 
 armed with an instrument like a rolling pin, except that it 
 is flat instead of round, spreads and levels the contents of 
 the bag, and places a hurdle atop. Upon this he receives, 
 and treats in like manner a second bag, and so on until a 
 pile of 10 or 12 bags is formed. -The table is then turned 
 until the part supporting the pile is near the press, to the 
 follower of which it is immediately transferred. Meantime 
 another pile is formed on the vacant end of the table. 
 This is in like manner transferred to the press ; and when 
 30 to 40 sacks are accumulated upon the press, the power 
 is applied and the juice runs in torrents. 
 
 The press universally employed is the hydrostatic. It is 
 the most costly and the most economical . It operates with 
 unrivalled force and celerity. We shall not describe an in- 
 strument so generally known and so easily procured in this 
 country. It is usually worked by the general moving force 
 of the factory, but the levers are liable to be broken, and 
 it is prudent to have handles which can be substituted, and 
 a man assigned to the service of the purnp until the lever 
 can be repaired. 
 
 In a quarter of an hour the pression is complete. The 
 charge is withdrawn by the workman stationed at the press. 
 The hurdles and sacks are taken off one by one ; the former 
 are placed by the side of the workman at the table, and the 
 latter are tossed to one or two workmen whose occupation is 
 to shake out the dry pulp. The bags being emptied are 
 returned to the hand of the workman, who holds them to 
 receive the pulp at the grater. 
 
 Some manufacturers prefer towels to bags for pressing 
 pulp. They find them easier to empty and to clean, and 
 when they are sufficiently worn they can convert them into 
 bags for storing and marketing their sugar. These towels 
 are 5 feet long and 3 feet wide. In charging them it is 
 necessary to spread them upon an iron hoop in the form of 
 
58 
 
 a paralellogram, which measures the quantity proper for 
 each towel. This being leveled the flaps are folded down, 
 and the towel is then treated as a sack. 
 
 The name of pulp is given indiscriminately to the grated 
 material and the residuum after the pression, but the last is 
 properly called the dry pulp. It is just dry enough for feed- 
 ing cattle and sheep without the necessity of their going out 
 of the stalls to drink. In Europe neat cattle are tied by 
 ropes 4 or 5 feet long, attached to their horns and made fast 
 to staples. This arrangement gives them ample room to 
 stretch and repose themselves in the most comfortable 
 manner. They are furnished with plenty of clean straw for 
 their beds.* The value of the dry pulp in France as a 
 marketable commodity, is small, not exceeding $2 a ton, 
 but fed out on the spot it is worth $5. The reason of so 
 great a difference is that this feed must be used fresh, and 
 those who have one or a few animals to feed, find it trouble- 
 some and expensive to go often to a distant factory for it. 
 The dry pulp usually contains more saccharine matter in 
 proportion to its weight than the original material. 
 
 An ox comsumes 60 to 75 Ibs. of dry pulp per day ; a 
 sheep 4 to 5 Ibs. A factory working up 25,000 Ibs. of 
 beets per day, will feed 70 oxen, or 1000 sheep; or 50 
 oxen and 300 sheep ; or 30 oxen and 600 sheep. Wheat 
 straw is usually given with the pulp, and toward the close 
 of the fattening, oil-cake or meal is added. Three months 
 suffice for fattening a bullock, and two for a sheep. 
 
 It follows from the foregoing that a vast quantity of ma 
 nure is made on a beet-sugar farm. It is usually estimated 
 at four times the ordinary quantity. Its quality, it being that 
 of sheep, hogs, and horned cattle, is of course excellent. 
 
 * Linter or leanter\is a provincialism, but so descriptive that it deserves 
 to become general. It is evidently derived from litter, an original and 
 leading idea of a stall for cattle, which usually lie down. When our 
 farmers shall have recurred to this primitive notion of a cowhouse, their 
 farms, as well as their beasts will feel the change. Nearly all the 
 liquid manure of our stables is now lost. In the French provinces they 
 use litiere in the same sense as our plain people use linter or leanter. 
 The root of these words is lit, a bed. 
 
59 
 
 <$> 4. 
 
 DEFECATION, OR FIRST CLARIFICATION. 
 
 The table on which the piles are composed tor the press 
 has a rim 2 inches in height, and a hole through the centre 
 and through the pivot. By this the juice, escaping during 
 the formation of the piles, passes, and is conveyed by a 
 conduit to the great gutter, or main pipe, forming the com- 
 munication between the presses and the defecating pans. 
 The number and construction of these pans vary. Each 
 manufacturer, or a machinist and engineer for him, must 
 determine these according to the quantity of material to be 
 worked up, the capital to be invested in the works, and the 
 system of heating to be employed. In general the capaci- 
 ty of the defecating pan or pans ought to be 1 gallon for 
 every 50 Ibs. of beets, worked up daily, if the heating be 
 by furnace ; and 1 gallon to every 75 Ibs. if the heating 
 be by steam. 
 
 The defecating pans should be deep. Originally their 
 depth was made equal to their diameter ; but the ratio of 
 the depth to the diameter, generally preferred, is f . Thus 
 if the diameter be 4 feet we have this proportion, 
 
 8:5 : : 4:2J. 
 
 The capacity usually given to the defecating pans is 214 
 gallons, and the number of them 3. It is desirable, if the 
 material operated upon daily will justify it, to have 2 de- 
 fecating pans at least, but it is not expedient to reduce them 
 for this purpose to less than 30 gallons. Such a pan will 
 admit 25 gallons of juice ; the remainder, ^ of its capaci- 
 ty, is necessary for the rising of scum, and to prevent over- 
 flowing by ebullition. 
 
 The most approved defecating pan is composed of a 
 double hemispherical bottom of cast iron, and a copper 
 ring or zone attached to it, and forming f of the capacity 
 of the vessel. At the inferior point of the hemisphere is a 
 large discharging cock, penetrating both bottoms, and so 
 adjusted as to be capable of entirely emptying the pan. A 
 pipe inserted in the exterior bottom admits the steam into 
 the chamber of the double bottom, and others carry off the 
 
60 
 
 waste steam and water of condensation. These pans are 
 heated at a high pressure, and accidents have resulted from 
 neglect to open the waste cock. 
 
 Thus far we have spoken of defecating pans calculated 
 for steam only. But it is probable that many beet-sugar 
 manufacturers, perhaps a majority in this country, will com- 
 mence with furnaces on account of the great outlay, which 
 a steam aparatus requires. A cheap and excellent defeca- 
 ting pan for a furnace, is made of rolled copper ^ of an 
 inch in thickness, its form the frustum of a cone, the bot- 
 tom being perfectly flat. It is set in brick, and its capacity, 
 if desirable, may be a little increased by raising the upper 
 surface of the brickwork, called the bench or glacis, one or 
 two bricks above the edge of the pan. The whole bottom, 
 except a narrow border resting on the brickwork, is exposed 
 to the direct action of the fire ; and the heat is further 
 economised by leading two flues from the anterior part of 
 the furnace, entirely round the sides of the pan, and uniting 
 them in a chimney or common flue in the rear. This is a 
 cheap and durable pan. After ten or fifteen years of ser- 
 vice the material is still worth half its original cost. The 
 defecating pans are always placed at an elevation of 8 or 
 10 feet above the floor or pavement. If the heating be by 
 steam they may be advantageously placed in the second or 
 third story. 
 
 The manner of conducting the defecation is as follows. 
 The juice coming from the press or presses, is thrown into a 
 defecating pan with as little delay as possible. For this 
 purpose it "is very desirable that the grater and presses be 
 placed at such an elevation, that the juice will run from 
 them into the pans. It often happens that this disposition 
 is not convenient, and then the juice is conducted into a 
 cool reservoir under the floor or pavement. From this it is 
 pumped into the defecating pans. The juice sustains some 
 injury from the friction and delay, unavoidable in this transi- 
 tion. 
 
 The fire is to be lighted or the steam admitted, when the 
 pan is one third full. By this means the juice is sooner 
 brought to a degree of heat at which alteration by atmos- 
 
61 
 
 pberic influence is no longer to be apprehended, and also 
 the defecation is expedited. When the juice has reached 
 the temperature of 170 to 190, or such that the finger 
 can bear it for a second, lime is added in the following man- 
 ner. 
 
 A quantity of the purest unslacked lime that can be ob- 
 tained, is taken in the proportion of oz., or about three 
 hundred grains to every gallon of juice. If it exceed this, 
 it will not be amiss, as it is always best to prepare enough. 
 This is placed in an iron vessel, and hot water, equal in 
 weight to one quarter of the lime, is sprinkled upon it at 
 several times. This will slack it, and if it be freshly 
 burned and preserved in a caustic state, the division ef- 
 fected by the process will be very minute. It is useful 
 to cover it during the operation in order to retain the heat 
 and vapor. In ten or fifteen minutes the whole is thrown 
 into a pail, and water (in some manufactories juice,) is 
 added until a milk or pap, measuring 13 or 14 by the 
 hydrometer of Beaume, is formed. In measuring the den- 
 sity, the operator is liable to be misled, unless he shake the 
 mixture well in his proof-tube, the instant before plunging 
 the hydrometer. 
 
 It is useful to pass the solution through a cullender for 
 the purpose of separating any lumps or biscuits, which it 
 may contain. The common American lime is seldom prop- 
 er for the sugar factory. It contains a good deal of potash 
 resulting from the use of wood in the lime kilns. For the 
 manufacture of sugar lime ought to be burned with pit 
 coal and preserved in sealed jars. If none but common 
 building lime can be had, it ought to stand a day in the 
 state of milk, and the water be decanted three or four times. 
 In this case it is well to slack at once enough for several 
 days, keeping it always covered with water. 
 
 The important question is, how much of this mixture is 
 to be employed in the defecation? Upon this depends 
 more than upon any thing else, except good material, the 
 success of the beet sugar manufacturer. No greater mis- 
 chief, however, can be done, than to teach him to rely 
 upon his scales. The strength of lime varies, and the 
 
62 
 
 quality and state of the beet vary with the soil, season, 
 culture, preservation, &ic. Any one of these circumstan- 
 ces may be important in determining the quantity of lime. 
 Of forty-three beet sugar manufactories, whose methods we 
 have had an opportunity of observing, no two ever used 
 precisely the same quantity of lime. We found the ave- 
 rage quantity to be 250 troy grains to a gallon. Some- 
 times this would be too much ; at others not near enough. 
 Experienced manufacturers never weigh it but judge by 
 the eye, and in the same manner they determine the quan- 
 tity of water necessary to slack it. Two quarts of water to 
 every pound of lime will make the rnilk of a proper con- 
 sistency. 
 
 The only safe rule which can be laid down concerning 
 the quantity of lime to be used in the defecation, is not to 
 put in too much at first, always remembering that it is 
 easier to supply a deficiency, than to correct an excess. A 
 dose of 150 grains to a gallon will be safe any where, and 
 at all seasons ; and two or three hundred grains after the 
 beets have been two months in the pits. On pouring in 
 the milk of lime, the juice should be briskly stirred for a few 
 seconds. The additions, if any, are to be made without stir- 
 ring, the vessel used for the infusion being held as high as pos- 
 sible, so that its contents may penetrate and mix spontane- 
 ously with the whole mass. 
 
 To determine when sufficient lime has been added, the 
 following obs rfi i ations may be of service; but we would 
 impress it upon the reader, that nothing but experience will 
 ever enable him to work with tolerable certainty and with 
 satisfaction. 
 
 After the first infusion of the milk of lime, if it be insuffi- 
 cient, additions of small and decreasing quantities may be 
 made until the juice begins to be limpid, and a precipitate 
 of a flaky appearance and of a mouse color, is formed in a 
 silver table-spoon. The upper stratum of the liquid will be 
 transparent, and of a pale straw color. A more satisfactory 
 method of examining the effect of the lime, is to throw a 
 spoonful of juice upon a paper filter, placed in a clean wine 
 glass, If the defecation has been good, the juice which 
 
63 
 
 passes the filter and appears in the glass, will be clear and 
 of the color above-mentioned ; which is sometimes compared 
 to that of amber or of old sherry wine. 
 
 The ordinary criterion of the French manufacturers is 
 called the pellicle. After the infusion of the lime, and a 
 few moments allowed for it to take effect, a spoonful of 
 juice is taken out and immediately breathed upon. If a 
 thin and delicate skin, resembling ice in the first stage of its 
 formation upon the surface of water, appear in the spoon, it 
 is considered a proof that the dose of lime is sufficient. If 
 the skin be thick and gross, it is proof that the lime is in 
 excess; and if it do not form at all, that more lime is re- 
 quired. Small and prudent additions may be made until 
 the moment of ebullition. At the first sign of this, the 
 steam is commonly shut off, or the fire covered with fine 
 and moistened coal. It is desirable to avoid ebullition, be- 
 cause it renders the settling protracted and imperfect ; but 
 there is some advantage in maintaining the heat at boiling 
 point without ebullition some 15 or 20 minutes. This is 
 easily effected, if the heating be by steam, by closing a lit- 
 tle more the steam, or opening a little more the waste-cock. 
 If this management be continued during the space above- 
 mentioned, the clarification will be more complete, and the 
 settling not materially retarded. It is not possible thus to 
 humor the heat when the operation is by furnace. 
 
 Another sign of a good defecation is a slight emanation of 
 hartshorn, perceptible near the surface soon after the infu- 
 sion of lime. This is quickly gone, and is succeeded by 
 another sign more distinct. Large flakes appear swimming 
 and coursing just under the surface. If these grumulations 
 become gross, assuming the appearance of balls , rolling and 
 tumbling in the liquid, it is an indication that the lime is in 
 excess and must be neutralized. 
 
 All these phenomena, though they cannot be produced 
 without a sufficiency of lime, are consistent with an excess 
 of it ; and it becomes important to know what are the 
 signs of such excess. 
 
 1. A strong and disagreeable alkaline smell accompa- 
 nies the juice in the transvasement and filtration. 
 
 2. The color grows deep and is but slightly affected 
 
64 
 
 by animal charcoal. It approaches more and more that of 
 strong lye. 
 
 3. In boiling, scum forms in abundance, and without 
 cessation. Its color becomes a reddish brown, and the 
 taste that of an emulsion. 
 
 4. An acid and disagreeable odor arises on stirring. 
 
 5. The interior color is a blackish red. 
 
 6. The water comes off with such reluctance that 2, 3, 
 and even 8 or 10 hours are occupied in boiling, whereas 
 half or three quarters of an hour ought to be sufficient. 
 
 7. The crystalization fails altogether, or is feeble and 
 meagre, and the molasses quits the crystals with extreme 
 reluctance. 
 
 To those who would attempt to feel their way in this 
 business, we would observe, that they ought to operate on 
 quantities of juice not exceeding from 1 quart, to 1 gallon; 
 and to be provided with good chemicals. The greatest 
 impediment to success which we know of in this country, 
 is the paragraphs going the rounds, that beet sugar can be 
 made by simple evaporation, in the same manner that ma- 
 ple is, or thar a solution of sugar and water can be reduced 
 to a crystalized or concrete state. This notion is empiri- 
 cal, and can lead to nothing but disappointment. The 
 maple sap comes from the tree elaborated to a good degree 
 by nature ; but if instead of being distilled from the tree, the 
 entire trunk were grated and pressed, as is the beet root 
 and the sugar cane, the maple sugar makers would find it a 
 different affair. They would have the same sap, but with 
 it other elements gross and troublesome. The general and 
 strong delusion which exists on this point, may be owing in 
 part to national vanity, which many of our own citizens, 
 and all ambitious and rapacious foreigners, make a trade of 
 flattering. The grand chemical problem of manufacturing a 
 white refined sugar from the raw material, at a single ope- 
 ration, has hitherto balked the science and experience of 
 France and the colonies, aided by the most perfect machi- 
 nery ; and yet the American people seem to suppose that 
 " Yankee ingenuity," with a dinner pot and a pudding 
 stick, without any science at all, is going to do it, and pro- 
 duce white refined sugar for 6 cents a pound. We should 
 
65 
 
 heartily rejoice if this notion could be realized, but believ- 
 ing it to be imposture, we are desirous that the minds of 
 our countrymen should be disabused and prepared for start- 
 ing aright. 
 
 If the defecation have been good, the juice may be drawn 
 off in a few minutes after the heat is suppressed. But if 
 the solid matters contained in it, are brought by agitation 
 or other cause to an atomic and buoyant state, an hour or 
 more may be necessary for the settling. How this is going 
 On may be seen by inserting carefully a spoon or small ladle, 
 and examining whether, and at what depth, it brings up 
 sediment. Nothing will be gained by hurrying the drawing 
 off, unless the whole be cast into a reservoir, and abandoned 
 to itself until it is clear. 
 
 The juice is drawn off through a large cock at the bot- 
 tom, if it be a steam pan, and through a side cock, if it be 
 a furnace pan. Formerly it was thought best to draw off 
 the clear first, and for that purpose to place the cock just 
 above the surface of the usual deposit of sediment ; but 
 this varies with the quality of the beets and the skill of the 
 operator. Besides, another cock becomes necessary to take 
 off the deposit. This trouble and expense is avoided by 
 taking off the deposit first. It will all be discharged before 
 the clear begins to arrive at the orifice of the discharging 
 cock. 
 
 The reason of placing the defecating pans at a consider- 
 able elevation is, that the juice may run from them, and 
 arrive without pumping, or lading, in a reservoir, or in the 
 filters. A movable pipe is attached to the discharging 
 cock, and terminates in the reservoir or filters, and the clear 
 is quickly transferred to the one or the other. We prefer the 
 reservoir, because then, if any deposit is still formed, it may be 
 separated and go with the scum and sediment ; and likewise 
 because the admission of the juice into the filters can be 
 better regulated in taking it from a reservoir, than in the 
 hurry of emptying a defecating pan, , which may be de- 
 manded for a new charge of juice, exposed to injury by 
 every moment's delay. 
 
 The sediment, as fast as it is taken off, is thrown into 
 
66 
 
 bags of duck, or twilled cotton, one pailful in each. These 
 are deposited in a tub with the mouths twisted, or, what 
 is better, suspended on a wooden horse with a trough 
 underneath. This horse may save the labor of one man, 
 for it is so constructed as to suspend the empty bags, with 
 their mouths distended on all sides ; consequently they may 
 be filled by one man, otherwise two are constantly required. 
 The juice, which distils from them quite clear, being in a 
 considerable degree exhausted, the bags are taken down, 
 laid upon hurdles, the mouths secured by folding, and a 
 pile formed upon a small screw press, devoted to this ser- 
 vice. The scum which ought to be abundant, reaches the 
 bottom of the pan as the clear passes off. It is there stirred 
 with a spatule or a birch broom, and flows off like the sedi- 
 ment, and goes into bags and to the press last mentioned. 
 
 Many manufacturers ordinarily give their defecating pans 
 no other cleaning than the sweeping above-mentioned ; 
 others dash them at every defecation with two or three pails 
 of water ; but once a week all give them a thorough scour- 
 ing. The dirty water runs off to the manure heap. Of 
 course good drains are to be prepared under the floor or 
 pavement. If the pression is conducted with discretion, 
 the juice from the scum press is about as pure as any, and 
 the residuum, solid, nearly dry, and very valuable as a ma- 
 nure. It ought to be saved apart from the common dung- 
 hill, and used ultimately in powder, like animal black. 
 
 <$> 5. 
 
 FIRST FILTRATION. 
 
 Filtering boxes are usually conical or pyramidal, although 
 any box, tub or cask, which is tight and not less than two 
 feet in height, will answer. They are composed of pine 
 plank, lined with copper, of oak staves without lining, or 
 entirely of stout rolled copper. The prevailing form is the 
 frustum of a cone, the small end of which is made the bot- 
 tom, and the large end, or base, the top. The diameter of 
 
67 
 
 the top is 2 feet, of the bottom, 1^ feet, and the height 3 
 feet. If it be of oak staves, the material now generally 
 adopted, it is bound with five or six iron hoops, has a strong 
 handle upon each side a little above the middle, a brass 
 cock at the bottom, and a small copper tube inserted in the 
 faucet between the spigot and the box, and extending to 
 the top of the box. This permits the air to escape as the 
 liquid flows in, and it also serves as a blowpipe to expel 
 any obstruction lodged in the faucet. A copper strainer, 
 resting on a considerable number of supports 2 inches long, 
 soldered to the bottom, is fitted to fill a horizontal section 
 of the box 2 inches, (the length of the supports,) from 
 its bottom. This strainer is provided with a handle in the 
 centre on the upper side. It is planted firmly on its sup- 
 ports at the bottom of the box. Over it is spread a hair 
 and woolen, or coarse woolen cloth, whose diameter is two 
 or three inches greater than that of the strainer. Over this 
 again is spread a coarse linen towel, a little larger than the 
 former. Both are nicely smoothed, care being taken to lay 
 the handle flat before spreading the first cloth. These 
 towels should be wet and wrung before they are applied. 
 
 We suppose for the present that animal charcoal, or ani- 
 mal black is prepared, and brought to the hand of the man- 
 ufacturer of sugar. It arrives at the filtering boxes in a 
 moist state, so that if a handful be taken, compressed slightly 
 and dropped, few grains will adhere to the palm and fingers. 
 One workman presses the borders of the towel against the 
 walls of the filtering box ; another deposits with some care 
 a large scoop-shovel full of the black, which the first passes 
 and presses to the borders of the towels, so as to pin them 
 firmly to the walls. This being done around the circumfer- 
 ence of the cloths, more black is thrown in, but with care 
 not to disturb the arrangement just described. When the 
 layer is 4 or 5 inches thick, a rammer, resembling a churn- 
 dash without holes, is employed, after first leveling with 
 the hand, to consolidate it. Then another layer is deposited, 
 leveled and rammed, and so on till the animal black rises 
 to the height of 16 or 18 inches. A coarse linen towel, wet 
 and wrung, is spread over it, and another copper strainer 
 
63 
 
 without supports laid thereon, perfectly filling like the first, 
 a horizontal section of the box. The borders of the last 
 towel must rise about 2 inches above the strainer. This is 
 a point of importance, for without the precaution, impurities 
 will get among the grains of black, form a jacket around 
 them, and enfeeble or prevent the action of the filter. If the 
 borders are higher, they will fall upon the strainer, and be 
 rather worse than none at all. The purpose of the copper 
 strainer at the top, is to diffuse the liquid equally over the 
 surface, and make it penetrate all parts of the filter alike. 
 
 The filter being thus prepared, the juice is permitted to 
 flow into it in a steady current, until it rises an inch or two 
 above the strainer. Then the discharging cock of the filter 
 is opened so far as to emit a stream as large as a pipe-stem. 
 The cock of the reservoir of defecated juice is at the same 
 time so far shut, as just to maintain the height of the liquor 
 in the filter. If, as frequently happens, the juice which first 
 issues from the filter be a little turbid, it is to be repassed 
 until it comes clear. 
 
 The filters for the defecated juice should be placed at 
 such an elevation that it will run from them by a tin or cop- 
 per gutter, or a wooden one lined with zinc, into a reservoir 
 at the evaporating, commonly called the concentrating pans. 
 It may however be permitted to run directly into those pans. 
 This is usual if the concentration be by furnace. 
 
 The principal object of the filtrations is the decoloration 
 of juices and syrups, but it effects other purposes scarcely 
 less important. It takes up lime, acid and gummous matter. 
 Before the use of animal black was discovered, it was con- 
 sidered impossible to boil the beet syrup over a furnace, by 
 reason of its viscous nature, which rendered it liable to be 
 burned. At first the animal black was used in the form of 
 an impalpable powder, and thrown into the concentrating 
 pans, or used as an agent in the defecation. This mode 
 was objectionable, because the same black could be used only 
 once or twice, and was then thrown away. The substitu- 
 tion of grains in filters for powder in the pans, was an impor- 
 tant step. It heightened the effect, as more could be used ; 
 it was more convenient and economical. In the granulated 
 
69 
 
 state the black can be revivified, so that the same may be 
 used indefinitely. We have seen large quantities in differ- 
 ent factories which had been in use 10 or 12 years. 
 
 An improvement, recently made in the use of these filters, 
 consists in filtering from bottom to top. In this way the 
 deposition of scum among the grains, and the necessity of 
 the great difference of levels, in order to have one operation 
 give aliment to another, are avoided. 
 
 ,6. 
 
 EVAPORATION OR CONCENTRATION. 
 
 After defecation the juice which previously marked 6 
 to 8 by the saccharometer, retains a density of only 3 or 
 4. This is owing to the separation of the solid matters 
 which have formed the sediment. 
 
 The concentrating pans, into which the juice is now to be 
 admitted, are heated by steam or furnaces. In either case 
 they are made with a perfectly flat bottom, and of compar- 
 atively little depth. For furnaces they are usually 16 inches 
 in depth, and 4 feet in diameter if round, and 5 or 6 feet by 
 2J or 3 feet, if oblong. 
 
 The furnaces require a particular construction. The fire 
 is to come in contact with the bottom only, and with the 
 whole of this, except a narrow border at the circumference, 
 which rests on an iron curb, fixed upon the brick- work, 
 and supporting the pan and its charge. The cavity beneath 
 is sometimes single, so that the flames after expanding, es- 
 cape immediately by a chimney or a flue, where of course 
 they continue some distance, and thus a considerable portion 
 of heat is lost. A better disposition of the furnace is to build 
 with brick, or with an earth which will retain its form and 
 become indurated by fire, a circular or elliptical ridge, rising 
 so high that the bottom of the pan will rest, and when 
 charged, press upon it. This ridge will form anj interior 
 furnace. The sides of this interior, and those of the prin- 
 cipal furnace, have an interval of J to f of a foot betwixt 
 
70 
 
 them ; the height of which will be coincident with that of 
 the furnace. The segment of the circle or ellipse, forming 
 the interior furnace, is of course open opposite to the mouth 
 of the principal furnace, and this arrangement leaves an ori- 
 fice on each side of the throat, by which the flames, after 
 exploring the interior furnace and finding no issue, escape. 
 Then, traversing the intervals on each side, in other words, 
 the entire circumference of the pan, they unite, if not ex- 
 hausted, in a chimney or flue in the rear. This is a power- 
 ful and economical furnace. 
 
 A few manufacturers have several ordinary chimneys con- 
 tiguous to their furnaces, but almost all have a single chim- 
 ney 60 to 80 feet in height, in which any number of flues 
 may unite. This chimney is placed outside of the building, 
 and several feet from it, and is usually round, as the square 
 are liable to be blown down. This chimney gives the best 
 draught, and obviates the inconvenience of smoke and some 
 of the dangers of fire. 
 
 Of the models of concentrating furnace pans, the switel- 
 pan is deemed the best. It has a beak or snout in front. 
 Underneath the beak, the bottom is attached by two hinges 
 to a round bar crossing the mouth of the furnace, and fixed. 
 In the rear it has a couple of iron rods, hooked to the edge 
 at two points equidistant from the point opposite the beak. 
 The upper ends of the rods are attached to a single rod, and 
 the latter to the end of a lever, suspended by a chain or rod, 
 attached to a beam or joist above. The other end of the 
 lever is armed with a rope or stirrup, near the station of the 
 workman. A slight force applied to this raises the back 
 part of the pan, while the front turns upon the hinges ; thus 
 the contents are suddenly and completely discharged. The 
 advantage of this pan is that it can be emptied without 
 extinguishing the fire, and without burning the juice or syrup. 
 If the fire be continued under an immovable pan, it will be 
 readily conceived that the thin layer of liquor remaining, 
 when the discharge is nearly complete, must be burned, to 
 the great injury both of the product and of the pan. Not more 
 than 4 or 5 inches of liquor is usually put into a concentra- 
 ting pan at once. 
 
71 
 
 The most approved steam pan for concentration, is in the 
 form of a rectangle, 12 feet in length, and 2J to 3 feet in 
 width. Its depth is only 8 inches. The steam circulates 
 in a series often parallel pipes, 1J inches in diameter, rest- 
 ing on the bottom of the pan. The pan, except the pipes, 
 is wood lined with copper. This part is separate from the 
 pipes, and can be depressed to the floor or pavement, or ele- 
 vated to a contact with the pipes at pleasure. This con- 
 struction renders it easy to clean both. The end which 
 receives the juice, is a little more raised, and the discharging 
 end a little narrower than the remaining parts. A thin layer 
 of juice, sufficient merely to cover the pipes well, is admit- 
 ted into this pan through a tin triangular prism, open on the 
 upper side, and pierced at the opposite angle with a great 
 number of small holes. This appendage distributes the 
 liquor uniformly on the bottom of the pan. It traverses the 
 width of the upper or receiving end. 
 
 The steam being admitted into the pipes, ebullition takes 
 place almost instantaneously. If the liquor threaten to over- 
 pass the sides, a mite of butter is laid upon the skimmer, 
 and this being carried along the surface, the swell immedi- 
 ately subsides. Not more than 60 or 70 grains of butter 
 should be used at a time, and this very sweet. Instead of 
 butter any fatty substance, or milk may be used. We 
 have been told that the maple sugar boilers make use of a 
 thick rind of pork, tied to the end of a stick, which being 
 plunged in the liquid, causes it to subside. The same rind 
 will serve for many boilings. When the juice is so concen- 
 trated as to mark 1 5 by the saccharometer, the discharging 
 cock is opened and one or two receiving cocks, and hence- 
 forth the defecated juice is permitted to flow in constantly, 
 and the concentrated juice, at 15, now called syrup, to 
 flow out, being brought to that density in its passage from 
 end to end of the pan. This is called continued evaporation. 
 Two such pans do the work of a dozen furnace pans. 
 
 There are other models of steam pans for concentration, 
 but it would be tedious and not useful to describe them. 
 Whatever pan is used, or however heated, the ebullition 
 should be kept down until the scum is formed. When this 
 
72 
 
 has been removed with the skimmer the evaporation may 
 be pushed. 
 
 Upon the first heating of the juice in the concentrating 
 pans, it is to be examined as to its chemical state. For 
 this purpose slips of paper stained with litmus, are dipped 
 in vinegar or any weak acid. The slips from a blue or vio- 
 let immediately become red, and the red and blue slips 
 together, constitute the chemical test by which the juice is 
 to be examined. If a red slip on being immersed in the 
 liquor, become blue, it shows a predominance of lime. If the 
 red remain unchanged, and the blue becomes red, it shows 
 a predominance of acid. The acid is always to be satu- 
 rated by slight and prudent additions of lime-water, or of 
 thin milk of lime ; but not so the alkali. A little excess of 
 this is deemed advantageous. If it blue the reddened pa- 
 per pretty distinctly but not deeply, the juice is sufficient- 
 ly neutral, and may be concentrated without change. If, 
 however, the blue be deep and strong, sulphuric acid, di- 
 luted with 8 or 10 times its volume of water, or phosphoric 
 acid, must be added until the trace of lime appears, as we 
 have already described, manifest, but not deep. The use 
 of the blue and red papers will be aided by a third paper, 
 stained with the extract of curcuma root. If this paper on 
 being immersed becomes brown, but is nearly restored to 
 its yellow color by drying, the liquor is right. If, on the 
 contrary, it retains a uniform brown, the proportion oF lime 
 has been too great. 
 
 "Whatever scum may rise during the concentration, is to 
 be taken off, and the juice cleaned as much as possible. 
 All the scums are thrown into a vessel to go into the next 
 defecation. 
 
 From the concentrating pans the syrup runs into a reser- 
 voir over the second range of filters, or into a reservoir un- 
 der ground. 
 
 The concentrating pans are to be washed every day, and 
 once a week thoroughly scoured. In the last operation a 
 small quantity of sulphuric acid is employed, as the pipes 
 and bottom are apt to become coated with carbonate of 
 lime. 
 
73 
 
 * 7- 
 
 SECOND FILTRATION. 
 
 The filter or filters used, and the manner of using them 
 in this manipulation, are precisely such as we have already 
 described. The only difference is the syrupy state at which 
 the juice has now arrived, having been reduced to about | of 
 its original volume. From the second range of filters the 
 syrup passes to a reservoir, placed, if possible, above the 
 pan or pans for the second concentration. 
 
 * 8. 
 
 SECOND CONCENTRATION. 
 
 A single pan, though heated by furnace, commonly suf- 
 fices for this. The pans already described are proper to be 
 used at this stage. The syrup is brought rapidly to 25 
 by saccharorneter. The heat is then suppressed, and the 
 syrup passed to a reservoir placed above the third range of 
 filters. We again remark that it is desirable that this trans- 
 fer take place by current, and not by decantation. 
 
 9. 
 
 THIRD FILTRATION. 
 
 This is conducted in all rspects like the preceding ones. 
 From it the syrup runs into a reservoir commonly under 
 ground ; but the most experienced manufacturers consider it 
 desirable to have even this last reservoir so situated as of 
 itself to feed the boiler. 
 
 The pan for boiling is smaller than those for concentra- 
 tion and almost always round. The swivel pan is the best 
 
74 
 
 for a furnace. For steam a coil of copper pipe reposes up- 
 on the bottom, occupying the whole of it except small in- 
 terstices betwixt the concentric circles. Next to the defe- 
 cation, the boiling is the most difficult process. It is a se- 
 vere touchstone of all the preceding operations. If these 
 have all been right, the syrap now appears light and dry, 
 when boiling, is of a fine golden color, and gives out its 
 water readily and without much rising. If on the other 
 hand there is a considerable excess or deficiency of lime, or 
 if the operations have been slow, or any part of the appa- 
 ratus deficient in cleanliness, the syrup will now be heavy, 
 viscous, abounding in scum and rising often and fiercely to 
 the top of the boiler. 
 
 To the experienced manufacturer the aspect of the syrup 
 in the pan will indicate the approach of the degree of den- 
 sity at which it will granulate, or become sugar. Then he 
 takes the proof. To this end the skimmer is plunged in 
 the syrup, withdrawn and slightly shaken. The thumb is 
 then applied to it and passed along an inch or two of its 
 surface, and the forefinger closed upon the drop, which ad- 
 heres to the thumb. The thumb and finger are then sepa- 
 rated briskly, and if the boiling is sufficient a fine thread 
 several inches in length will be drawn out, and on giving 
 the thumb a quick horizontal motion towards the palm, the 
 thread will break at the thumb, and contracting gently 
 towards the finger, will assume the appearance of a cork- 
 screw, and nearly cease to retreat at about i of an inch 
 from the finger. Upon these appearances the heat is sup- 
 pressed, and the syrup transported to the cooler. 
 
 A second mode of proof is by the bubbles. The skim- 
 mer is plunged in the syrup, withdrawn and shaken. The 
 master of the boiling then blows smartly on one side. If a 
 a number of delicate white bubbles issue from the opposite 
 side, and fall in a shower, the boiling is sufficient. If none 
 or very few are formed, it must be continued. Instead of 
 blowing, a similar effect may be produced by flirting the 
 skimmer, the concave side foremost in the air. 
 
 The saccharometer will also indicate, though with less 
 certainty, the point of granulation. For rich and pure 
 
75 
 
 syrups 40 of this Instrument are sufficient, and from that to 
 44 for inferior. 
 
 The thermometer may be employed in the same service. 
 The density of boiling liquids is always in direct proportion 
 to their heat. The bulb of the thermometer being im- 
 mersed in the syrup, the mercury will continue to rise as the 
 density increases. When it has been ascertained by expe- 
 riments to what point the mercury rises in syrup brought to 
 the precise point for a good granulation, a mark on the 
 scale will fix that point, and the instrument may be safely 
 used for subsequent boilings of like syrup. The point will 
 vary with the nature and quality of the material, and the 
 celerity and skill of the operations. It follows that the 
 came mark will not ansv/er, unless there is considerable uni- 
 formity in these particulars. 
 
 Neither of these instruments are much employed in boil- 
 ing the beet syrups, which generally contain more or less of 
 Other soluble matters besides sugar. These influence equal- 
 ly with sugar, the indications of the instruments. They 
 serve better for refiners who operate upon syrups, which are 
 more nearly pure solutions of sugar and water. They may 
 aid beginners. There is no harm in trying all the modes of 
 proof upon one and the same boiling. The proof by the 
 thread, or bubbles, or both together, is that on which manu- 
 facturers ultimately and generally rely. 
 
 FILLING. 
 
 The cooler is a copper cylindrical basin, larger and deep- 
 er than the concentrating pans, or the boiler. It is raised 
 above the floor or pavement in order that the air may cir- 
 culate around it. This is effected by placing a stout wreath 
 of straw beneath it, or, still better, by suspending it by 
 gudgeons fixed firmly to the sides, on two posts. This is 
 an excellent arrangement, because it admits of tipping the 
 
76 
 
 vessel after it has been exhausted by the ladle. This is 
 done by means of a handle on the backside. A beak in 
 front facilitates the operation. 
 
 It is usual to charge the cooler with several successive 
 boilings. By this means, if one boiling has been too close 
 and another not sufficiently so, the mass, when mixed, ac- 
 quires a medium density, and all errors are rectified. It 
 must be stirred from time to time with a spatule or ladle. 
 
 At night, or sooner if necessary, the filling takes place. 
 In any event the temperature of the cooler should not be 
 suffered to fall below 145 to 165. The moulds, called 
 bastards, have generally more or less grains attached to 
 their sides from previous use. They are stopped at their 
 points by screwing in cotton or linen rags. They are 
 then established on their points in an upright position against 
 the wall. Other moulds or pots are placed in close contact 
 to secure them in position. One workman, holding a basin 
 with a long beak, places himself by the side of the coolor. 
 Another with a ladle, having a long handle, and resembling 
 a warming-pan without the lid, stirs the syrup by plunging 
 the implement in it, and sweeping it twice or thrice around 
 the vessel. He then lades into the basin, which being filled, 
 is as much as the workman charged with it can con- 
 veniently carry. He removes it to the range of moulds, 
 and casts it, in about equal quantities, into five or six. These 
 operations are repeated until all the moulds are filled. 
 After a little practice, the number of these requisite for a 
 charge of syrup, is readily determined by its height in the 
 cooler. The entire filling is not effected without going the 
 rounds of all the moulds several times. The reason of this 
 is that the grain which has begun to form in the cooler, 
 settles to the bottom, and is more abundant towards the 
 last of the filling than it was at first. It is an object to 
 divide it as equally as may be, among all the moulds. 
 
 The filling being completed the moulds are abandoned 
 for a time to themselves in the filling room, which is always 
 kept at a temperature of 70 to 75. In a few hours 
 grains are formed about the walls of the moulds. They are 
 
77 
 
 then to he stirred or hauled. A bit of lath, longer than the 
 moulds, and with ends and edges square except the comers of 
 the lower end and the sides, where it is grasped by the hand, 
 is thrust down the walls, scraping off the grains. This be- 
 ing done around the entire circumference, a rotary motion 
 of the instrument gathers the grain into a nucleus about the 
 axis of the cone. In 10 or 12 hours the granulation is 
 complete, the sugar is hard with a slight depression or 
 slump in the centre, which is a sign that the just point 
 was attained in the boiling. If this do not appear, it is a 
 proof that the boiling was too close. If the mass remain in 
 the state of fluid or pap, it is proof that the boiling was in- 
 sufficient, or that the syrup contains matters, or has under- 
 gone a change which prevents crystalization. 
 
 Instead of earthern moulds, wooden ones, costing no 
 more, containing much more and lasting much longer, are 
 sometimes used. They must, however, be first baked, and 
 the hoops driven, otherwise the syrup will escape, and ac- 
 cording to Mr. Dombasle, derange and defeat the process 
 of crystalization, so that it becomes necessary to melt the 
 mass and reboil it. Mr. Payea has proposed wooden 
 moulds, or rather crystalizers, in the form of a hopper, capa- 
 ble of containing 3 or 400 pounds, lined with copper or 
 lead, and resting on three supports in such a manner that 
 they can be tipped, pivoting on the centre support. In 
 this way the drainage may be completed. 
 
 12. 
 
 THE CURING ROOM. 
 
 The granulation being complete, the moulds are carried 
 between two batoons connected by a rope, to the curing 
 room. They are there placed on pots, or, what is better, 
 on low wooden horses, covered with a flooring, in which 
 circular holes are cut at proper distances to receive the 
 points of the moulds. These distances, including the semi- 
 *7 
 
78 
 
 diameters of the holes, should be equal to the diameter of 
 the top of the moulds. The moulds are unstopped and 
 placed firmly in the holes. A gutter under each row re- 
 ceives the molasses and conveys it to a large common pipe 
 or gutter, which again conveys it to a reservoir in a cool 
 apartment below. The heat of the curing room is main- 
 tained at 80 to 90. In 10 or 12 days, this heat being 
 constant, the moulds are removed to an apartment above, 
 called the hot-house, (etuve,) where the drainage is com- 
 pleted in a few days, and the sugar taken out. When ta- 
 ken out, it is beat upon a platform, so as to break the lumps, 
 and then spread in a large bin where each successive layer 
 dries. A large mass being accumulated, it is put up in 
 bags or casks for the market, and removed to the store-room. 
 "Sparrels, scrapers and small cone-shaped spades are ordina- 
 rily used to take out the sugar. A machine has been in- 
 vented in France by Mr. Clemandot, a manufacturer at 
 Beaumetz, near Arras, which executes this work with great 
 ease and economy. 
 
 his upon the principle of the auger. By adjusting the 
 borer to the shape of the moulds, the sugar is taken out 
 yery clean, and in a crushed state. 
 
 13. 
 
 REBOILINXJ OF MOLASSES. 
 
 All the manufacturers of beet sugar reboil their molasses 
 once, and many of them twice. Preparatory to this, it is 
 diluted either with water, or, what is better, with fresh 
 juice, until it marks 25 by the saccharometer. It is then 
 Jheated to 170, and 4 or 5 per cent of powdered animal 
 charcoal added, and well stirred in. When the heat has 
 -reached 190, 3 or 4 per cent of skimmed milk is poured 
 in and thoroughly mixed. The heat arrives gradually at the 
 'boiling point, and may be advantageously entertained there, 
 but without boiling, for some little time. When the liquor, 
 
79 
 
 -examined in a spoon, appears quite clear, the heat is sup- 
 pressed, and in a few minutes the clear liquor drawn off. 
 The scum remains at the bottom of the pan. A little water 
 is poured upon it, the whole well stirred, and thrown upon a 
 filter where it is suffered to drain, and pass with the rest. 
 The whole being filtered, is boiled in the manner heretofore 
 described., except that it is brought to a higher degree of 
 density. The sugar formed from this syrup is scarcely in- 
 ferior to that of the first crystalization ; and the molasses, 
 which drains from it, may be treated in its turn in the same 
 way, and another deposit of inferior sugar be obtained. 
 
 <> 14. 
 
 HEVIVIFICATION OP ANIMAL CHARCOAL. 
 
 The decoloring power of the filters diminishes at every 
 .filtration until it ceases altogether. This will take place 
 after they have been filled 6 or 8 times. The filters 
 used for syrup at 25, are removed after two nitrations 
 to the range for syrup at 15, and thence after two 
 filtrations, to the range for defecated juice. In this way the 
 syrup adhering to the charcoal is washed off and saved. 
 After being filled twice or more with defecated juice, the 
 filters are passed to the wash-tub and emptied. 
 
 The animal charcoal, called also animal carbon, animal 
 black, ivory black and bone black, arrives at the wash-tub, 
 charged with various matters, of which it has deprived the 
 syrup and juice, which have been in contact with it. The 
 separation of these matters, and the restoration of the char- 
 coal to its original purity and power, is what is meant by 
 revivification. The first step is to wash it ; many do this 
 with pure water, but it is clone more effectually with acidu- 
 lated water. In France muriatic .acid is employed, 1 gill 
 being diluted with a pailful of water. This is thrown upon 
 Si bushels of black and the whole well stirred. Water is 
 added until the mass is saturated, and then it is stirred a 
 
80 
 
 good quarter of an hour. Hot water is preferable for this 
 purpose. Some have a separate boiler, near the kiln, ex- 
 pressly for this purpose. If steam is. used, the waste water 
 will answer. The acidulated water having taken effect, is 
 decanted, or runs off by a cock into the drain, and the 
 charcoal is then rinsed until the water comes off perfectly 
 clear. The black is then dried, usually upon a sheet-iron 
 table, under which a flue passes. A more economical 
 method is to spread it upon the top of the kiln for the recal- 
 cination, as the drying is then effected without additional 
 fuel. Being dry, it is put into iron crucibles containing 3 
 gal'ons. These are usually of cast-iron, in the form of a 
 dinner pot without the legs, and so adapted that the bottom 
 of one closes the mouth of another. Four or five tiers of 
 these crucibles are piled in a capacious kiln. Those form- 
 ing the last tier are covered with lids. The crucible may 
 be made of stout sheet-iron, 15 inches high and 10 inches in 
 diameter. These will last a good while, and are in some 
 respects preferable to cast-iron. The latter, however, are 
 in general use. 
 
 The kiln, or oven, is of a capacity to contain some 60 or 
 70 crucibles. It is constructed with a powerful furnace 
 under its whole area. The top of the furnace, which is in 
 fact the bottom of the kiln, consists of a series of arches in 
 the form of a grate or gridiron, the bars being of brick 8 or 
 9 inches wide, and the intervals betwixt them 3 or 4 inches. 
 These arches have a wide spring, so that a level floor may 
 be obtained in the interior without essentially varying its 
 thickness. The crucibles are placed upon the arches or 
 bars in such a manner that the fire, rising through their in- 
 tervals, readily pervades the pile. 
 
 The transportation of the crucibles to their destined 
 place, and their arrangement there, require an easy ingress 
 and egress of the kiln. For this purpose a man-hole, which 
 can be entered with a little stooping, is left in one side. 
 After the charge is in, this is closed either by laying up 
 bricks with clay mortar, or by a stout iron door, shutting 
 very closely, and barred outside in the manner of shop win- 
 
81 
 
 dows ; the bars are iron, and so fashioned with their sta- 
 ples and hooks, as to press with considerable force upon 
 the door. The fire being lighted, the pile of crucibles is 
 soon brought to a red heat, at which it is maintained during 
 4 hours. A small round hole through the wall of the kiln, 
 closed by a sheet-iron tompion, enables the workman to 
 examine from time to time the state of the interior. The 
 recalcination being accomplished, the fire is extinguished 
 or suffered to expire, and the door opened. When the 
 heat has subsided so that a workman can enter without in- 
 convenience, the crucibles are taken out and emptied into 
 a bin, or a heap, where the article remains ready for use. 
 
 There are other modes of recalcining animal black. One 
 is to expose it to a red heat on a sheet-iron table with 
 raised borders. In this situation it is constantly stirred with 
 a rake. As fast as it becomes entirely red it is poked into 
 a tub of water, from which it is passed to the bin. 
 
 A third and very excellent method is by the kiln of col- 
 umns. This is a large, square, brick structure, 7 feet high. 
 3i feet in front, and 4 feet from front to rear. 
 
 Within, and directly over the furnace, are placed in a 
 vertical position, 4 hollow columns of cast iron, 4i feet long, 
 and 6 to 8 inches in diameter. The walls of the columns 
 are 1 inch thick. They rest upon iron plates, pierced with 
 holes of the same diameter as the hollow of the cclumns, 
 one plate to two columns. The columns are cut on the 
 outsides, right and left, so as to permit four registers to slide 
 upon the plates, and to open and shut the cavities of the 
 columns at pleasure. Beneath each hole in the plates, is 
 set in the solid masonry, a sheet-iron hopper, debouching 
 externally on the right and left, and shut at the lower ex- 
 tremity with sheet-iron tompions. The columns are cast 
 in Siamese tivins, each two being about 4 inches apart 
 and about the same distance from the walls of the kiln. 
 The bars uniting two columns, are intended to be a mutual 
 support, because the intensity of the heat has caused the 
 columns to sway and collapse. The distance between the 
 pairs of columns is a foot. The tops of the columns 
 are stopped by cast iron tompions, sometimes secured by 
 
82 
 
 screws, but their weight, 18 or 20 Ibs., is sufficient to keep 
 them in place. On the top of the kiln is a sheet-iron plat- 
 form, which by adding a slight rim, may be made a conve- 
 nient place for drying the black preparatory to the recalci- 
 nation. It will be readily perceived that the black can 
 be conveniently raked from the platform into the cavities 
 of the columns, provided the latter are placed a trifle lower 
 than the upper surface of the iron platlbrm. The furnace 
 is beneath the columns, the flame ascends beneath and 
 around them, and is detained and diffused by a diaphragm. 
 The columns being filled and stopped, and the fire kindled, 
 they are soon brought to a red heat. In two hours the 
 work is done. The registers are then opened, and the 
 black, now at a red heat, falls into the iron hoppers, and 
 the columns are again charged. The tompions are then 
 taken out of the lower end of the hoppers, and the black 
 received into large iron buckets, where it cools and is car- 
 ried to the heap. 
 
 The only objection which we know to the kiln of col- 
 umns is the danger of melting. On account of this, some 
 manufacturers have exchanged them for the crucibles. Of 
 late it has been improved by placing an iron bar in the axis 
 of each column. This being a better conductor of heat 
 than the grains of the black, has added considerably to the 
 efficiency of the apparatus. The walls of these kilns of 
 both kinds are 2 or 3 feet thick, and strongly keyed. 
 
 4 15. 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF ANIMAL CHARCOAL. 
 
 Manufacturers must revivify their black, and they can 
 make it. For this purpose they use the kilns and crucibles 
 already described. 
 
 Any bones will answer for making animal black, but 
 the solidest are the best, and the spongy and porous the 
 worst. If they have lain many years in the fields, their 
 yalue is much diminished. If they are greasy they must 
 
83 
 
 be boiled. The manufacturers of animal black make a 
 little profit by collecting the grease and disposing of it to 
 the soap-boilers. If any flesh or sinews remain, they are 
 to be removed. The bones are cracked with a heavy 
 hammer so as to lie compactly in the crucibles. These 
 are then placed one atop of another, as in recalcining, and 
 the joint luted, so as to exclude the atmospheric air. If 
 the man-hole be closed by a door this is also luted. Dry 
 wood is disposed among the crucibles, where there is room 
 for it ; though this may be dispensed with. If, however, 
 there is any doubt of making the heat sufficiently intense 
 and uniform, and this without much delay, the wood ought 
 to be added. The fire being kindled and the crucibles 
 brought to a red heat, a variety of gases escape through 
 the fissures of the clay. These are mostly consumed on 
 issuing from the crucibles, and serve to augment the heat. 
 But they may be preserved by conducting them to gasome- 
 ters, or into heaps of earth, which they convert into a valu- 
 able manure. The water in which bones are boiled to de- 
 prive them of grease is likewise a useful manure. In 12 
 to 15 hours, if the fire be kept up, the work is done. The 
 kiln is opened, and when the heat has subsibed, the cruci- 
 bles are removed. Care must be taken not to open them 
 before the fire within is extinguished. It has sometimes 
 happened, for want of this precaution, that on being ex- 
 posed to the air they have burned with a bright flame. 
 This is very mischievous. The remedy is to deluge them 
 with water. 
 
 If the operation has been good, the bones come out a 
 deep, rich black, and without taste or smell. If air has 
 had access, they are perfectly white and worthless except 
 for manure. If they have not had sufficient heat, they are 
 of a reddish brown. Such are thrown aside to be put in 
 the next batch. 
 
 The manufacture may be well combined with the revivi- 
 fication of animal black. The crucibles are first filled with 
 cracked bones ; grains to be recalcined are then thrown and 
 shaken into the interstices. The crucibles are then proceed- 
 
84 
 
 ed with as before described. Both bones and grains come 
 out rather better for this union. 
 
 The same thing can be done in the columns, except that 
 the bones and grains must be deposited in successive layers. 
 
 16. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS: 
 
 The most important general rules which can be laid down, 
 relate to cleanliness and despatch. All the vessels, utensils 
 and machines are to be kept as clean as the vessels and 
 instruments of a dairy. The hurdles, sacks and towels are 
 to be washed in hot water every 12 hours, and the two lat- 
 ter to be boiled once in 24 hours. It is also important that 
 the floor or pavement of the workshop be kept clean, and 
 the atmosphere pure, and as cool as possible. The atmo- 
 spheric air in its best state is prejudicial to the juice ; but 
 when charged with exhalations from filth and fermentation, 
 its destructive energies are vastly augmented. Dryness and 
 coolness are desirable. The hot vapor arising from the pans 
 is mostly confined by covers, and conducted by flues out at 
 the roof or walls of the building. 
 
 It is generally considered that 4 hours is as much as ought 
 to be allowed to intervene between the grating of the beet 
 and the filling of the moulds. But it is admitted on all 
 hands to be highly desirable to reduce this period, and to 
 this end the efforts of individuals and societies in France are 
 diligently directed. That arrangement of the works, already 
 repeatedly alluded to, by which one part or process supplies 
 aliment spontaneously to the next, ought to be adopted if 
 the building will possibly admit of it. This not only gives 
 celerity to the work, but it saves lading, pumping and decan- 
 tation, which are laborious as well as injurious. 
 
85 
 
 EXPLANATION OF PLATE. 
 
 The Workshop, [Figs. 5 and 5'] represents such an arrangement of the 
 works as we have recommended. The height here assumed is 25 feet, 
 and the length 50 feet. It is divided into two compartments, one of 
 which [Fig. 5] is occupied by the horse power, windlass, grater and 
 presses, and the other [Fig. 5'] by the pans, niters, reservoirs and cooler. 
 The heating is supposed to be by steam, but the same plan would answer 
 if the pans were to be provided with furnaces. 
 
 The Saccharometer has a ballast of robin shot in the lower bulb. This 
 sinks it to in water. In proportion as the density of the liquid is greater 
 than water, the instrument rises out of it to 5, 10, 15, &c., or to some of 
 the intermediate degrees, marked in the figure by points. The basin 
 has a long beak, designed for pouring the syrup brought to the crystal- 
 lizing point (about 40) into the moulds. The ladle is used for stirring 
 the syrup in the cooler, and filling the basin. 
 
 A. Horse-power, giving motion to B, windlass for hoisting the beets ; 
 
 toC, the Grater; and to D D, the Hydrostatic presses, 
 The washing machine is not represented, but is turned by the same 
 
 mover, 
 a. a. Pumps for working the presses. 
 
 E. Defecating pans ; one only of the battery or range, consisting of two 
 or three, being represented. 
 
 F. Ivory black filters. 
 
 G. Concentrating pans. 
 H. Second filters. 
 
 I. Reservoir of syrup at 25. 
 J. Boiling pan. 
 K. Cooler. 
 
 Fig. 6. Saccharometer, foot long. 
 Fig. 7. Ladle, 5 feet long. 
 Fig. 8. Basin, 2 feet long. 
 
 8 
 
86 
 
87 
 
 The delays incident to experiments with insufficient hands, 
 and imperfect machinery, lead to results very discouraging 
 to beginners. But there is no occasion to despair. It may 
 be found that the obstacles to success are easily removed. 
 Perseverance, redoubled attention to cleanliness, and re- 
 doubled diligence in executing all the processes, will finally 
 enable the intelligent manufacturer to triumph over all diffi- 
 culties., and arrive at what the French call, V aplomb manu- 
 facturier. It is considered by them that two or three years 
 is necessary to attain this even in their country, with good 
 material, experienced workmen, and the most perfect ma- 
 chinery, la a work published in 1836, Mr. Dombasle 
 declares that two years are necessary in the very focus of 
 the French beet-sugar manufacture, for getting under 
 weigh. Nearly all the early cotton factories failed in this 
 country, though we leaped into the business matured by the 
 improvements of two hundred years. The Louisiana sugar- 
 ies make no profits the first 3 or 4 years. 
 
 $ 17. 
 
 OR MACERATING SYSTEM. 
 
 A considerable number of manufactories are established 
 in France upon this system. The beet is cut by a machine 
 called the root-cutter, into slices ^ of an inch in thickness, 
 and J an inch in width. These are commonly called ribands. 
 A machine called the macerator receives the ribands. A 
 competent idea of this machine may be obtained by suppo- 
 sing a steam boiler to be made square, of twice the ordinary 
 length, and bent like an ox-bow. Let it be further supposed 
 that the two ends are produced in curved lines until they 
 meet, are riveted together, and form at this end a semicircle 
 or arch, corresponding to the opposite bend. Let it also be 
 supposed that this iron case or drum, is placed in a vertical 
 position, and that at the upper end, the outer, or superior, 
 and inner or inferior sides of the arch, are cut out, leaving 
 the two faces entire ; so that if a body were dropped from 
 the central point of the upper arch within the two remain- 
 
83 
 
 ing sides, it would fall through the length of the case or 
 drum until it lodged on the interior surface of the lower arch 
 or bend. 
 
 The case, being 16 to 20 feet in length, occupies the 
 whole of one story and part of another. On the open end 
 is mounted a pair of rag wheels, fixed on a common axle, 
 over each of which passes an endless chain, traversing the 
 circuit of the cavity of the case. To every foot of these 
 chains is fixed a hurdle of iron rods, called in France a pal- 
 ette, large enough to fill, but without friction, a horizontal 
 section of the cavity. These are maintained in a horizontal 
 position by iron braces, except when they pass the arches or 
 bends, and then they assume, first, an oblique position, then 
 a vertical, then an oblique, and, lastly, resume again the hori- 
 zontal. From all this it will be apparent that a movement 
 of the rag wheels, which is effected by a crank or a cross- 
 head, must depress the palettes on one side and raise them 
 on the other. 
 
 The case is filled with boiling water from a reservoir near 
 the head, and communicating by a pipe, a couple of connect- 
 ing cocks, and a small vessel adjusted between the cocks. 
 On the side opposite to the reservoir, is a hopper terminating 
 
 Precisely upon the palettes as they successively come round. 
 Qto this hopper is cast 30 or 40 pounds of ribands, which 
 slide upon the palette, then in a position to receive them. A 
 slight movement of the rag wheels plunges this palette with 
 its charge into the water, and brings an empty palette to its 
 place under the hopper. This again is charged and another 
 turn given, and so on. When the chains have made the 
 circuit of the cavity, all the palettes have been charged and 
 plunged. The first one charged, has been in during the 
 whole time of the operation, and has now arrived in a posi- 
 tion where itself and two or three of its nearest successors 
 have discharged their burdens. The time occupied is sup- 
 posed to be one hour, though it is often less. The ribands, 
 which have been in hot water during that space, are deprived 
 of most of their saccharine. As the palettes arrive at a ver- 
 tical position at the top, the exhausted ribands are discharged 
 by their own weight upon an inclined plane, which inter- 
 
89 
 
 cepts their fall towards the lower bend of the case, and con- 
 veys them out of the building, or into another apartment, at 
 the pleasure of the proprietor. Of course the emptied palette 
 immediately presents itself under the hopper to receive 
 another charge, and to set out out on a new journey. When 
 the water has become sufficiently rich in saccharine, which 
 is from 4 to 6 according to the state and quality of the 
 beets, a certain quantity of boiling water is let in from the 
 reservoir at every new charge of ribands. The proportion is 
 generally 6 ounces of water to 1 pound of ribands. The 
 water is measured in the small vessel before mentioned. 
 By opening the cock between this and the reservoir, it is 
 filled ; by opening the cock between this and the case, it is 
 emptied into the case. And now the liquor begins to flow 
 from the case by a conduit on the side opposite the reser- 
 voir, to the defecating pan ; and thus it continues to flow 
 night and day until the manufacturing season is over, unless 
 it is stopped on Sundays and holidays, which it rarely is in 
 France. There must of course be two defecating pans at 
 least. When it is desired to suspend the work, the case is 
 emptied by a cock inserted at the lowest point of the lower 
 bend. Two steam pipes enter the branches of the case 
 near the bottom, and infuse steam into the liquor at the pleas- 
 ure of the operator, for the purpose of keeping up the heat ; 
 but it is thought that this object would be effected more ad- 
 vantageously by circulation than by infusion. The con- 
 densed water weakens the liquor, and deprives the operator 
 of the control of the proportion of water and sugar. After the 
 liquor or juice has arrived at the defecating pans, its treat- 
 ment is no other than that which has been described in the 
 system of grating and pressing. The only difference is that 
 a little less lime is employed upon the liquor coming from 
 the macerator than upon the natural juice. In the manu- 
 factories with which we are acquainted, we have found this 
 difference about f . 
 
 The method of maceration is supposed to give rather 
 more and better sugar than that of grating and pressing. 
 But its principal and undoubted advantage is, that it saves 
 8* 
 
90 
 
 30 or 40 per cent of labor. Its disadvantages are, that it 
 consumes more fuel, and that the pulp is less valuable for 
 feeding. It is used for that purpose, but it contains too 
 much water to fat or nourish animals as well as the pulp of 
 the press ; but upon the whole we are of opinion that, in 
 most localities in this country, the balance would incline in 
 its favor. In the interior, and the new States, fuel is very 
 cheap and labor very dear. These two facts are in our opin- 
 ion decisive as it respects those States. In other States it 
 would probably be found not less profitable than the old sys- 
 tem. The refiners generally prefer the sugar of the mace- 
 rator. 
 
 Mr. Dombasle, the inventor of the system, used and 
 recommended a series of tubs or basins, filled with slices of 
 beet and boiling water, in whicli the heat was kept up by 
 steam or by furnaces. The tubs are constructed with false 
 bottoms perforated, and are placed on planes commanding 
 one another. When the water put in one has taken effect, 
 it is passed to another filled in like manner with slices of 
 beet ; and thus it goes on until the liquor has acquired a suf- 
 ficient degree of saccharine richness on the one hand, and 
 the material is deprived of it on the other. Neither of 
 these results can ever be theoretically perfect, though suf- 
 ficiently so for practical purposes. The law which gov- 
 erns the operation is, that a body immersed in water will 
 retain the same proportion of its soluble matter as it im- 
 parts to the water. Thus, if there be 6 of saccharine 
 m the beet, it will retain 4 and the water will receive 4. 
 Immerse the same slices in new water and they will retain 
 2 and impart 2 ; at the next immersion or maceration, it 
 will be 1 each, and at the next , which is as far as it is 
 worth while to carry the process. Of course the richest 
 juice will be 7 if the natural juice be 8 ; and the most 
 exhausted pulp will retain . The series of tubs is 6 to 8. 
 This apparatus has been highly recommended as cheap and 
 convenient for small farmers. 
 
91 
 18. 
 
 EXPENSE OP THE MANUFACTURE. 
 
 In France the economical question as it relates to the 
 foregoing methods, has been settled by manifold experience. 
 According to the earliest actual accounts of the cost of the 
 manufacture in that country, the pound of raw sugar of the 
 beet, costs 16 cents. Mr. Drapiez, of Lille, in the year 
 1811, made the cost of refined beet sugar 35 cents, and 
 Mr. Dombasle, 2 or 3 years afterwards, 30 cents. Count 
 Chaptal, in 182-2 stated the cost of the raw sugar made in 
 his factory at Chauteloupe, at 1*2 cents a pound. In the 
 same year the Duke of Ragusa (Marmont.) manufactured 
 it at Chattillon sur Seine, at 9J cents, and Mr. Crespel, of 
 Arras, a 6J, which in 1825 he had further reduced to 5 
 cents per pound. The following are the items of Crespel's 
 account as furnished by him to Mr. Dubrunfaut in that year. 
 
 Expenses. 
 
 2204 Ibs. beets - $2 85 
 Labor & 2 28 
 
 Other expenses ^.' * 2 28 
 
 Total $1 41 
 Products. 
 
 Sugar at 5 per cent. 110 Ibs. $ 
 
 88 Ibs. molasses at 70 cents 100 Ibs. 61 
 661 " pulp " 13 " " 85 
 
 Deduct value of pulp and molasses $1 46 
 from expenses. 
 
 Remains $5 95 
 Which divided by 1 10 gives for the cost, per pound, 5 cents 
 and 4 mills. 
 
 In 1831 a medal was awarded by the Society of Encour- 
 agement at Paris for the following account by Mr. Dardant 
 Majambost, of Limoges. This gentleman has been very 
 successful, having by the culture of the beet and the manu- 
 facture of beet sugar, retrieved his affairs from a ruinous 
 
92 
 
 condition, into which they had been brought by failure in 
 another branch of manufacture. 
 
 Expenses. 
 
 1,102,000 Ibs. beets at $2 71 per ton $1,493 21 
 Mr. Dardant works up 6 to 6J tons per 
 day, thus 91 days will be necessary 
 for the campaign ; 18 men at 19 cents, 
 5 women at 11 J cents, 4 children at 
 4f , and $1,14 for night work, is 5,32 
 per day, and for 91 days 484 12 
 
 Fuel ' - 1,10276 
 
 18 oxen for moving the machinery 155 61 
 
 Lime, blood, tubs, hurdles, lights, &c. 133 00 
 Interest on fixed capital, and wear of ma- 
 chinery, at 10 per cent 68400 
 Interest on floating capital 95 00 
 Gratuities, and carting beets from pits 171 00 
 Rent of buildings 11400 
 
 Total . $4,43270 
 Products. 
 
 Mr. Dardant obtains 5J per cent, which 
 gives on 1,102,000 Ibs. of beets, 
 60,610 Ibs. of sugar, of which 41,876 
 Ibs. at 12.9 cents, is 5,402 00 
 
 18,734 Ibs. at 8.2m 1 ,556 68 
 
 139 tons 1500 Ibs. pulp at $2,71, (con- 
 sumed on the premises) 371 27 
 
 Molasses ^C : * 304 00 
 
 Animal black, to be revivified, or used 
 
 as manure : r- <; ,' * < 57 00 
 
 Total $7,69095 
 Deduct expenses . 4,432 70 
 
 Remains, net profit $3,258 25 
 The expenses being reduced by the de- 
 duction of the value of pulp and mo- 
 lasses, we have " -$3,70043, 
 
93 
 
 which divided by 60,610 gives 6 cents 1 mill as the cost 
 of the pound of sugar. 
 
 In 1837 Mr. Crespel, in giving evidence before a com- 
 mittee of the Chamber of Deputies, on the beet sugar ex- 
 cise bill, stated the cost of his sugar at 5 cents 1 mill per 
 pound. 
 
 J\lr. Clement des Ormes, professor of chemistry, appli- 
 ed to agriculture and the arts, in the Conservatory of Arts 
 and Trades at Paris, testified before a previous committee 
 that the average cost of making a pound of beet sugar in 
 France was 5 cents and 6 mills. This gentleman makes 
 all his inductions with such profoundness and fidelity as to 
 command universal confidence. 
 
 Professor Dumas, of the Polytechnic School, submitted 
 to the same committee the following formula of a beet sugar 
 manufacturing account. 
 
 Expenses 
 Of manufacturing 220,400 Ibs. of beet sugar. 
 
 4,408,000 Ibs. beets at $2,75 per ton $6,078 00 
 
 Labor, 7200 days at 23 Jc. (25 sous) J ,7 1 00 
 
 Coal, 382J chaldrons at $3,77 1,424 81 
 
 Animal charcoal and other chemical 
 
 agents .... 1,035 QO 
 
 Interest on a fixed capital of $19,000 at 
 
 10 per cent. 1,90000 
 
 Interest on a floating capital of $9,000 at 
 
 6 per cent. 570 00 
 
 Miscellaneous expenses, light, insurance, 
 
 repairs, taxes, &c. " 1,42500 
 
 Total $14,34281 
 Deduct 1 10,200 Ibs. of molasses 
 
 at 25c. the 100 Ibs. 285 41 
 881,600 Ibs. pulp at 8jjc. the 100 
 
 Ibs. - - 75993 
 
 1,045 34 
 
 Remains .... $13,29747, 
 
94 
 
 which divided by 220,400, gives the cost per pound, viz : 
 6 cents. 
 
 We have compared the results of twenty-nine French 
 factories, and found the cost of their sugar 6 cents 6 mills. 
 
 It must be observed that none of these accounts embrace 
 any of the following benefits. 
 
 1. The use of the green leaves for feeding a large stock 
 of cattle and sheep during two or three months after the 
 manufacturing begins ; or the value of the same leaves left 
 on the field and ploughed in, being in that way worth h or 4 
 of a manuring, say 5 to 10 loads to the acre. 
 
 2. The manure, which is quadrupled in quantity, and 
 improved in quality on a farm, where a beet sugar mill is 
 erected. 
 
 3. The great abundance and value of other crops in 
 consequence of that cleaning and pulverizing of the soil, 
 which the beet culture effects. 
 
 4. The trimmings of the beets preparatory to submit- 
 ting them to the grater or root-cutter. Chaptal considers 
 the daily trimmings of 12,000 Ibs. of beets sufficient food 
 for 25 or 30 swine. 30,000 Ibs. a day, a less quantity 
 than the French factories ordinarily work up, will afford 
 trimmings to feed 60 or 70 swine. 
 
 Estimate 
 
 For a beet-sugar factory in the United States on either of 
 the ordinarry French systems, capable of making 300,000 
 Ibs. of sugar in six months, from the first of August to the 
 first of February. 
 
 Expenses. 
 
 3000 tons beets, raised on the farm at 
 
 $ 2,00 exclusive of rent (^ . a fa, 6,000 00 
 
 Labor in the factory, 10,524 days-work, 
 
 at75c. r >V - 7,89300 
 
 Fuel, 500 cords, at $2 1,00000 
 
 40,000 Ibs. bones for manufacturing an- 
 imal black, at c. , ,_>'.'.. T> -v 200 00 
 
 Lime, acid, &c. . -v;.* 10000 
 
 Lighting, insurance, taxes, and repairs. 600 00 
 
95 
 
 Superintendence and book-keeping 2,000 00 
 Interest on capital invested in land, build- 
 ings, machinery, and utensils 2,000 00 
 Interest on floating capital 1 ,067 58 
 Contingencies 1,00000 
 
 Total $21,86068 
 
 Products. 
 
 300,000 Ibs. sugar at 6c. - 18,000 00 
 
 Pulp and molasses, consumed on prem- 
 ises ...... 5,000 00 
 
 Total $23,000 00 
 Deduct expenses 21,86058 
 
 Remains, net profit $ 1 , 1 39 42 
 Deducting from tbe expenses, the value of the pulp and 
 molasses, we have, $16,858,58, which divided by 300,000, 
 gives 5| cents as the estimated cost of a pound of beet 
 sugar, manufactured on either of the old French plans in 
 the United States. 
 
 The pulp of a factory working upon the above scale, 
 would be upwards of 10,000 Ibs. per day, sufficient to feed 
 100 bullocks, and 600 sheep, and the trimmings and rem- 
 nant of pulp 100 swine. 
 
 Although labor is much dearer in the United States 
 than in France, yet rent and fuel would be so much cheap- 
 er in most localities as to balance it. 
 
 19 
 
 THE MANUFACTURE OF BEET SUGAR AT 
 NORTHAMPTON, MASS. 
 
 An experimental establishment, founded upon the princi- 
 ple of the dessication of the beet, was set up at Northamp- 
 ton during the last winter and spring. This principle was 
 first successfully applied by Mr. Schuzenbach, a chemist 
 
96 
 
 of Carlsruhe in the Grand Duchy of Baden ; but the idea 
 of slicing and drying the beet, both as a means of securing 
 its preservation, and facilitating the extraction of its saccha- 
 rine matter, is old. Margraff, the discoverer of beet su- 
 gar, dried and pulverized his beet, before submitting it to 
 the action of the solvent by which he obtained the sugar. 
 Thirty years ago Mr. Dombasle dried beets by a moderate 
 heat, and succeeded in completely depriving them of their 
 saccharine, but doubted whether the process could be used 
 for manufacturing purposes. He was led, however, by his 
 experiments in this line to the discovery of the method, 
 since known by his name and by that of maceration. 
 
 Mr. Toursel, an apothecary of Arras, essayed more re- 
 cently the dessication of the beet by a high heat, and ob- 
 tained good results in a small way. Mr. NosareivsTti, a 
 Polander, resident in France, proposed in 1829 to dry the 
 beet in the open air either entire, or cut transversely in 
 pieces 4 inches thick, to preserve them in this condition, 
 and submit them to the heat of a hot-house, before grinding 
 them to flour. In all these instances the sugar was ex- 
 tracted or displaced by water or by alcohol. 
 
 The improvement of Mr. Schuzenbach, so far as it is 
 known to us, consists in the pulverization of the beet, and in 
 the superior expedition and economy with which he effects 
 the dessication. 
 
 A method has been patented by Mr. Herd, of Stone- 
 ham, near Boston, of drying the beet by a cold blast, in 
 other words, by freezing it dry. This is an ingenious con- 
 ception, but we are not convinced that it can be made 
 available as a method of manufacture. 
 
 The experiment at Northampton is an attempt to carry 
 out the principle of dessication by machinery, contrived by 
 us for the purpose, Mr. Schuzenbach having declined to 
 impart any information unless the privilege of using his in- 
 vention in the whole United States, were previously pur- 
 chased and security given for the payment, in case the 
 truth of his pretensions should be demonstrated by the 
 results of a model factory. Therefore, in stating the re- 
 sults, which we have obtained, we do not implicate the 
 
97 
 
 system of Mr. Schuzenbach, not knowing what his appara- 
 tus or processes are, but pursuing the same principle, by 
 ways and means of our own. We have dried the beet in 
 a kiln of small dimensions, by establishing therein a current 
 of air, heated from 150 to 185, and equalized by a dia- 
 phragm, pierced with holes. By this means we were 
 able to dry 800 Ibs. in 24 hours. The material having 
 been cut into fritters of an inch thick by a machine, is 
 placed above the diaphragm in boxes, having wire gauze 
 bottoms. 
 
 For the purpose of pulverizing the dried beet, we have 
 used, first a small cylinder set with diamond headed nails, 
 and turning upon an inclined plane sheathed with iron; 
 and, secondly, a coffee-mill upon the common principle. 
 
 The powder, about as fine as ground coffee, is deposited 
 in a tub, and cold water introduced in the proportion of 3 
 Ibs. to 1 Ib. of powder. This gives a liquor nearly twice 
 as rich as the natural juice of the beet, and just about as 
 rich as that of the sugar-cane. This liquor contains \k to 
 l pounds of sugar to the gallon. In 20 minutes the sugar 
 is dissolved. The whole is then thrown into sacks 8 Ibs. to 
 a sack, or so as to be lh inches thick when leveled in the 
 sack. The sacks must be made of some very closely wo- 
 ven fabric. Of various materials, which we have tried, 
 twilled cotton alone has answered the purpose perfectly. 
 The sacks are arranged alternately with osier hurdles, in 
 the same manner as those filled with green pulp in France. 
 One pression with a hydrostatic press, would be sufficient 
 to exhaust the pulp ; but having only a screw press, worked 
 by hand, we have found is necessary to press twice, mois- 
 tening the pulp between the pressions. At the second 
 pression the liquor stands at 7 to 9 by the saccharome- 
 ter, instead of 1 to 1 2 Q as in the first instance. 
 
 The defecating pan contains 30 gallons, and is usually 
 charged with 25 gallons. It is heated by steam. The de- 
 fecation is operated as in the natural juice, except that the 
 proportion of lime is greater. The smallest which we have 
 found sufficient, is 300 grains to a gallon of liquor. The 
 subsequent operations are essentially the same as in the 
 9 
 
98 
 
 French sugar-houses. For the purpose, however, of econ- 
 omizing the animal black, for making and revivifying which 
 our apparatus is small, we filter but twice, viz. first the de- 
 fecated juice, and secondly the syrup at 20. The con- 
 centrating pan is heated by steam, circulating, as in the 
 defecating pan, through a series of pipes. 
 
 We have constantly obtained from 7 to 10i pounds of 
 saccharine to 100 pounds of green beet, or to 14 Ibs. of 
 dry. These products included ^thej molasses, which has 
 varied from to f of the whole. The unusual proportion 
 of molasses resulting in some instances, has been owing to 
 injury, which the beets received by frost and decay before 
 the drying, or by smoke and burning during that process. 
 Frost does not of itself injure the sugar of the beet, but on 
 the contrary facilitates its extraction, and increases its puri- 
 ty ; yet, as soon as the root begins to thaw, the destruction of 
 its crystalizable sugar, sets in with frightful rapidity. The 
 frozen beet when sliced is of a pure and beautiful white, 
 but with whatever care it be dried, it becomes in the 
 course of the operation perfectly black. This is the effect 
 of fermentation. The effect of carbonization is still more 
 injurious. These evils were the result of inexperience, and 
 have been found completely susceptible of remedy. So 
 far as crystalization took place, (and in many instances it 
 was abundant,) the sugar has proved of excellent quality, 
 free even in its raw state, from any bad taste, and of a pure 
 and sparkling white when refined. Old and extensive 
 dealers have pronounced it in both states capable of suc- 
 cessful competition with any sugars in the market. The 
 best result obtained from the beets of 1838, was 7 Ibs. of 
 sugar from 14 Ibs. of dry beet (representing 100 Ibs. of 
 green,) and 3J Ibs. of molasses. In this instance the beets 
 had been dried without much injury except a degree of dis- 
 coloration. The grain was strong and brilliant but the color 
 deep. It was deemed best to leave a considerable portion 
 of the provision of dried beet of 1838 9 untouched, until 
 an enlargement of the apparatus should enable us to work it 
 up with more ease and economy. The quantity of sugar 
 which we have drained and cured, is 309 Ibs. There re- 
 
99 
 
 mains in crystalizers and moulds, not cured, and some of it 
 not sufficiently grained, 1000 Ibs. more, and 2000 Ibs. of 
 molasses. 
 
 Several points of importance were settled to our satis- 
 faction by the labors of 1838 9. 
 
 1. That all the saccharine contained in the beet can 
 be extracted by the method of dessication. 
 
 2. That the raw sugar can be obtained without any 
 bad taste, and fit for immediate consumption. 
 
 3. That American beets, though generally inferior to 
 the European in saccharine richness, can by suitable culture 
 be made inferior to none. 
 
 4. That 50 per cent more of crystalizable sugar can 
 be obtained by the method of dessication, than has gene- 
 rally been obtained by grating and pressing, or macerating 
 the green beet. 
 
 5. That the beet, once dried, may be kept an indefi- 
 nite time without liability to injury. 
 
 The general result of the first season was, however, unsatis- 
 factory. The quantity of sugar obtained, except on partic- 
 ular days, when the operations were upon select material, 
 was too small ; the molasses superabundant, and very bad. 
 
 The coming in of the crop of 1839, opened a new era 
 in our enterprise. An improvement in the drying appara- 
 tus, by which the access of smoke, and better acquaintance 
 with the management of it, by which fermentation on the 
 one hand and carbonization on the other, were prevented, 
 gave us a nearly unexceptionable material ; the liquor was 
 light colored and transparent, the proportion of lime re- 
 quired less, the defecations more prompt and complete, and 
 the concentration almost without scums. The sugar, grain- 
 ing in a few hours, drained well, and is not inferior in fla- 
 vor or appearance to the finest West India muscovados. 
 The quality of the molasses has been a matter of utter sur- 
 prise to us. In France the molasses is considered of no 
 value except for feeding animals, or for distilling ; and it sells 
 at 4 or 5 cents a gallon. The molasses from the sugar in 
 question, is of a bright amber color, and so pure and plea- 
 sant, as to be preferred by many to any but sugar-baker's. 
 
 The quantity of saccharine obtained from the beets of 
 
100 
 
 this year, has not been so great as from those of the last 
 year. It has in no instance exceeded 84- per cent, 6 of 
 which was sugar and 2J- molasses. We attribute the dif- 
 ference to the extraordinary wetness of this season. 
 
 It will be readily conceived that a small establishment 
 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 
 11 cents per pound, the pulp and manure not taken into 
 the account. We are of opinion that with proper and 
 sufficient means beet sugar may be manufactured in the 
 United States at 4 cents per pound. When the manufac- 
 ture shall have become domesticated among us, it will 
 probably be produced at a cost less than that. 
 
 We have recently made some experiments with the aid 
 of Mr. Martial Duroy of Boston, upon beet dried by 
 steam. The result has been a white sugar obtained at 
 once, fully equal to the clayed sugars of Havana. 
 
 Other plants usually grown in our soil are capable of 
 furnishing sugar, and some of them may be found worth 
 cultivating for that and accessory products. We have 
 tried Indian cornstalks and the pumpkin, and have obtained 
 from them good sugar and molasses. Perhaps those crops 
 may alternate advantageously with the beet. If the manu- 
 facture of sugar from the stalks of Indian corn can be re- 
 conciled, as we believe it may, with the maturity or near 
 maturity of the ears, this source of saccharine may super- 
 sede the beet-root. The seeds of the pumpkin yield a fine 
 sweet oil, but we have no means of judging, what quantity 
 of this product can be obtained from a given extent of land. 
 If it should turn out satisfactorily in this respect, the pump- 
 kin may one day overshadow the sugar-cane. 
 
 It has recently been stated in an agricultural journal * 
 that Schuzenbach's system has been tried in France and 
 failed. We could not credit this announcement, because 
 
 * New England Farmer. 
 
101 
 
 we had tried the system, and were perfectly satisfied that 
 it is capable of producing results far superior to those of 
 any other system, which has yet been tested. The follow- 
 ing letter from the brother of the inventor, gives timely and 
 satisfactory information on this subject. 
 
 Philadelphia, Oct. 29, 1839. 
 D. LEE CHILD, ESQ.. 
 
 Dear Sir, I received some days ago a letter from my 
 brother in Germany, who writes to me the following regu- 
 lar results, such as they are obtained on a large scale in 
 the beet-sugar manufactories in Polen, South Germany, 
 Ratisbon, Wayhausel, Paris, Toulouse, &c. &c., and as I 
 believe they will be interesting to you, I address you the 
 present for your information. 
 
 To produce 100 Ibs. of beet sugar of the quality, which 
 is known in France by the name of bonne quatrieme (good 
 brown) there is required : 
 
 1. 1,250 to 1300 pounds of fresh beets, such as they 
 come from the fields. 
 
 2. 350 to 360 pounds of stone coal. 
 
 3. 100 pounds of animal charcoal. 
 
 4. If day's works. 
 
 5. Lime, acid, light, &ic. &,c., for 12i cents. 
 
 To this must be added the interest, the use of the build- 
 ings, utensils, &c. Sic. 
 
 By this method, the cost (prix de revient) of 100 Ibs. 
 of this sugar is in Germany, owing to the high price of the 
 raw material, fr. 9 or 10, or $3,50 to $4 ; and in the north 
 of France fr. 18,20c, or about $3,45, after deducting the 
 price of the molasses. 
 
 My brother has made the following important improve- 
 ments, which have completely succeeded on a small scale 
 for the last five months. They are now brought into ope- 
 ration in two of the most important factories on a large scale, 
 and will, as my brother thinks, succeed there also. By 
 this process a quality is obtained, which will not be inferior 
 to white Havana, J more valued than bonne quatbrime, 
 and the expenses will be reduced to the following ; 
 9* 
 
102 
 
 a. 1250 to 1300 pounds of beets, as above. 
 
 5. 250 to 300 pounds of stone coal. 
 
 c. 16 to 20 cents animal charcoal. 
 
 d. One day's work, (12 hours including meal-time.) 
 
 e. Small costs, same as above. 
 
 And, what is of the greatest importance, the stock capi- 
 tal, which is required for buidings, utensils, &,c. of the fac- 
 tory, will be J-, perhaps f smaller, the manufacturing 
 process more simple and of consequence, more certain. 
 1 remain, Dear Sir, 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 JOS. SCHUZENBACH. 
 
 It appears therefore that Schuzenbach's method as al- 
 ready practised on a large scale in France, turns out good 
 brown sugar at a cost of less than 4 cents per pound ; and 
 promises to do still better than this, both as it respects price 
 and quality. Mr. Schuzenbach's last results, as here de- 
 scribed, are strikingly like those we obtained in working 
 upon steam-dried beet. 
 
 19. 
 
 DIVERS PROCESSES AND MACHINES. 
 
 Mr. Dimitri Davidof, a scientific Russian manufactur- 
 er, proposes in a work published in 183T, a considerable 
 change in the system of tubs, and in the defecation and con- 
 centration of juice. He macerates pulp, not slices or ribands. 
 He avoids the inconvenience of extreme slowness, which has 
 been experienced in operating upon material in this form, by 
 introducing so small a quantity into each tub, that the mass 
 of pulp and water can be stirred and well mixed with a 
 small wooden rake. He also avoids the necessity of dou- 
 ble bottoms to his tubs by placing a triangular prism of 
 straight straw against the orifice of the discharging cock 
 of each tub, and confining it by a couple of small battens, 
 standing obliquely betwixt the wall and bottom of the tub. 
 
103 
 
 These are movable, and are held in position by two other 
 battens, nailed, one to the bottom and the other to the walls, 
 about 5 inches above the bottom. The two first battens are 
 placed 6 or 8 inches apart.* The bottoms of the tubs are 
 inclined 2 or 3 inches towards the orifice of the discharging 
 cock. They are ranged in series of 8, having a com- 
 mon reservoir of water, which communicates by one gutter 
 or pipe over every two series. The plane of the bottom of 
 each tub commands that of the top of the next one by 5 or 
 6 inches. The tubs are 3 feet in diameter and 2 feet in 
 depth. The layer of pulp, spread nicely with the rake, is 
 10 inches thick, and 1 pint of cold water from the reservoir, 
 or water not saturated from a preceding tub, is admitted to 
 every pound of pulp. A cover, pierced with small holes, is 
 fitted to the tub, and rests upon 5 shoulders, attached to the 
 staves at such a height as that the surface of the pulp, when 
 raised by the water, will be a little above them. 
 
 The water or weak juice is not permitted to flow upon 
 the pulp in a current, but is splashed upon it by means of a 
 semi-cylinder or trough of tin. containing 8 gallons, which 
 is made to pivot by means of gudgeons fixed to the two 
 heads and bearing on the edges of the tubs. When water 
 has been affused, so that about 44 gallons stand above the 
 pulp, the latter being supposed to be 350 Ibs. the semi-cylin- 
 der is removed to another tub, and the rake is taken. The 
 pulp is gradually raked up until the bottom is reached ; and 
 then the mass is thoroughly mixed by hauling with the rake 
 from bottom to top. The cover is then forced home to the 
 shoulders and confined there by 5 tourniquets. The crack 
 betwixt the cover and the walls, is caulked, so that no juice 
 may pass there. The water or weak juice is then permit- 
 ted to run upon the cover until it stands 2 inches above it. 
 In drawing off the liquor the discharge is so regulated as to 
 pass 1 gallon in a minute. It must not much exceed this. 
 Each tub will give 30 or 3 1 gallons, which must not go to 
 the great reservoir of juice, unless it be as rich into i or h a 
 degree, as the juice of the same beet would be, if extracted 
 
 * This improvement was made by Count Bobrinsky, a Russian man- 
 ufacturer. 
 
104 
 
 by the press. Until it arrives at this, which is commonly 
 6 or 7, it must be passed through the pulp of successive 
 tubs. Each series of tubs has 3 gutters, equal in length to 
 the series itself. One runs from the head to the foot of the 
 series, and receives from any of the tubs its juice raised to 
 the required richness. Another runs in the opposite direc- 
 tion, and conveys to a small reservoir at the head of the se- 
 ries, weak juice from the lowest, which requires to be passed 
 through other pulp. A third carries off the washings and 
 rinsings of the tubs to a drain, or out of doors. Also mov- 
 able gutters, pipes and snouts are used to pass the water 
 from the gutter of the common reservoir of water, to the 
 tubs, and the weak juice from one tub to another, and the 
 juice from the tubs to the gutter of the general reservoir of 
 juice, placed below and at the end of all the series. Four 
 series of such tubs will wash to the almost entire exhaustion 
 of their saccharine matter, 48,488 Ibs. of pulp in 24 hours.* 
 
 Mr. Davidof assures us that by this process, by defeca- 
 ting without heat, and concentrating with the inclined plane, 
 he obtains raw sugar as white as snow. 
 
 His method of defecating is as follows : Having nearly 
 filled a tub, which is 3J feet deep, with juice, he sprinkles 
 upon it caustic lime, reduced to a fine powder and sifted. 
 No stirring takes place in this operation. The lime by its 
 own weight tends to the bottom, carrying down impurities, 
 combining with the gluten, and precipitating it. The 
 sprinkling is renewed every few minutes until the quan- 
 tity of lime required, is injected. This quantity is 550 
 grains to 1 gallon of juice. The mass is left to repose, for 
 sometime, after which animal charcoal, in powder, in the pro- 
 portion of 800 to 1000 grains to 1 gallon, is injected in the 
 same manner as the lime was. In a few hours the juice 
 becomes limpid and of a rose color. 
 
 Another method of defecating without heat, successfully 
 applied by Mr. Davidof, is to acidulate the juice at the rate 
 
 * Originally Mr. Davidof acidulated the water to be used in leaching 
 the pulp. He added to it 140 to 175 grains of sulphuric acid for every 
 gallon of juice contained in the pulp. The acid was at a density of 67 a 
 and diluted with 15 to 20 times its volume of water. 
 
105 
 
 of 175 grains of sulphuric acid to 1 gallon, or 315 grains of 
 sulphate of zinc, or sulphate of alumina to 1 gallon. The 
 deposit is then permitted to form and the clear juice 
 drawn off. Powdered lime, in a caustic state and sifted, 
 is then injected by sprinkling, at the rate of 136 grains to 1 
 gallon, over and above what is necessary to neutralize the 
 acid. 
 
 In the case of juice obtained by washing pulp with acid- 
 ulated water, the same process is to be observed in regard 
 to lime, except that it is all added at once in form of 
 milk or cream of lime, and the mass is stirred powerfully 
 with a ladle of copper and of a long handle, and the mix- 
 ture is to be dipped up from the bottom, raised to the great- 
 est convenient height, and projected from it into the tub 
 again. In a little time the deposit of sediment is com- 
 pleted. 
 
 Mr. Dombasle, by uncommon science and sagacity, early 
 employed in the service of the beet sugar manufacture, has 
 associated his name with the germ of nearly every impor- 
 tant improvement, which has been made since the labors of 
 Achard. By reflecting upon the injurious effects of a pro- 
 tracted exposure of syrup to a high heat, he was led, so far 
 back as 1811, to the contrivance of an apparatus, by which 
 the concentration w r ould be effected with greater promptitude 
 and at a lower temperature, than in any of the ordinary con- 
 centrating pans. For this purpose he fixed in a frame of 
 wood a sheet of tin 2 feet long, and 1 foot wide, with longi- 
 tudinal rims, a few lines in height, but with no rims at the 
 ends. This he established over a small steam generator in 
 such a manner as to give to its length an inclination of 5. 
 The lower end terminated in a beak, by which all the liquid 
 poured upon the surface might pass off. Over the upper 
 end was placed a small reservoir, communicating with the 
 inclined plane by twelve small funnels, terminated by fine 
 tubes, capable of emitting small threads of liquid upon the 
 superior part of the plane, which expanding by the force of 
 gravity, formed a sheet over its whole surface. 
 
 The reservoir being charged with juice, and the water of 
 the generator brought to ebullition, the communication be- 
 
106 
 
 twixt the reservoir and the inclined plane was opened. At 
 first the juice passed over the plane in minute, but in pro- 
 portion as it thickened, it passed slower. The whole time 
 occupied in the concentration, during which six passages 
 were made over the inclined plane, was 3 minutes. Al- 
 though the heat of the generator was raised to the boiling 
 point, that of the exterior surface of the inclined plane, and 
 consequently that to which the juice was exposed, was much 
 less. It was not so great by 100 as that at which syrups 
 generally boil. 
 
 " The color of this syrup," says Mr. Dombasle, " was 
 that of fine honey. It crystalized readily, the molasses 
 came off freely, and the sugar was as white as the finest 
 loaf-sugar before claying. The molasses having been left to 
 itself again furnished an abundance of crystals almost as 
 white as the first ; and the second molasses, being again 
 abandoned to itself crystalized to the last drop." It was 
 therefore proved, without Mr. Payen's more recent experi- 
 ments, that the beet does not naturally contain uncrystaliza- 
 ble sugar, i. e. molasses. 
 
 After these remarkable results, Mr. Dombasle sought to 
 construct inclined planes on a scale large enough for his fac- 
 tory, but in this he failed. He found it impossible to estab- 
 lish and maintain a large surface of a thin metallic sheet, 
 with such levelness and uniformity that a delicate layer of 
 liquid would pass without interruption and agglomeration in 
 some places, and undue attenuation in others. This was a 
 fatal defect, and Mr. Dombasle was constrained to convert 
 his inclined into level planes, and employ them in the grain- 
 age of syrups, a process which he substituted for boiling. 
 This he executed at a heat of 180 to 200, obtaining 
 thereby a product of superior beauty, and ^ per cent more 
 in quantity, than by the ordinary process. 
 
 Mr. Davidof has succeeded in overcoming the obstacles 
 which presented themselves to Mr. Dombasle, by soldering 
 strips of sheet copper edgewise along the entire length of the 
 inclined planes. These strips are J an inch high, and an 
 inch apart, forming small compartments or channels over 
 the whole surface of the plane, and imparting to it such 
 
107 
 
 firmness that two men may walk upon it without bending 
 or breaking it. To strengthen it transversely small bars of 
 iron are soldered to its under side, also edgewise. The 
 whole plane is 18 to 20 feet long and 3 feet wide. The 
 steam is used at very low pressure, and yet juice received 
 at 2 of density, is brought in 4 minutes to 25. Upwards 
 of a gallon is concentrated every minute. Thus, one inclined 
 plane concentrates 1500 gallons in 24 hours. Two would 
 be necessary for the concentration to 25 in a pretty large 
 establishment, and a vacuum or other pan for boiling to 40 
 or 41, the point of crystalization. 
 
 Another defect of Mr. Dombasle's apparatus was, that he 
 had a very small heating surface to his generator, in compar- 
 ison with the evaporating surface, which he wished to estab- 
 lish. The great advance in the science of steam power 
 since that time enables us to see that the heating and the 
 evaporating surfaces, where the heat is maintained at only 
 212, ought to be about equal. An additional advantage 
 of this apparatus is, that any impurities which the juice may 
 still contain, are deposited on the plane during its passage 
 over it. The planes are easily cleaned with a little water and 
 a brush. 
 
 The greatest improvement which we-are aware of in the 
 system of grating and pressing, has been made by Mr. Pec- 
 queur, a machinist of Paris. It adds considerably to the 
 celerity and economy of the operations. It is a grater and 
 press combined. The press consists of two hollow cylin- 
 ders thickly perforated, and bound with wire gauze. These 
 cylinders revolve without cessation. The pulp falls from 
 the grater into a large funnel or hopper, and through that 
 arrives under the piston of a forcing pump. This drives it 
 continually into a box under the two cylinders, by which it 
 is drawn in between them and pressed. The juice runs 
 through the wire-gauze and the holes of the cylinders, and 
 being thus separated from the pulp, it passes to a reservoir 
 or to the defecating pans. The pulp falls upon the outside 
 upon a floor or pavement, or into baskets, and is found to be 
 in a beautiful state for feed. The pushers being moved by 
 
108 
 
 a pulley attached to a double crank, as was the case at Pel- 
 ves in France, where we saw this machine in operation, the 
 whole attendance required is one man, with a boy to remove 
 the pulp. The distance between the cylinders, and conse- 
 quently the pression, is increased or diminished at pleasure. 
 We do not think the pression by these cylinders is, or can 
 be made equal to that of the hydrostatic press ; but the loss 
 is in a degree compensated by the superior quality of the 
 pulp. Several of Mr. Pecqueur's machines are now in use, 
 and some of the oldest and best manufacturers whom we 
 have conversed with, were thinking of adopting it. The 
 price of this machine is $1330. 
 
 Mr. PeUetan of Paris, has invented a machine which he 
 has named the Levigator. It unites maceration with a 
 slight pression, or rather trituration. The pulp falls from the 
 grater into a semi-cylindrical trough, 1 6 feet long by 2^ wide, 
 where it is mixed with about 15 per cent of water. A sort 
 of Archimedes screw, composed of half disks, pierced like 
 a cullender, and fixed on a common arbor, turns and bears 
 the pulp against other half disks, which are immovable, 
 and divide the trough. By the rotary movement the pulp 
 is passed from one pair of half disks, operating together not 
 unlike the upper and nether mill-stones, to another pair, and 
 so on until it has run the gauntlet of the whole length of the 
 trough. One end of the trough is raised 2 feet higher than 
 the other. At this end the pulp arrives in its exhausted 
 state, and is discharged into a lower apartment, or upon an 
 inclined plane, which conveys it out of doors. The water 
 for the maceration falls in at the same end in a measured 
 stream, and the juice passes out quite limpid, and at a den- 
 sity of 6 at the lower end. 
 
 In 1836 a manufactory was set up at Seclin, near Lille, 
 on this plan, which in 1837, when we saw it, was working 
 to the satisfaction of the proprietor. In that year a large 
 one was erected in Tuscany on the same plan. Mr. Pel- 
 letan affirms that with this apparatus, he makes raw sugar of 
 superior purity and perfectly good flavor, at a cost of 5 cents 
 a pound at most, and generally at 4 cents only ; and that 
 the profit on a product of 275,500 Ibs., which is ordinarily 
 
109 
 
 but $6650 will be increased to $11,875. This he pre- 
 tends is effected ; 1 . By imparting such celerity to the 
 operations as to prevent the slightest fermentation. 2. By 
 extracting from to more sugar ; i. e. 6 to 7 percent where 
 the press would give but 5. The price of this apparatus, 
 including a press for the pulp, after it falls from the leviga- 
 tor,is $1235. 
 
 Mr. Bouchet de Saint Arnoult, a manufacturer near Paris, 
 has invented a machine which he calls the Saturator. It 
 exposes the beet cut in slices, to the action of a powerful 
 steam. By this means the vesicles of the beet containing 
 the sugar are ruptured, after which the latter is dissolved in 
 water either cold or hot. The juice thus obtained is very 
 limpid. Mr. Bouchet proposes to perform the defecation 
 cold, and to concentrate with an inclined plane, differing 
 somewhat from that of Dombasle and Davidof. He forms 
 channels both transversely and longitudinally, and uses steam 
 at a high pressure. By this apparatus the juice is brought 
 to 25 in 3 minutes. Mr. Bouchet claims for his system 
 the immense advantage of producing a pure and beautiful 
 sugar at a cost of less than 3 cents a pound. 
 
 Finally, Messrs. Sorel and Gautier claim to be the au- 
 thors of a system, from which they promise unrivalled advan- 
 tages. They grate the beet with a hand grater, deprive the 
 pulp of its saccharine by an instrument they call the Ex- 
 tractor, which they declare doth completely exhaust it, 
 and give a purer liquor than either pression or maceration, 
 properly so called. This system, however, is a mode of 
 maceration, and differs from that of Davidof only in the form 
 of the instrument for executing it. A complete apparatus 
 of Sorel and Gautier, capable of working up 600,000 pounds, 
 is stated by the inventors to cost $ 1254. They state that 
 the current expenses of operating to that extent are $ 1881, 
 and by the grater and presses, $2337 ; that the amount of 
 product will be 42,000 pounds instead of 30,000 pounds, 
 as by the common systems ; and that the cost of the sugar 
 will be only 2 cents per pound. 
 
 There is a class of machines of great and increasing im- 
 10 
 
110 
 
 portance in the preparation of sugars, both raw and refined, 
 called vacuum pans. These pans have been variously mod- 
 ified, and much multiplied of late. The original of them 
 all, was the invention of the Hon. Edward Charles How- 
 ard) of Westborough Green, near London, for which he 
 obtained a patent on the 20th of November, 1813. It is 
 based on two principles. 1. " That no solution of sugar 
 in water can, unless already highly concentrated, be ex- 
 posed to its boiling temperature under the common atmo- 
 spheric pressure during the time requisite for evaporating it, 
 to the crystalizing point, without material injury to its color 
 and crystalizing power.*' This principle Mr. Howard claims 
 to have discovered. 2. That the boiling temperature in 
 every liquid, may be lowered in proportion as the atmo- 
 spheric pressure is diminished. 
 
 At first Mr. Howard concentrated his liquor at a temper- 
 ature of about 200, which he obtained by steam at the 
 pressure of one atmosphere, or by hot water. This was pre- 
 cisely the heat, both in kind and degree, used by Mr. Dom- 
 basle in his beautiful experiment of the inclined plane. 
 The first patent obtained by Mr. Howard, which was dated 
 Oct. 31, 1812, specified this mode of concentration, as a 
 part of his discovery of a new " process for preparing and 
 refining sugar." His vacuum pan was an improvement, 
 made by him during that and the subsequent year. 
 
 This pan is a hollow spheroid having the poles of the ver- 
 tical axis depressed, and the lower one more depressed than 
 the upper. It is formed by two hemispheres, of which 
 the lower, (if steam is to be used for the heating,) is double, 
 i. e. has an outer pan or jacket to the first, attached by 
 flanges. The whole is put together by bolts and rivets, 
 with packing between the flanges, to keep the joints air 
 tight. The liquor is passed from a reservoir above into the 
 pan by a pipe furnished with a stop-cock. A tube, issuing 
 from the upper hemisphere, called the dome, connects the 
 cavity of the pan with an air-pump, placed in any conve- 
 nient situation, and driven by steam or any other power. 
 The air being exhausted from the cavity so as to support 
 only an inch of mercury, the liquor is let in, so as to occu- 
 
Ill 
 
 py nearly the whole of the lower hemisphere. The steam, 
 at a pressure of three or four pounds to the inch, is admit- 
 ted into the chamber betwixt the lower hemisphere and its 
 jacket. An outlet is provided for the waste steam and con- 
 densed water. The liquor boils rapidly at a temperature of 
 150, and the vapor which rises from its surface, is aspired 
 by the air-pump as fast as it is formed. For the purpose 
 of ascertaining from time to time the state of concentration 
 of the syrup, an instrument called a proof-rod, is ingenious- 
 ly contrived to withdraw a little syrup without admitting 
 any air. The state of concentration of the syrup may also 
 be known by a thermometer, upon the same principle as in 
 the boiling of syrups under the common atmospheric pres- 
 sure. For this purpose a barometer as well as thermome- 
 ter, is set in the upper hemisphere of the pan, and the 
 operator notes the temperature at which, under a givea 
 pressure, always shown by the barometer, the syrup attains 
 the crystalizing point. The pan is made of stout rolled 
 copper, about 5 feet in diameter, the bottom 16 inches deep 
 and the dome 2 feet high. 
 
 Mr. Roth, of Paris has made a vacuum pan, which 
 French authors pretend has nothing in coir. ,-i witli How- 
 ard's. It consists of a double bottom and doma with liquor 
 pipe, stop-cock and steam-pipe, proof-rod, fee., as already 
 described. But Mr. Roth in addition to the steam in the 
 double bottom, introduces it also into the cavity of the pan 
 by means of a coil of pipe, resting on the interior bottom. 
 Of course a branch steam-pipe with its waste-pipe is requi- 
 site for this. He also produces his vacuum by steam, and a 
 second branch pipe is required for this. The steam being 
 injected into the cavity of the pan, drives out the atmo- 
 spheric air both from this, and from a refrigerating and con- 
 densing vessel connected by a pipe with it. In this vessel 
 the steam is immediately condensed by the admission of 
 cold water, which falls in a shower. Thus a vacuum, or 
 rather a low atmospheric pressure is obtained ; and it is 
 continued by the vapor, arising from the ebullition of the 
 liquor, constantly passing off and being condensed in the 
 shower bath, as we may call the condensing and refrigera- 
 
112 
 
 ting vessel. The condensed water remains at a tempera 
 ture of 125, and may be sent back to the steam gen- 
 erator, or passed to a reservoir of hot water, to be used for 
 various purposes, such as washing animal charcoal, bags, 
 towels, hurdles, &ic. This pan was contrived after Mr. 
 Howard's was well known in France, and whatever may 
 be its merits, it is impossible for an impartial mind not to 
 perceive that it is a mere modification of the English 
 apparatus. On the subject of originality and priority of 
 discoveries and inventions, nations the most civilized retain a 
 narrowness and jealousy, which savor too much of barbarism. 
 
 There is an English apparatus for boiling or evaporating 
 solutions of sugar, patented by John Davis of Goodman's 
 Fields, London, March 29, 1828. This embraces the 
 chief distinctive principle of Roth's pan. It expels the at- 
 mospheric air from the dome by steam, but is the steam 
 formed from the evaporation of the liquid, subjected to the 
 operation. In the condensing and refrigerating vessel, he 
 establishes a torricellian vacuum, which is afterwards main- 
 tained by water falling in a shower among the steam or va- 
 por, as it comes off the liquid. This vapor however is 
 divided into two currents, one of which goes directly to the 
 refrigerating and condensing vessel and the other to a ves- 
 sel which supplies the water to form the shower. Another 
 distinctive feature of this apparatus is, that the water thus 
 used, is first deprived very nearly of the air, contained 
 therein, by putting in action rotary paddles, and suffering 
 the air, after its expulsion from the water, to escape through 
 a valve above. 
 
 Marmaduke Robinson, of Westminster, patented, Aug. 
 5, 1830, " improvements in making and purifying su- 
 gars." The improvement in boiling, consisted in employ- 
 ing steam at high pressure in one or more worms or coils 
 of pipe inside of a vacuum pan, and not any heat out- 
 side. The pressure to be used is from 20 to 40 Ibs. to the 
 square inch, but he prefers 35 Ibs. 
 
 John Aitchison, of Glasgow, patented, Sept. 15, 1829, 
 " improvements in the concentrating and evaporating of 
 cane juice, solutions of sugar and other fluids." The great 
 
113 
 
 thing in this apparatus is a double cylinder, turning within a 
 close pan, and about f- of it within the liquid to be evapo- 
 rated. The ends of the cylinder are open. Steam is 
 passed into the chamber of the double cylinder, through a 
 gudgeon and one of the radial arms, and the waste steam 
 passes off through a like arm and the gudgeon at the oppo- 
 site end ; and thence into the chamber of the double bot- 
 tom of the pan itself, which having heated, it goes off as 
 condensed water through a cock inserted in the outer bot- 
 tom of the pan. This pan is oblong and semi-cylindrical 
 in form, and has a roof or casing of wood established atop, 
 which excludes the atmospheric air. In the upper part of 
 the roof at the end is an apperture communicating with a 
 ventilating box, in which a revolving fan is mounted upon 
 a horizontal axle. The workman, or any moving force, 
 which turns the double cylinder, gives a rapid motion to 
 the fan, which expels the air from the box, and aspires it, 
 and also the vapor, as it rises from the pan. Thus a par- 
 tial vacuum is produced. The juice, syrup or other liquid, 
 attaches itself to the revolving cylinder in a thin coat both 
 inside and out. In that situation the concentration is very 
 rapid, upon the same principle as Mr. Dombasle's thin 
 sheet of liquor upon the inclined plane. Three scrapers 
 are so disposed as to scrape the syrup as it thickens from the 
 bottom of the pan, and from both surfaces of the cylinder. 
 
 A patent of importation for this apparatus was taken out 
 in France by Miles Berry in 1830. 
 
 Mr. Champannoisj one of the inventors of the macera- 
 tor, has contrived an apparatus for the concentration of 
 juice and syrups, which is another form of Mr. Dombasle's 
 principle. He causes the liquid to be distilled upon the 
 top of a column or columns 15 feet high, and 3 feet in di- 
 ameter, composed of rolled copper 1 line in thickness, and 
 heated by steam at a low pressure. The liquor flows down 
 the columns in a uniform coat. Each particle of liquid in 
 order to concentrate it to 2b or 30 is exposed to a boiling 
 heat only 2 or 3 minutes. 
 
 There is an apparatus in France called Degrand's, 
 which consists of Roth's vacuum pan and an ingenious ap- 
 10* 
 
114 
 
 pendage, by which the steam, coming from the syrup un- 
 dergoing evaporation in the pan, is used for concentrating 
 fresh juice to the consistence of syrup. Of course this 
 concentration is effected without fuel. Two series of cop- 
 per tubes 3 or 4 inches in diameter, 8 or 10 feet long and 
 20 or 30 in each series, are arranged like the lengths of an 
 American rail-fence, only the posts must be supposed to be 
 vertical tubes, which form communications between all the 
 horizontal tubes of a series. The steam or vapor from the 
 pan comes into these, (in which a vacuum has been previ- 
 ously created at the same time that it was done in the pan 
 itself,) and it heats them to the boiling temperature, while 
 it does itself become condensed, and thus maintains the 
 vacuum. The juice is made to fall from wide funnels, 
 having many small tubes upon the top tubes of the two 
 series. These are immediately covered with thin coats of 
 the liquid, which trickles from one to another, and thus 
 the series are covered and kept so as long as the operator 
 chooses. From the last tubes in the series the juice, now 
 highly concentrated, passes to a reservoir under the vacuum 
 pan, into which by merely turning a cock, it is cast at plea- 
 sure. The condensed water passes from the series of tubes 
 into a cylinder, from which it can at any time be expelled, 
 and a vacuum created in lieu of it, without interrupting the 
 operations. This vacuum being at the end of the conden- 
 sing tubes, and thus in communication w r ith the vacuum pan, 
 serves to refresh from time to time the vacuum in all these, 
 and thus to accelerate and perfect the work. These two 
 series of tubes are called the condenser. It is the invention 
 of Charles Derosne of Paris. 
 
 Two apparatuses have been invented and patented in 
 England as improvements in evaporating and boiling syrups 
 and other saline liquors, by the injection of hot air ; the 
 first by William Godfrey Knell er, of London, Nov. 27, 
 1S28; and the second by William Newton of London, 
 Jan. 20, 1833. The air being heated and propelled by a 
 pneumatic apparatus, is infused among the liquid, agitating 
 it and renewing its surface, while it dilates and takes off the 
 water by its heat. 
 
115 
 
 An apparatus upon the same principle has been patented 
 in France by Brame Chevalier, of Lille. This species of 
 machine has not found much favor, though it is considered 
 by some well adapted to the refining of sugar. 
 
 It is to be observed of concentrating pans of every sort, 
 that deposits of carbonate and sulphate of lime are formed 
 upon their bottoms, and upon the worms or coils of pipe 
 resting thereon. They thus become coated with a hard in- 
 crustation, which obstructs the transmission of heat. They 
 must therefore be cleaned as often as once a week. For 
 this purpose water is thrown into them, and a small quanti- 
 ty of muriatic or sulphuric acid added thereto. They are 
 then scoured with a rag, brush, or broom. 
 
 The advantages of the vacuum pan are, that syrups or 
 molasses, which are too poor to furnish sugar, when concen- 
 trated under the common atmospheric pressure, will yield 
 it when concentrated in this ; that the vapor of which more 
 or less usually expands in the workshop, and soils and deteri- 
 orates the utensils and buildings, is used up or carried off; that 
 the sugar is whiter, and more abundant, and the proportion 
 of molasses less. The expense of such pans is consider- 
 able. They are used almost universally in the refining of 
 sugars, and to a small, but increasing extent, in the manu- 
 facture of them. 
 
 The vacuum pans have been adopted with extraordinary 
 advantages in the manufacture of cane-sugar on some of the 
 English plantations. It is represented by Messrs. Onks &f 
 Dobson, manufacturers of the apparatus, and that by means 
 of it " canes, growing in the field in the morning, are 
 converted into a beautiful while sugar in the evening." 
 While we are far from asserting that such result is impossi- 
 ble, we may assert, that we are in possession of a sample of 
 the Demarara vacuum boiled sugar, and that it is far from 
 being white. The grain or crystal is very strong and bril- 
 liant, and purer than the finest muscovados. 
 
 In making this sugar, the evaporation is effected in the 
 old pans, and the juice cleaned and skimmed in the ordina- 
 ry way. When it has acquired the density of equal parts 
 of water and saccharine, it is conveyed into receivers, and 
 
116 
 
 thence to the vacuum pans. Here it is kept at a tempera- 
 ture of 145 to 150, until it is granulated. 
 
 The sugar is then discharged into a circular receiver, 
 surrounded by a steam case, and there retained until the 
 temperature is raised to 185. It is thence removed into 
 the curing boxes. These boxes are rectangular, with false 
 bottoms of perforated metal, a few inches above the outer 
 bottoms. 
 
 Upon the false bottoms the sugar is spread in smooth 
 layers of 6 or 7 inches ; and valves connecting the cavities 
 betwixt the two bottoms, with an air-pump, are opened. 
 The air of these cavities is quickly exhausted, and the su- 
 perincumbent atmosphere presses through the sugar with 
 such force as to drive before it the molasses, and with two 
 or three repetitions, completely expel it. 
 
 The advantages of these processes, and this apparatus 
 are : 
 
 1. That in two hours the sugar made during a day, 
 say 5,000 Ibs., can be perfectly cured, and made ready 
 for the market, without the expense of curing room or hot- 
 house. 
 
 2. That the molasses is all saved, none heing left in 
 the sugar to run out, or to ferment during transportation 
 and storage. 
 
 3. That the quantity of sugar is greater ; 42,000 Ibs. 
 having been made from 37,300 gallons of cane juice, while 
 in the same ivcek only 36,800 Ibs. of sugar were made 
 from 38,500 gallons of juice in the ordinary way ; the new 
 method thus giving in one week 5000 Ibs. more product 
 from 1200 gallons less material. 
 
 4. That the quality of the sugar is so much better as to 
 command 12 per cent more money in the market. 
 
 This apparatus has been employed for many years in the 
 refineries, both of England and the United States. With- 
 out having witnessed its operation in the manufacture of 
 sugar, we are impressed with the belief that it would be 
 precisely the thing for extensive sugar-beet works. 
 
117 
 20. 
 
 THE SMALL AND HOUSEHOLD MANUFACTURE 
 OF BEET-SU GAR. 
 
 Too much has been said of the manufacture of beet- 
 sugar in a small way, to permit us to pass this topic in 
 silence. There can be no doubt of the practicability of 
 making beet sugar on any required scale from 1 Ib. to 
 10,000 Ibs. per day, but it cannot be made on any scale 
 with profit without considerable skill and experience. Also, 
 the larger the scale, provided it do not exceed the limits of 
 good management, the greater will be the profit. But 
 this constitutes no objection to the household or domestic 
 manufacture of beet sugar ; because it is well known that 
 many manufactures may be carried on in families by the aid 
 of women and children, and in the idle season of the year, 
 to the great advantage of individuals and the country, though 
 the same would be ruinous to the regular manufacturer. 
 The most of our New England farming, if considered as an 
 object of capitalists, and hired labor, instead of being exe- 
 cuted by the yeomanry and their sons and daughters, would 
 be intolerable. 
 
 On the other hand, owing to want of skill or of suitable 
 apparatus, no farmer or other person in Europe has given 
 us a satisfactory example of the production of beet sugar, as 
 a household manufacture, suited to become auxiliary to 
 agriculture, however limited. Yet this is a cherished aim 
 of the writers, and of the public sentiment of France. 
 
 There is no efficient apparatus, which is simple and 
 cheap enough to suit the purpose of common farmers. 
 Yet we believe that the time will come when sugar-mills 
 will be set up by the more forehanded of our farmers, as 
 cider-mills now are ; and that sugar-beets, which may be 
 produced by those who cannot afford to build a mill, will 
 be carried to their neighbor's, and worked up on shares, or 
 at a certain rate in money on the amount of material or of 
 product, as cider is made among us, and as wine is made 
 in the French communes. In the East, there are itinerant 
 sugar-makers, who are provided with a movable apparatus, 
 w hich they establish under a bamboo shed in a given neigh- 
 
118 
 
 borhood, and work up the canes, as the cultivaters bring 
 them in. Mr. Nosarewski suggests this as a practicable 
 mode of domesticating the beet sugar manufacture in Poland, 
 in connexion with his system of drying the beet. 
 
 The question of the small and household manufacture of 
 beet sugar, is one which we are not prepared to resolve. 
 The country must first acquire confidence and some skill in 
 the business. Above all it must be disabused of the notion 
 that the business can be conducted without any skill. By 
 the time that these preliminary objects are attained, experi- 
 ence will suggest the ways and means of effectuating the 
 wishes of the people. We have no hesitation in adding 
 that, if we had the management of a farm and the rearing 
 and fattening of stock, we would try a small beet sugar- 
 mill, even if all the improvements announced or projected 
 should prove to be moonshine. The advantages which 
 such an appendage is capable of yielding on either of the 
 old French plans, imperfect as these confessedly are, would 
 be a precious boon to American farmers. 
 
 To one of these who has turned his thoughts to this sub- 
 ject the question will occur. ' How would you go io work 
 in such a case ? ' 
 
 We should adopt the grater and presses, mainly because 
 the pulp coming from these \z bolter for feed. This opin- 
 ion does not militate with that which we have expressed in 
 favor of the macerator, for that was in reference to large 
 works, capable of making at least 1500 Ibs. of sugar per 
 day. But even in this case we should in some localities 
 prefer the grater and presses. 
 
 We should make our own grater with a little assistance 
 from a carpenter or millwright. The expense in money, 
 including sawplates, arbor and pulleys, would be about 
 $ 10. We should also construct with so much assistance as 
 might be necessary, a power for a horse or ox, which 
 should give the movement to the grater and presses. This 
 we estimate at $40, including communicating machinery. 
 
 For presses we should take two old screws, either of 
 wood or iron, as we could light upon them, and construct 
 frames, followers, &tc. with some assistance as before. 
 These, at $20 apiece, would be $40. For sacks we 
 
119 
 
 should use coarse unbleached cotton, burlap, or old coffee 
 bags. We should thus obtain 75 of these, and a dozen 
 more of twilled cotton or of duck for scums and sediment, 
 for about $ 12. For hurdles we should purchase champaign 
 baskets, and take the lids, reserving the other part for drain- 
 ing the sugar, made by reboiling molasses, and for other uses 
 in and about the workshop, $15. 
 
 2 defecating pans of 30 gallons each, $24. 2 concen- 
 trating pans of 75 gallons each, $50. 1 boiler of 50 gal- 
 lons, $20. 1 cooler, $15. Brick, mason's work and 
 grates for furnaces, $50. 
 
 We should purchase quarter wine casks, and cut off one 
 end, leaving on the other part all the bulge hoops. The 
 ends thus cut off being furnished with a top hoop thick 
 enough to lay hold and lift by, make excellent vessels for 
 receiving and trans vasing juice and syrup. The large 
 parts are good filtering boxes, 6 of which with towels and 
 strainers to correspond, would cost $12, including the tubs. 
 A small kiln and 20 crucibles for manufacturing and re- 
 vivifying animal black, would cost $75 ; and 30 crystal- 
 izers on the plan of Pay en, $15. Ladle, skimmer and 
 basin, $5. 
 
 Recapitulation. 
 
 Grater $1000 
 
 Horsepower . . . 40 00 
 
 2 presses . . . 40 00 
 
 87 sacks . . . . 12 00 
 
 80 hurdles . . . . 15 00 
 2 defecating pans . . 24 00 
 
 2 concentrating pans . . 50 00 
 Boiler . . . 20 00 
 
 5 furnaces . ... . 50 00 
 Cooler . . . . 15 00 
 
 Filtering boxes . . . 12 00 
 Kiln and crucibles . . 75 00 
 
 Crystalizers . . . . 15 00 
 Basin, skimmer and ladle . 5 00 
 
 Contingent expenses . . 20 00 
 
 Total 
 
120 
 
 With this apparatus, 2 men and 2 boys, or a man, wo- 
 man and 2 boys or girls, would work up 1 ton of beets, and 
 make 100 Ibs. of sugar in a day. The pulp would feed 4 
 oxen, 6 cows and 30 sheep. During three months begin- 
 ning the middle of October and ending the middle of Jan- 
 uary, they could work up the produce of 5 acres, and make 
 7800 Ibs. of raw sugar. This at 6 cents a pound would 
 be 
 
 $468 00 
 
 Pulp and molasses, used on the premises 
 for feeding and fattening cattle and 
 sheep 160 00 
 
 Total income, exclusive of manure , $628 00 
 
 Expenses. 
 
 Rent, interest and wear of apparatus $70 00 
 
 Beets 156 00 
 
 Labor ....... 170 00 
 
 Fuel and light ] 00 00 
 
 Bones ...... 30 00 
 
 Chemicals 5 00 
 
 Total . . . $52100 
 
 Net profit . . . . $107 00 
 Thus a farmer, after deducting his own board and wages, 
 and those of any member of his family, or other person em- 
 ployed in the work, and paying the interest of the invest- 
 ment, and all other expenses, would have above 100 dollars, 
 clear gain, besides the important advantage of preparing his 
 land by the beet culture for superior crops of grain ; and 
 doubling his stable manure, if he chose to increase his live 
 stock, to fat some of it, and consume all his winter feed on 
 the place. If he continued the manufacture until the 1st 
 of March, as it would be worth while to do, for the sake of 
 the pulp, though the sugar would be one or two per cent, 
 less, the profit would be considerably increased. 
 
PART III. 
 
 HISTORY AND PROSPECTS OF 
 THE BUSINESS. 
 
 IT is rather more than a century since Margraff, a cele- 
 brated Prussian chemist, residing at Berlin, made, the dis- 
 covery that the beet contains a good crystalizable sugar. 
 His attention was first attracted to the subject by the sac- 
 charine savor of the beet, and the crystaline appearance of 
 its flesh, when examined with a microscope. Having cut 
 some beets into thin slices, he dried perfectly and then pul- 
 verized them. To eight ounces of the powder, he added 
 sixteen of highly rectified spirits, and exposed the whole to 
 a gentle heat in a sand bath. As soon as this mash was 
 heated to the boiling point, he removed it. from the fire, and 
 filtered it into a flask, which he corked up and left to itself. 
 In a few weeks he found that cystals were formed, which 
 exhibited all the physical and chemical properties of cane 
 sugar. Having submitted several other vegetable sub- 
 stances to the same treatment, he found that they all yielded 
 sugar in different proportions, but none of them so much as 
 the beet. In 1747 he addressed to the Academy of Berlin 
 a memoir, entitled, Chemical Experiments, made with the 
 view of extracting Genuine Sugar from Divers Plants, 
 which grow in our Countries. MargrafF solved the im- 
 portant problem that genuine sugar is not confined to the 
 cane and the tropics. After this he enlarged and varied 
 his experiments, but did not invent means of making sugar 
 11 
 
122 
 
 from the new material on a manufacturing scale. Yet he 
 seems to have had a prescience, that his discovery would 
 one day assume importance ; and he recommended it to the 
 attention of the Prussian cultivators, and particularly to the 
 small farmers, as offering a new and beneficial branch of 
 agriculture. 
 
 It was Achard, also a chemist of Berlin, who invented 
 the first method of making beet sugar on a large scale, and 
 at a moderate expense. He first announced this result in 
 1797. In 1799, a letter from him was inserted in a French 
 periodical, entitled, The Annals of Chemistry, in which he 
 gave the details of his method. He there stated the cost 
 at 4f cents the pound of Silesia, about 6 cents the pound 
 avoirdupois, without counting the benefit to be derived from 
 several residuums. He also expressed the opinion that 
 with these included, and with some improvements in the 
 processes, this sugar might be made at half that cost. 
 
 This announcement caused considerable sensation in the 
 Parisian world, eliciting admiration and ridicule by turns. 
 The high price to which sugar had risen in France, in conse- 
 quence of the capture by the English of nearly all her colonial 
 possessions, gave something more than a speculative interest 
 to the statements of Achard. The National Institute appoint- 
 ed a commission to examine the subject. The result oi their 
 investigation was, that the cost of the raw sugar of the beet 
 would be 16 cents a pound. The price of sugar was such 
 that even at that cost, a very large profit might have been 
 made ; but this consideration was not sufficient to in- 
 duce many persons to take the risk of a peace with Eng- 
 land, supposed at that time to be approaching. Only 
 two establishments were formed, one at St. Ouen and the 
 other at Chelles, in the environs of Paris. Both were fail- 
 ures, partly from the bad quality of their beets, and partly 
 from the inexperience of their conductors. With them 
 went down the hopes which had arisen of this new and in- 
 teresting branch of industry in France. 
 
 It is difficult to say whether these hopes would ever have 
 been resuscitated, if political events of an overruling nature, 
 had not supervened. By the Berlin and Milan decrees all 
 
123 
 
 colonial articles were prohibited, and that " continental sys- 
 tem," so unjust and extravagant in its design, but so impor- 
 tant and premanent in its effects, was introduced. From 
 that time, 1806, chemists and economists applied them- 
 selves with renewed zeal to the search after an indigenous 
 source for the supply of an article, once a luxury, but now 
 a necessary of life. It was supposed at one time that this 
 desideratum had been attained in the production of grape 
 syrup and sugar, of which, in the course of two years many 
 millions of pounds were made. This sugar, though abun- 
 dant in some varieties of the grape, raised in a southern 
 latitude, possesses only f of the sweetening power of the 
 sugar of canes and beets. Nevertheless, sugar being at 
 about one dollar a pound, a great number of manufactories 
 were erected, and science and industry were tasked to im- 
 prove the processes, and bring the product to perfect sugar. 
 
 In this state of things it was announced that the beet su- 
 gar manufacture had all along been successfully carried on 
 in Silesia. It was declared that from 4 to 6 per cent of su- 
 gar was obtained, besides several other valuable matters. 
 Other German chemists had instituted experiments, and 
 published results agreeing with those of Achard. And, 
 now, 180910, experiments were recommenced in France, 
 particularly by Mr. Deycux, of the Institute, who had re- 
 ported on the subject to that body in 1800. These experi- 
 ments resulted in the production of abundant samples of 
 beet sugar, both clayed and refined, which served to revive 
 and increase the hopes of France in this source of supply. 
 No more than 1 to 2 per cent was obtained ; the beets be- 
 ing of an inferior sort, and raised in the neighborhood of 
 Paris, where a vast deal of ammoniacal manure, hostile to 
 the producton of saccharine, is used. 
 
 In 1811, Mr. Drapiez, of Lille, worked 55 tons of 
 beets, from which he obtained 2 per cent of brown, and 
 !- percent of refined sugar. In the winter of the same 
 years an experimenter at Paris succeeded in obtaining 4J 
 per cent from white beets, raised at a considerable distance 
 from Paris, and without manure. This was the first essay 
 in France which approximated to the results of Achard. 
 
124 
 
 It was made by Mr. Charles Derosne, and was detailed in 
 the Moniteur. It demonstrated how faulty had been the 
 selection of sorts, and the mode of culture. At this time 
 Achard had published in German an extensive and valuable 
 work in two volumes, in which he had treated with minute- 
 ness of every department of the business, from the raising 
 of the seed to the refining of the sugar. This treatise con- 
 tained not only Achard's experience of thirteen years, but 
 also accounts of the manufacture of beet sugar on a grand 
 scale by other persons in Prussia. 
 
 In a report upon these enterprises by a commission, ap- 
 pointed by the Prussian government, the product in sugar 
 was stated at 6 Ibs. 1 I oz. per hundred pounds of beets, 
 aod the cost of it at 6 cents and 6 mills per pound. 
 
 On the 15th of January, 1812, Napoleon issued a decree, 
 establishing five chemical schools for teaching the processes 
 of beet sugar making, detailing one hundred students from 
 the schools of medicine, pharmacy and chemistry to be in- 
 structed in those establishments, and creating four imperial 
 factories, capable of making 4,400,000 Ibs. of beet sugar 
 per annum. Munificent premiums were, also decreed to 
 several individuals, who had distinguished themselves by 
 their persevering and successful application to this new in- 
 dustry. Among them was Mr. Isnard, now resident, as 
 French Vice Consul at Boston. A number of factories 
 were immediately added to those already existing in France, 
 and in 1812-13, a large quantity of beet sugar, both raw 
 and refined, was produced. Mr. Dombasle substituted the 
 colonial method of clarifying the fresh juice, appropriately 
 called defecation, for that of Achard, which consisted in the 
 use of sulphuric acid, instead of lime. The colonial meth- 
 od, with few exceptions and some small modifications, now 
 prevails in the manufactories of Europe. 
 
 Such was the prosperous beginning in France, when the 
 disasters of Moscow introduced that bane of manufacturing 
 enterprise, an uncertain political future. Confidence and en- 
 ergy gradually gave way to depression and despair. A faint 
 struggle was maintained for one season, until the Cossacks, 
 quartered in the sugar-mills, and the allied artillery seizing up- 
 
125 
 
 on the beasts that moved them, gave the manufacturers the 
 coup de grace. The foreign officers billeted in their houses, 
 became, from curiosity, their principal customers, being struck 
 with the brilliance and purity of this unexpected product. 
 After the final overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo, the 
 price of refined sugar, which forms the chief consumption of 
 France, fell to 12 cents a pound. Still, to the surprise of all, 
 two beet sugar manufactories survived the shock of this re- 
 verse, tremendous indeed but useful, because it demonstra- 
 ted, what never could have been done under the unnatural 
 stimulus of the " continental system," that the beet sugar 
 business possessed an intrinsic value, rendering it capable of 
 an independent existence, and raising it beyond the reach of 
 accident, political disfavor or caprice. The establishments 
 which survived are at Arras in the department of the Pas 
 de Calais, and at Pont a Mousson, near Nanci in the de- 
 partment of the Meurthe. 
 
 The retirement of the allied armies left French alac- 
 rity and energy once more in freedom. Several eminent 
 and patriotic citizens formed beet sugar establishments, 
 more perhaps to give the benefit of experience to their 
 countrymen, than with any view to profit. Men of genius 
 and profound research occupied themselves with experi- 
 ments and published their results. Among the most im- 
 portant of the early establishments were those of Count 
 Chaptal, Mr. Dombasle, Marshal Marmont, and Mr. Cres- 
 pel Delisse. Chaptal in his Memoirs on Beet Sugar, re- 
 lated the experience of several years in the cultivation of 
 the beet and its conversion into sugar. Mr. Dombasle did 
 the same in his work entitled F;tcts and Observations 
 relating to the Manufacture of Beet Sugar, and in other 
 publications, which have from time to time followed it. This 
 gentleman, with a prospect of many more years of eminent 
 usefulness, still presides over the national farm school at 
 Roville, near Luneville, in Lorraine. As a skilful and in- 
 dustrious operative, Mr. Crespel deserves honorable men- 
 tion. He was originally a laborer, and became the fore- 
 man of the first beet sugar factory established at Arras. 
 The proprietor having sunk in the general wreck of 1814, 
 11* 
 
126 
 
 Mr. Crespel succeeded him with the advantage of having 
 his fixtures at a reduced price. This was one of the two 
 establishments which survived, and it continues to be one 
 of the most successful in France. Mr. Crespel is interest- 
 ed, either as part or sole proprietor, in seven or eight other 
 farms and factories. He has received a gold medal from the 
 Society of Encouragement at Paris, and the honor of knight- 
 hood from the French king and from several foreign 
 sovereigns. 
 
 The government have from time to time increased du- 
 ties on foreign, and on their own colonial sugars, but this 
 has been done with no design to protect the beet sugar 
 manufacturers, but simply for revenue. The competition 
 of beet sugar with colonial has reduced the price of sugar 
 in the markets of France, 50 per cent. Consumption has 
 increased in a ratio almost precisely equal. It is somewhat 
 greater, which may be accounted for from the increase of 
 population. In 1825, the consumption in France was 
 143,692,021 Ibs. In 1836, it was 230,304,549 Ibs., being 
 an increase in eleven years of 86,614,528 Ibs. During 
 the same period the production of beet sugar increased 
 from 8,816,000 Ibs., to 107,905,785 Ibs., or 99,089,785 
 Ibs. The excess of this above the increase of consumption 
 is 12,475,257, and to this extent the importation of sugar 
 for consumption fell off. In consequence of the decrease 
 of the revenue derived from the duties on the importation of 
 sugar, which had taken place to the extent of $1,500,000, 
 the government some years ago proposed an excise on 
 beet sugar. In 1837, the legislature very unexpectedly 
 sanctioned this project and it is now a law. This excise 
 is $2,85 on every 220 Ibs., to which is to be added a tax 
 of $10 on every license for the manufacture, and the ex- 
 penses of collection ; all which comes to 1 cent and 7 mills 
 per pound. Recently the duties on sugars imported from 
 the French colonies have been reduced, so that the pro- 
 tection of the beet sugar in France, which used to be about 
 44 cents, is now inconsiderable. It is probable that many 
 factories will fail in consequence of these measures ; and 
 this we should not upon the whole consider an evil ; for 
 
127 
 
 in consequence of the great profits, which under good man- 
 agement, have been derived from this business, the rush of 
 competitors has been prodigious. The withdrawal of those, 
 who have trusted to the goodness of the business, rather 
 than to solid capital and competent skill, will be a blessing 
 to the manufacturer, who is possessed of those requisites, 
 and no loss to the country at large. We have no doubt 
 whatever, that the business is destined to continue, and to 
 flourish in France and throughout the continent of Europe. 
 It is the opinion of the oldest and intelligent manufacturers, 
 that in twenty years continental Europe will cease to take 
 sugar from the West Indies. According to late commer- 
 cial intelligence the demand for West India sugars is rapidly 
 declining in Russia by reason of the increased supply of 
 the indigenous article. The number of beet sugar factories 
 in that country in 1836, was 30, but is doubtless much 
 greater now. At that time the number in Belgium was 20 
 and increasing. In France in 1837 there were 542 in 
 operation, and 39 in construction. It has recently been 
 stated in the public journals that the states composing the 
 German Customs Union, possessed, in 1838, 87 factories in 
 operation, and 66 in construction. The production of the 
 beet sugar factories averages about 200,000 Ibs. each, so 
 that we may reckon for the 203 factories known to exist in 
 other parts of the continent besides France, 40,600,000 
 Ibs. of sugar, making the total annual production of beet 
 sugar in Europe about 150,000,000 Ibs. It remains to be 
 observed that in Austria and Italy the business has been com- 
 menced with great zeal. It was stated to us by Mr. Blan- 
 quet, a distinguished manufacturer at Famars, near Valen- 
 ciennes, that a single Austrian prince was establishing works 
 capable of converting into sugar the produce of 8,000 hec- 
 tares, 19,750 acres ! 
 
 In Great Britain and Ireland only two beet sugar factories 
 have been commenced, one of them near London, and the 
 other near Belfast. The first manufactured in 1837 a consid- 
 erable quantity of refined sugar, which was so completely un- 
 distinguishable from refined cane sugar, that the government 
 issued an extraordinary notice to the effect that any attempt 
 
128 
 
 fraudulently to export beet sugar with benefit of drawback, 
 would be visited with the severest penalties of the law. It 
 may here be observed that in France a similar fraud is 
 constantly taking place, beet sugar being exported, with 
 benefit of drawback as cane sugar ; and that, during the 
 " continental system," cane sugar was smuggled into 
 France and other parts of the continent and sold for beet, 
 the identity of the articles being so perfect as to defy the 
 scrutiny of custom-house officers, and the analysis of chem- 
 ists to detect any difference. 
 
 The factory near London is said to have stopped in con- 
 sequence of a notice from the government of their intention 
 to lay an excise of about 5 cents a pound upon beet sugar, 
 equal to the duty on East and West India sugars. It is 
 the opinion of Englishmen, skilled in the manufacture and 
 refining of sugar, that the beet sugar business cannot be 
 sustained under such an excise. Others, however, ex- 
 press great confidence that, by means of the application of 
 the dry pulp to paper making, whereby its value is in- 
 creased fourfold, the business will yet obtain a permanent 
 footing in Great Britain. We do not think that a fair ex- 
 periment has yet been made in that country. The original 
 prejudice of the English against the new manufacture, 
 forced forward by the odious machinery of the " continental 
 system," to become a rival of their principal colonial sta- 
 ple, was very violent. That it still exists, and that too in 
 minds which ought to be employed in destroying instead 
 of strengthening it, is too apparent from some limited and 
 dogmatical views on the French beet sugar manufacture, 
 in the Edinburgh Review of April, 1837. As this article 
 has been much read in the United States, it is proper that 
 we should take some notice of it. 
 
 That the protection of the beet sugar manufacture has 
 been very high in France, much higher than the tax on any 
 article of general and necessary use ought ever to be ; and 
 that it is still so in most of the continental countries of Eu- 
 rope, we readily admit. It is about 1 00 per cent on the 
 original cost. We have however seen that the beet sugar 
 business did not perish by the shock of falling from a protec- 
 
129 
 
 tion of 300 per cent to almost none at all. For after the 
 general peace, sugar fell as low in France as it is in the free 
 ports of Europe at this time. Refined sugar is stated to have 
 been but 12 cents. An immense stock had accumula- 
 ted in the sugar colonies, which had been successively 
 captured, and were in the hands of the British, insomuch 
 that they fed horses and other animals on sugar. Yet the 
 working classes of England, under the onerous duty of 6 
 cents a pound, were drinking their coffee without sugar, and 
 they continue to a great extent to do so to this day. The 
 object of this sacrifice is to protect the West India monopoly. 
 Here is injustice and extravagance of protection to a partic- 
 ular interest at the expense of a whole country, which has 
 no parallel except in the odious " continental system" itself. 
 The protection of beet sugar in France, moderate and wholly 
 incidental, cannot be compared to it. Who does not see 
 that the protection of West India sugar in Great Britain by 
 a prohibition of all other, except from a limited territory in 
 the East, furnishes the same sort of argument in kind, and 
 stronger in degree against the profitableness, and practicabil- 
 ity of the production of cane sugar in Jamaica, which is urged 
 by the editors of that celebrated journal against the beet 
 sugar in France. The condemnation of beet sugar in the 
 eyes of the Scottish economists is, that it has received pro- 
 tection. Tried by the same rule, what must be the fate of 
 British West India sugar, and of every important branch of 
 British industry ; and of the Louisiana sugar planters, the 
 eastern cotton and woolen manufacturers, salt makers, hat 
 makers, tailors and shoemakers ? 
 
 The editors state that " the great impetus given to beet 
 sugar making in France was in 1806." Now in fact the 
 beet sugar manufacture did not exist in France at that time, 
 nor until four years after, nor to an extent worth naming 
 until five or six years after. No " impetus" was given to it 
 until the experiments of 181 1 , and the decrees of the empe- 
 ror awarding premiums, and establishing schools and model 
 factories in 1812. 
 
 Again, they assert that " in two or three years more France 
 will be fleeced of 2,600,000 per annum for the benefit of 
 
130 
 
 ihe land-owners of Alsace" Alsace is not a seat of this 
 manufacture. Comprising two departments it has but 5 
 beet sugar factories, while the single department of the 
 North has 226, and that of the Pas-de-Calais 133 ! They 
 state the quantity of beet sugar made in France in 1829 at 
 four millions of kilogrammes. It was just double that amount- 
 Such errors show that the editors had not examined the 
 history and present state of the beet sugar business in France, 
 and were not therefore competent to pronounce an opinion 
 upon it. 
 
 Their first error lies in not taking into view the fact, 
 (with which they were probably unacquainted,) that it has 
 already been submitted to and has survived that test of its 
 utility which they themselves propose, and before which 
 they assert that " it would quickly disappear," viz., a fair 
 competition with colonial sugars. 
 
 The second error consists in assuming that all the revenue 
 which a government fails to derive from duties on importa- 
 tions, in consequence of home supply, is so much wealth 
 lost to the nation. It would follow then that a nation which 
 produces everything within itself, must soon sink under the 
 burden of being exempt from Custom House duties, acknowl- 
 edged on all hands to be the most cheating and wasteful 
 mode of taxation ! At this rate what immense wealth Great 
 Britain and the United States are respectively losing by their 
 woolen and cotton manufactures, though they are supplied 
 with cheaper and better goods of these kinds than any coun- 
 tries in the world. The assumption is absurd. To have 
 given a semblance of solidity to the argument, it should have 
 been shown that, while the revenue of France from the sugar 
 duties had fallen off, no reduction of price, and no increase 
 of consumption had taken place. The editors seem to have 
 been conscious of this, for they say hesitatingly, that "the 
 actual consumption of sugar in France for the last seven 
 years, is not supposed to have materially increased." But 
 it had increased in that period more than fifty per cent, and 
 the price had fallen five cents a pound, or fifty per cent. 
 
 It does not appear that the editors had examined any of 
 the French works on this subject, except a couple of pam- 
 
131 
 
 phlets by a merchant of Havre, who was probably interested 
 in the colonial sugar trade, which, when beet sugar arose, 
 was enjoying an undisputed monopoly of the kingdom. Beet 
 sugar has reduced the price more than fifty per cent, and 
 has increased the consumption in the same proportion. The 
 first of these facts is not noticed by the editors, and the sec- 
 ond is denied ! Neither is any notice taken of the great fact 
 in the case, that the beet culture and beet sugar manufac- 
 ture increase manure and fertilize farms in a manner unpar- 
 alleled by any art, contrivance or discovery in the whole 
 history of agriculture. Listen to Mr. Crespel, who, after 
 25 years of experience, testifies in 1837, before a committee 
 of the Chamber of Deputies, as follows. " The culture of 
 the beet has increased remarkably the value of real estate. 
 He lately purchased at the rate of $ 1 52 per acre some lands 
 which were let at $3,80 an acre. Since he had cultivated 
 these lands with beets in a rotation of crops, the number of 
 sheep kept thereon had doubled, and the neat stock had 
 trebled. The rents of leasehold property had doubled where 
 the land was of middling quality, and in some cases they had 
 quadrupled." 
 
 Mr. Spineux, another cultivator and manufacturer in the 
 department of the Somme, testified on the same occasion, 
 "that when he took possession of his farm of 350 acres, it 
 gave a profit of $855. On annexing a beet sugar manufac- 
 tory he obtained a net profit of $1425." 
 
 Mr. Clinchain, of the department of the Sarthe, testified 
 before the same committee, that " he cultivated about 1100 
 acres, 550 with beets. He procured 100 bullocks from 
 Poitou, which he fed with the pulp and a little straw. His 
 neighbors digged, cleaned and carted his beets for the tops. 
 This practice has the effect of diffusing so much plenty, that 
 during the beet harvest butter falls at Angier, four miles 
 from his factory." 
 
 Mr. Ducroquet of the department of Pas-de-Calais, testi- 
 fied, " that having expended $5000 in the culture and man- 
 ufacture, he received $9000 for his products ; that he has 
 quadrupled the number of his sheep, having raised it from 
 100 badly kept to 400, which he fatted for the butcher. 
 
133 
 
 Independent of the resource which the beet furnishes for the 
 nourishment of animals, it has the advantage of being the 
 only thing capable of bringing about the suppression of 
 naked fallows." 
 
 It is the unanimous opinion in the neighborhoods of Dun- 
 kirk, Valenciennes and Arras, that real estate has risen at 
 least 50 per cent in consequence of the introduction of the 
 beet sugar. This is the same as if money should spontane- 
 ously increase in quantity, so as after a short period to give 
 the lender $150 for 100, besides paying him his interest. 
 
 It has been said that the opening of the Erie canal in 
 New York raised the value of real estate in the western and 
 central parts of New York 50 to 100 per cent. The beet 
 sugar culture is better, because it is at the option of every cul- 
 tivator and manufacturer of enterprise and industry whether 
 he will have it or not. It is what the canal would be if 
 every farmer could bring it by his own door. 
 
 Another important effect of the beet sugar culture, is the 
 cleaning and dividing of the soil, serving in this respect as a 
 substitute for fallowing. It is the best of preparations for 
 wheat and other grain crops. In a country like France, 
 where one fourth of the arable land used to lie fallow all the 
 time, the utility of this culture as a substitute for fallowing, is 
 a matter of no slight importance. 
 
 To consider then the beet sugar business merely in its 
 manufacturing aspect, leaving out all these rich results, or to 
 urge as an argument against it some little derangement of 
 commerce and revenue, a necessary consequence of any 
 considerable change, be it beneficial or otherwise, is to enter- 
 tain a narrow a*hd deceptive view of the subject. We readi- 
 ly concede that, considered as a manufacturing business, 
 without giving any additional agricultural profits, or connect- 
 ing itself with any agricultural improvements, it is not yet 
 proved that it would be very profitable, but that it is highly 
 so when the manufacture is made subsidiary to agriculture, 
 and fills up the inactive season of the northern winter, we 
 confidently believe, and do not expect any intelligent person 
 to deny. 
 
 Suppose however, that it should be found that the pulp 
 
133 
 
 is worth for paper-making five times its value as feed for ani- 
 mals: or that the processes and machinery of the manufac- 
 ture should be so perfected that the ten or ten and a half per 
 cent of saccharine known to exist in the beet, should be all 
 extracted and crystalized ; in either of these cases beet 
 sugar making would be highly profitable as a mere manufac- 
 turing concern. Now, in fact, neither of these improvements 
 is any longer hypothetical. In England Mr. Kyan has ob- 
 tained a patent for making paper of beet-roots after the juice 
 is expressed. We have seen various specimens of paste- 
 board, and of firm and durable wrapping paper, made of this 
 new material. We are informed that good printing paper 
 has been made chiefly of the same material ; and it is con- 
 fidently expected that fine writing paper will be produced. 
 The immense and increasing demand for paper, and the 
 vast commerce now carried on in rags, are sufficient proof 
 of the importance of this application of the beet-root pulp. 
 
 It is well known to those who have attended to the pro- 
 gress of this business in France, that the profits of the manu- 
 facturers have been much absorbed by efforts, probably too 
 earnest, to keep up with the improvements of machinery. 
 Much has been lost in unproductive experiments. It would 
 be ungracious and ungrateful in us to find fault with our 
 French friends on this account ; since they have carried 
 the business through the necessary period of infancy, and 
 reared it at their exclusive cost to be a blessing to mankind. 
 They have all along been conscious that they were obtain- 
 ing from the beet but little more than half its saccharine. 
 This conviction has naturally caused a restlessness, and a 
 constant striving after something more perfect. It is cer- 
 tain that those who have resisted all innovation, and adhered 
 substantially to the original processes and machinery, have 
 been the most successful ; but if all had been equally cau- 
 tious, little improvement would have been made, and man- 
 kind would have been at a remoter period, and in a less 
 degree benefited. Nevertheless, we fully believe that the 
 cotton manufacture has never been established in any coun- 
 try with fewer failures, and less fluctuation and loss, than 
 12 
 
134 
 
 the beet sugar business, all new as it is, in France. We 
 trust that enough has been said in the second part of 
 this treatise, to show that the desideratum which the French 
 manufacturers have so keenly felt, is in all probability 
 attained ; that a method has been discovered by which the 
 beet is deprived of all its saccharine, be the same more or 
 less ; and that it is obtained and operated upon in such a 
 manner as to be nearly all crystalizable. Hitherto a large 
 portion of the saccharine matter extracted from the beet has 
 resulted in molasses, a residuum in the ordinary French sys- 
 tems of manufacture, of very slight value in the market. Of 
 course, every thing which arrests the formation of it, adds by 
 so much to the deposit of sugar, and the profits of the pro- 
 prietor. 
 
 The following are the particulars of the discovery and 
 progress of Mr. Schuzenbach's improvement. Having ob- 
 tained his result after much study, and many experiments in 
 the laboratory, he communicated it to some distinguished cap- 
 italists of Baden, among whom were the wealthy house of 
 de Haber, intimately connected with Rothchilds. There- 
 upon a company was formed, not however with the immedi- 
 ate design of erecting a factory upon the new system, but 
 merely of proving its pretensions. To this end they advan- 
 ced 10 percent on a capital of a million of florins, (about 
 $400,000,) for setting up experimental works, upon a scale 
 so large as to test completely the susceptibility of the method 
 to become manufacturing. They, however, took a bond of 
 Mr. Schuzenbach, with securities to refund this advance in 
 case the experiment failed. They appointed a scientific 
 and practical commission to follow closely the experiments 
 of Mr. Schuzenbach, and to report the result. Commis- 
 sioners from the governments of Wurtemburg and Bavaria 
 also attended. The experiments were continued during 
 five or six weeks, in which seven thousand pounds of sugar 
 of superior grain and purity were produced. 
 
 The Baden company were so well satisfied with the report 
 of their commission, that they immediately determined to 
 erect an immense establishment in the environs of Carls- 
 ruhe, at an expense of $200,000 for fixtures only, the resi- 
 
135 
 
 due of their capital stock being reserved for current ex- 
 penses. At the same time factories on the new system were 
 commenced in Wurtemburg, Prussia and Bavaria. 
 
 It seems impossible for a human affair to have been con- 
 ducted in a more infallible way. 
 
 We were first informed of some of the leading facts in 
 relation to this subject by David Turnbull, Esq., of Paris, 
 in May 1837. At that time we had completed the exam- 
 ination of the beet sugar business in France, and were about 
 to return to the United States. Struck, however, with the 
 self-evident advantage of operating upon pulverized instead 
 of sliced or grated beets, we determined to investigate the 
 subject on the spot. Our visit to Germany for this purpose 
 was in, part fruitless, as has already been stated. But we 
 were enabled to collect from the conversation of Mr. 
 Schuzenbach, and from other sources, facts by which we 
 became fully persuaded that his discoveries would impart to 
 the beet sugar industry a new capacity of contributing to 
 the prosperity, comfort and improvement of the northern 
 inhabitants of the Old World and the New. Our experi- 
 ence, probably with processes and machines inferior to his, 
 has been sufficient to confirm us in this persuasion. 
 
 We may now take it for granted that from beets of the 
 right sort properly cultivated, 7 to 8 per cent of good crys- 
 talized sugar, fit for immediate consumption, and probably 
 equal in appearance and value to the Havana white or 
 clayed sugar, may be obtained, and this at an expense not 
 exceeding 4 cents a pound. With these data let us consider 
 the capacity of the beet to compete with the cane. 
 
 In the first place we find this great fact in the case, that 
 the Louisiana sugar planters with $45,000,000 em ployed in 
 their establishments produce but about half as much sugar 
 as the French beet-sugar makers, with a capital of only 
 {$28,000,000, and getting but little more than half the sugar 
 in the beet ! Even these numbers are more favorable to 
 the cane sugar than the truth will bear, because the amount 
 of Louisiana capital is taken from a document of Congress, 
 published in 1831, whereas, that of the French is taken 
 fyom documents of 1837 ; and it is also exclusive of current 
 expenses, while the French amount includes their whole 
 
136 
 
 capital fixed and floating The quantity of sugar produced 
 in Louisiana in 18367 was 52,000,000 Ibs.; of beet sugar 
 in France, same year 107,905,785 Ibs. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Spalding, of Sapelo island, in the State 
 of Georgia, addressed in 1830 several papers to the southern 
 cultivators, and at the request of the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, to the federal government, on the sugar cul- 
 ture. This citizen holds the following language in relation 
 to beet sugar.* 
 
 " I think that although at particular times and under particular circum- 
 stances, sugar, like rice and cotton, may be introduced from Bengal in 
 injurious rivalship with the products of the United States, yet, if our 
 public councils are preserved from the pollution of monopolists, and if 
 the heart of the American farmer is left to go on in union with the 
 head and hand, there is no difficulty or rivalry in his way, that his en- 
 terprise and perseverance will not overcome. 
 
 " Before we arrive at this conclusion, however, under existing cir- 
 cumstances, we should take into our deliberation, what the growers of 
 sugar cane may have to apprehend from the manufacture of sugar from 
 beet root ; and it so happens that if the light of experience is of any val- 
 ue, the light of past experience will assist our inquiry. 
 
 " The saccharine properties of beets began to attract attention about 
 the time that St. Domingo, the greatest sugar colony belonging to Eu- 
 rope, was convulsed with insurrection. Louisiana, a neglected province 
 of Spain, was acquired by the United States just when Bonaparte, aban- 
 doning the hope of foreign colonies, determined that France should pro- 
 duce within herself all that France might require. His mighty mind 
 was directed to this end. Sugar had been considered for centuries in 
 Europe by old and young, by rich and poor, a necessary of life. He 
 drew the attention of the French to the manufacture of sugar from 
 beets, with zeal and power. Count Chaptal brought all his science to 
 the labor. Marshal Marmont (the Duke of Ragusa,) with many other 
 distinguished favorites, brought all their wealth to the enterprise : many 
 books were written. Well, the result, after twenty years of effort, is, 
 that France produced, in the last statements I have received, 5,000,000 
 pounds brown sugar, which cost a franc, or 20 cents, per pound. 
 
 " Louisiana in the same year, produced for export 87,000 hogsheads, 
 equal to 100,000,000 Ibs., at about 6 cents per pound. Do we require 
 any other evidence to put down apprehension upon this subject? If we 
 do, these French books, in my mind, would furnish it. A detailed list 
 of the manufactories of beet sugar has been published in 1829 ; and af- 
 ter reducing their weights and measures to our scale, it would appear to 
 give something like a mean product of 360 Ibs. to the acre of beets. Now 
 agriculturalists know that root crops require deep preparations, are trou- 
 blesome to sow, are troublesome to harvest, and still more^troublesome to 
 preserve, than the other products of the soil. 
 
 " But again the beet juice gives but 3 per cent of sweets, while the 
 cane juice affords at least 10 per cent. The beet juice requires for its 
 
 * Doc. No. 62, 21st Congress, 2d ses., Ho. of Reps., p. 39. 
 
137 
 
 preservation and preparation for the kettle a heavy expenditure for sul- 
 phuric acid and animal charcoal, neither of which are necessary or ad- 
 vantageous to the juices of the sugar cane. We owe the introduction 
 of the hydrometer and thermometer in the manufactory of raw sugar to 
 the French chemists, but there our obligations end." 
 
 According to Chaptal's account published in 1822, 
 which we have already mentioned, he obtained 803 Ibs. 
 of sugar to the acre ; the Duke of Ragusa, (who had 
 no factory while Bonaparte was on the throne or alive,) 
 S25 Ibs., and Crespel 1003 Ibs. Taking the lowest pro- 
 duction here mentioned we convict Mr. Spalding of an 
 error of 443 Ibs. to the acre, or nearly f of the whole pro- 
 duct. Again, he states that " the beet juice yields but 3 j 
 per cent of sweets, while the cane affords 1 per cent at 
 least." Here is an error of 7, {. e. just f, the beet in fact 
 containing 10J per cent of sweets. It is not necessary to 
 specify all the minor errors which Mr. Spalding has fallen 
 into in this statement. We quote him that the reader may 
 know what a cane planter says upon this subject. 
 
 The average produce of the acre of beets in France is 
 30,000 Ibs., and it has been about 26,000 Ibs. at North- 
 ampton. Five per cent on this is 1300 Ibs., the quantity 
 of sugar which may be safely calculated on from every 
 acre of beets. Mr. Crespel states his product in sugar 
 to be 1500 Ibs. to the acre. 
 
 In the United States, according to the statement of the 
 Central Committee of the Sugar Planters of Louisiana, 
 the quantity of cane sugar obtained from an acre, is 800 to 
 1000 Ibs. under the most favorable circumstances. * 
 The Agricultural Society of Baton Rouge did, however, 
 qualify this statement as follows : 
 
 " But sugar cane, on account of its numerous roots, and its strong 
 vegetating power, soon wears out the richest soil. Even our alluvial 
 lands on the banks of the Mississippi, inferior, perhaps, to none in the 
 world, and planted for nearly twenty years past with cane, are nearly 
 worn out. When, moreover, we recollect the misfortune of unfavora- 
 ble seasons, it will be immediately perceived that much remains to be 
 deducted from this calculation of 1000 Ibs. of sugar to the acre. It has 
 been proved above that the mean annual produce of three and five years 
 amounted to but 6 per cent, or 600 Ibs. of sugar to every acre," 
 
 * Doc. No. 62, as above, pp. 6. 24. 35, 
 
138 
 
 In point of productiveness, therefore, the beet has 100 per 
 cent the advantage over the cane in the United States ; and 
 this without supposing that any of the improvements upon 
 the old French methods of manufacture will ultimately 
 prove available. 
 
 But suppose that 7 or 8 per cent is obtained from the 
 beet by the method of dessication, or by some of the im- 
 proved French or Russian methods of maceration, how 
 will the comparison then stand ? The acre of beets will 
 give 1800 to 2000 Ibs. of sugar, just thrice as much as an 
 acre of cane. 
 
 In the southern States they make one hand cultivate 5 
 acres. This is the general rate of tasking the laborer on 
 the sugar plantations. The more humane and enlightened 
 of the Louisianians consider 4 acres as fully sufficient to 
 employ one hand. It is, however, well known that the 
 slaves on the southern sugar plantations are constantly 
 overtasked. They have always been so in the British and 
 French West Indies, in the former of which 1 acre, and in 
 the latter 1 J, are all that a slave was ever required to till and 
 tend. In Louisiana they cultivate less by hand than in the 
 West Indies. We suppose that in all cases the severest 
 overworking is in the manufacture of the sugar, not in the 
 cultivation of the plant. Hear Mr. Spalding, who had been 
 twenty years engaged in sugar planting, and professes to be 
 acquainted with the system in Louisiana.* 
 
 " I conceive the negroes of Louisiana are too severely worked. 
 There are too many men upon their plantations, and so far as I know 
 they were declining in numbers and sinking in strength ; but this arose 
 in a great measure from the necessities of the planter, who is active and 
 energetic; and in general no more spares himself than he does his slave. 
 It was certainly not because sugar cane was the crop, but because the 
 planter had, perhaps, in the beginning, been mistaken in his means, 
 and was making manly efforts to relieve himself. 
 
 " When the culture of cane is confined to two acres of land to the 
 hand, with some accompanying crop, the negroes unquestionably prefer 
 it to any other culture in the country. They appear to me, so far as I 
 can judge from my own, to enjoy more health and to multiply faster 
 than they did before I introduced sugar cane among them ; and this is 
 reasonable, for every man, woman and child upon the plantation is feed- 
 ing upon the sweets of the cane for three months of the year." 
 
 * Doc. 62, as above, p. 46. 
 
139 
 
 There can then be no doubt that 5 acres of cane is too 
 much for one hand, and that the labor of the sugar slave in 
 the field, can only be deemed reasonable, because it is less 
 unreasonable than his labor in the mill. 
 
 Now let us inquire how much land one hand can culti- 
 vate with beets. In France they allow 30 day's work to 
 an acre, 24 of which are clays of women and children, and 
 the weeding is mostly done by hand and the hand hoe. In 
 the United States, so far as we have had experience, it has 
 taken from 12 to 16 day's work to cultivate an acre of 
 beets, according as the land was more or less weedy. 
 This did not include ploughing, harrowing and carting ma- 
 nure, for all which we add 3 days, making the whole num- 
 ber 15 to 19 days. 
 
 The growth of the cane requires 9 months, that of the 
 beet 3 to 4 months. The working days in 9 months are 
 232, in 4 months 103; 103 divided by 17, the medium 
 number of days required for an acre of beets, gives 6 acres 
 and a fraction over, as the extent which one man with 
 proper implements and a horse can cultivate with beets ; 
 1 acre more than a man, though closely driven, can culti- 
 vate with sugar canes in 2^ times as many days ! In 
 other words the culture of the cane costs 2 times as much 
 as the beet. If we add to this fact the other, that only half 
 as much product in sugar is obtained from an acre of canes, 
 as from an acre of beets, the difference in favor of the latter, 
 so far as culture is concerned, will appear enormous. 
 
 But it does not end here. The beet culture deepens 
 and loosens the soil ; the cane by its numerous and spread- 
 ing roots, (it belonging to the family of grasses,) binds and 
 stiffens the soil, leaving it always in a bad state for a suc- 
 ceeding crop. The cane field requires fallowing, or rest, two 
 years for every two of bearing, the beet not only requires no 
 fallows, but is itself a substitute for fallows, and saves 
 the necessity of them for other crops. The cane exhausts, 
 the beet fertilizes the land. The cane affords no manure 
 except the tops and blades left on the ground ; the beet, 
 besides leaves and tops, multiplies the barn manure in an 
 extraordinary manner. Finally, the beet feeds and fattens 
 
140 
 
 multitudes of cattle, sheep and swine, while the cane af- 
 fords nothing for such a purpose. 
 
 We have already stated that the capital invested in the 
 beet sugar business in France in 1837, was only as much 
 as was invested in the cane sugar business in Louisiana in 
 1829,* and that the quantity of beet sugar made in France 
 in 18367, was 107,000,000 lbs,f while that of cane 
 sugar made in Louisiana in 1829, upon J more capital was 
 45,000,000 Ibs. J 1829 was reckoned a bad year in Lou- 
 isiana, and we will take the preceding, which was the best 
 ever known in that country up to 1829, the latest of which 
 we have been able to obtain authentic returns. In that year 
 the quantity of sugar made in that State was 80,000,000 
 Ibs. This crop was called by the planters " abundant and 
 extraordinary." But what was the extent of land cultiva- 
 ted to obtain this sugar ? At that time there were 700 
 sugar plantations in Louisiana, averaging 487 acres of cane 
 field each, making an aggregate of 340.900 acres. Of 
 this 154,727 acres was actually bearing sugar canes. The 
 remainder 186,173 acres were at rest, or planted with corn 
 and beans for subsistence of the slaves.^ 
 
 The extent of land cultivated with beets in France in 
 1836, was 61,750 acres, || being f less land and producing 
 nearly J more sugar, than the cane fields of Louisiana, 
 without naming that portion of the latter, which lies fallow, 
 or is cultivated as merely subsidiary to the sugar crop. 
 
 We have no account of the cost of manufacturing cane 
 sugar, separate from the culture. We only know that the 
 planters of Louisiana and Georgia have solemnly declared 
 the whole cost to be 5^ to 6 cts. a pound, allowing only 6 
 per cent interest for capital and wear and tear of machines 
 
 * Summary of the Question of an Excise on Beet Sugar, by the 
 manufacturers of Beet Sugar in the Arrondissement of Dunkirk, 1837. 
 Letter of Phillip Hicky, in the name of the Agricultural Society of 
 Baton Rouge, to Hon. H. H. Gurley, Doc. No. 62, as above, p. 35. 
 
 t Doc. No. 200, French Chamber of Deputies, 1837, p. 55, Table A. 
 
 I Doc. No. 62, as above, p. 49. 
 
 Doc. 62, as above, pp. 9, 10, 31. 
 
 || Debate in French Chamber of Deputies, May 22, 1837. Bulletin 
 of Sugars, No. 6, p. 100. Summary of the Question of an Excise, as 
 above, p. 8. 
 
141 
 
 and utensils, and only $25 a year for clothing and subsis- 
 tence, to the laborer without wages. 
 
 In the British and French West Indies it costs 4| cents; 
 but it is said that in Cuba and Porto Rico, the planters 
 pretend that they can make it at a cost of 3 cents and even 
 24. This must be if it be at all, by very hard driving. 
 We do not think that sugar will ever arrive in the United 
 States at a cost of less than 4 cents a pound, to which must 
 be added such duties as Congress may lay for revenue. 
 With such conditions beet sugar in the United States need 
 not fear competition from any quarter. 
 
 The production of sugar is said to be increasing rapidly 
 in British India and Java ; and the British government, in 
 opening the English market to Bengal sugar, have shown a 
 wise forecast in respect to the possible reduction of the 
 cane products in the West Indies. It is not probable that 
 the freedmen of the British West Indies, any more than of 
 St. Domingo, will all pursue that species of labor, which is 
 marked by memories of their severest hardships and de- 
 privations. They will, probably, as soon as they can ob- 
 tain small farms, occupy themselves to an increasing extent 
 in raising provisions. But even if there should be no 
 change of employment with them, the production of sugar 
 would probably decline apace. The history of the cane 
 sugar culture and manufacture warrants this conclusion. 
 The business has successively disappeared from Sicily, 
 Cyprus, Rhodes, Candia, the Canaries, St. Thomas, and 
 Madeira, and for some time it has scarcely been sustained 
 in many of the oldest islands of the West Indies. 
 
 The sugar of the East Indies is manufactured at a cost 
 of 1 to 1 J cents a pound. This low rate is owing to the 
 low wages of labor, viz. 6 cents per day. But after pay- 
 ing commissions, insurance, and freight, it can never 
 come to us from that quarter at less than 4 or 4J cents a 
 pound, exclusive of the duties levied upon it here. 
 
 If, therefore, beet sugar can be made in the United 
 States at a cost of 4 cents a pound, it will be " secure in 
 its existence," and may smile at the efforts of any competi- 
 tor, though backed by the cheap hosts of Hindostan. 
 
142 
 
 As a natural consequence of the cheapness of the article, 
 the consumption will be vastly increased. Instead of 14 to 
 16 Ibs. to an inhabitant, it will be 30 Ibs. at least, and for 
 the whole United States, 500,000,000 Ibs. per annum ; 
 and the general improvement in agricultural and mechanical 
 skill and prosperity will be advanced in an equal ratio. 
 
 The cane planters reckon among their expenses, " de- 
 creased value," "risk," "loss," "death," and "deteri- 
 oration," of slaves. This they set down at 5 per cent* 
 This will be understood by a reference to Mr. Spalding.f 
 
 " It would take 50 laborers to take off 100 acres of cane in the two 
 months of November and December, and to grind and manufacture it. 
 In Louisiana the same number of hands would cultivate 250 acres, of 
 which however 100 would be ratoon cane." 
 
 Mr. Spalding may be considered a credible witness on 
 this point, from his intimate acquaintance with the subject, 
 and his situation at an impartial distance from the practice 
 upon which he comments. His judgment is in a good de- 
 gree confirmed by the Central Committee of the sugar 
 planters of the State of Louisiana.^ 
 
 " Sixty working hands are necessary to cultivate 240 acres of cane, 
 planted in well prepared land, and to do all the work necessary until the 
 sugar is made and delivered." 
 
 But in point of fact the number of working hands is 50 
 to 250 acres as Mr. Spalding states. Indeed it is rather 
 short of this. But taking Mr. Spalding's statement, we 
 have 10 less hands and 10 more acres of canes than the 
 Central Committee think sufficient and proper ; i. e. 5 
 acres to one hand instead of 4 acres. It is the last ounce 
 that breaks the camel's back. By the tables accompanying 
 
 * Letter of the Central Committee of the Sugar Planters of the State 
 of Louisiana to Hon. S. D. Ingham, Sec. 7, of Treas. Doc. No. 62, as 
 above pp. 9, 11. 
 
 Letter of the Agricultural Society of the Parish of St. James ; Doc. 
 62, as above, p. 16. 
 
 f Letter of Thomas Spaulding to the Editor of the Southern Agricul- 
 turist, Dec. No. 62, as above, p. 46. 
 
 t Answer of the Central Committee to S. D. Ingham, July 1, 1830; 
 Doc. 32, as above, p. 7. 
 
 Id. ib. pp. 8, 9. 
 
143 
 
 the letter of the Central Committee, we learn that on 29 
 sugar plantations in the Parish of Plaquemine, in the State 
 of Louisiana, a fraction over 5 acres is cultivated by each 
 working hand ; but that on some of those plantations it is 
 more than this. For example ; on the plantation of G. 
 J3. Milligan, Joseph Saul, Charles Reggio, and John 
 J. Coiron, members of the Central Committee; it is 5| 
 acres. On the plantations of Felix Forestall, Villere fy 
 Lavergne, and Dupuy ty- Lethiec, it is 64 acres ; on those 
 of F. Delery, Fazende fy Villere and Augustus Dupre, 
 it is 7^ acres, on those of Simon Girod and, Arnault Lan- 
 eaux, is 9^ acres to a hand. Of the 29 plantations there 
 are but 5 where the number of acres to the hand is as low 
 as the Committee deem proper, and only 3 where it is as 
 low as Mr. Spalding deems so. The whole number of 
 slaves upon these 29 plantations is 2089, worth at $500, 
 the estimate of the planters, $1,044,500. On the 700 
 sugar plantations then existing in Louisiana, the slaves at 
 the same rate would be in number 50,400; and in value, 
 $25,200,000. 5 per cent of the slaves is 2520, and 5 
 per cent of their value is $1,260,000. 
 
 But this is not the whole extent of the loss. These 
 slaves ought to increase, according to the general rate 
 of increase of free colored persons in the United States, 
 nearly 4 per cent per annum ; and according to the ave- 
 rage increase of slaves 3^ per cent. More than this the 
 slaves on sugar plantations ought to multiply ; * but we will 
 call it less, viz. 3 per cent. We thus have a further loss 
 of 1512 slaves, and $756,000. Adding this to the 5 per 
 cent as above, we have a loss on the sugar plantations of 
 Louisiana to the amount of 4032 hands, and $2,016,000 
 per annum, over and above the natural infirmities and 
 deaths. 
 
 From this important item of expenditure the manu- 
 facturers of beet sugar will be exempt. 
 
 Another of their advantages will be the superior grain 
 
 * Doc. 62, as above, p. 46. 
 
144 
 
 and purity of beet sugar, and its higher value with refiners 
 and confectioners ; and in all probability with domestic con- 
 sumers also. The Louisiana sugar, when refined, yields 
 but 30 to 35 per cent. * Mr. Louis Say, a scientific re- 
 finer of Paris, informed us that from beet sugar he constantly 
 obtains, 
 
 Loaf sugar ... 50 Ibs. 
 
 Lump " ... 16| " 
 
 Bastard " . . 8| " 
 
 Vergoise " . SJ <: 
 
 Molasses "... . 16| " 
 
 Total . . 100 " 
 
 The quantity of loaf sugar yielded by the beet more 
 than cane is, therefore, from 15 to 20 per cent, and proba- 
 bly in the same proportion for the inferior qualities of lump, 
 &c.; and its superiority over the West India sugars is, in 
 this respect, 5 per cent. 
 
 The beet is one of the surest crops cultivated in the 
 United States, and the cane one of the most uncertain. 
 We have seen that the crop of Louisiana, from 80,000,000 
 Ibs., which it was in 1828, fell off to 45,000,000 Ibs. in 
 1829. In the year 1835, there was exported from Louisi- 
 ana, coastwise, 43,000,000 Ibs. Supposing that an equal 
 quantity went up the river, which we are informed is usu- 
 ally the fact, the whole crop was 86,000,000 Ibs. In 
 1836, it was by the same estimate only 11,000,000 Ibs.f 
 The causes of these great fluctuations are bad seasons and 
 early frosts. This will be better comprehended by quoting 
 individual cases.J 
 
 v " In 1829 the sugar crops of Louisiana amounted to one-third, or a 
 little more than a third, of those of 1828 a fact, the truth of which you 
 may have ascertained, sir, by comparing two statements of the produce 
 of the years 1828 and 1829, drawn by Mr. P. A. Degelos, of New Or- 
 leans, which have been published, and with which you are, no doubt, 
 
 * Agricultural Society of Baton Rouge to Hon. S. D. Ingham, Sec'y 
 Treas., Sept. 26, 1829. Doc. No. 62, as above, p. 27. 
 
 t Annual Statement of the N. Orleans Price Current, Oct. 1, 1839. 
 
 t Letter of Agricultural Society of Baton Rouge, Doc. 62, as above, 
 pp. 19, 20. 
 
145 
 
 fully acquainted. From these statements, it appears, that, in the year 
 1829, the produce of the parish of St. John the Baptist, situated on the 
 left side of the river, amounted only to 1,948 hogsheads, instead of 
 4,453, its quantity in 182S ; that St. Charles, on the same side of the 
 river, made, in 1829, 2,925, instead of the 7,446 of 1828 ; and that the 
 parish of Jefferson, on the left bank of the Mississippi, produced in the 
 year 1829 only 1,840 hogsheads, while, in 1828, it had made 6,096. 
 The same proportionate decrease will be found to prevail, sir, in most of 
 the other parishes, or on a majority of the plantations ; the crop of Mr. 
 Joseph Sauniac, for instance, which in 1828 amounted to 920 hogsheads, 
 dwindled in 1829 to 265 ; and finally, the better to contrast the unfavor- 
 able statement of the crops of 1829 with the happiest result of 1828, we 
 see, from the same schedule of Mr. Degelos, (a very correct work, and 
 one truly deserving of recommendation as a statistical sketch,) that Mr. 
 Woodward, of the parish of Iberville, who in 1828 had made 117 hogs- 
 heads, in 1829 made only 6 ; arid that the crop of Mr. Barker, residing 
 in the parish of St. John the Baptist, instead of 330, his produce in 1828, 
 amounted to 12 ; results truly deplorable, and in reality to be reckoned 
 as nought. 
 
 On the other hand the sugar manufactured in France has 
 invariably increased from year to year, unless it has fallen 
 off in 1838-9, of which we have not yet the returns. 
 183-2-3 it was 22,000,000 Ibs. 
 1833-4 " " 33,000.000 " 
 1834-5 " 44,000^000 " 
 1835-6 " 66,000,000 " 
 1836-7 " " 107,000,000 " 
 1837-8 " " 112,000,000 " 
 
 The cause of the increase of 1837-8 being less than be- 
 fore, was probably the laying of the excise in that year. 
 
 The beet will grow very tolerably on poor land, and will 
 in time make it good ; the cane demands rich land, and 
 will make it poor. 
 
 The region of the cane has been constantly contracting, 
 and has never been enlarged except by taking possession of 
 new islands and continents ; it makes every other pro- 
 duction subordinate to itself, or drives it from the field. 
 The beet extends its dominion by reclaiming and fertilizing 
 waste and fallow lands, and it harmonizes with, and great- 
 ly helps every other farming production. 
 
 It is supposed that the soil of the West is peculiarly adapt- 
 ed to the beet. We have no doubt of the fact, and that 
 the beet sugar, as a manufacturing concern, will be more 
 13 
 
146 
 
 profitable there for sometime than in any other portion of 
 the country, partly from the distance of the great markets^ 
 and partly from the cheapness of land and fuel. But we 
 doubt whether any part of our territory is destined to be 
 more benefited by it, than the New England and other 
 States, which have hard and poor lands, and a lack of manure. 
 In the West, as we are informed, manure is not an object of 
 importance to the farmer, except as creating a nuisance, and 
 causing expense and trouble to move it out of the way. 
 Nay, we have heard that farmers in that region often aban- 
 don their log barns, and build new ones rather than remove 
 the manure to the gulleys. But in New England manure 
 is the life and soul of agriculture. If the beet sugar busi- 
 ness can boast of any advantage more particularly preemi- 
 nent, it is the multiplication and improvement of live stock 
 and manure. This will be in a great measure lost upon the 
 West, while it will be precious beyond calculation to the 
 North, and very valuable to some portions of the South. 
 
 NOTE. On reviewing our work we find that two apparatuses, the 
 " Kiln of columns," p. 81, and the " macerator," p. 87, have not been 
 credited to their able and useful inventors, Messrs, Martin Sf Cham- 
 pannoiSy Machinists and Engineers, of Jlrras. 
 
 DAVID LEE CHILD, 
 
 For the first 
 
 BEET SUGAR 
 MADE IN AMERICA. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Extract from the Report of the tl Second Exhibition of the 
 Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association" 1839. 
 " D. L. CHILD, Northampton. Beet-Root Sugar crude 
 and refined. Manufactured by the improved process of 
 Schuzenbach. 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. Of the ex- 
 tent of the manufacture by the exhibiter, the Committee are 
 not informed. A Silver Medal." 
 
 Premium of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, 1839. 
 
 " To the person, persons, or corporation, who shall man- 
 ufacture from the Sugar Beet, Sugar in the greatest quantity 
 and of the best quality in the year 1839 ; giving a full and 
 particular account of the process of manufacturing it, 
 A premium of $100." 
 
 This premium was awarded on the 5th of December 1839, 
 to the " Northampton Beet Sugar Company." 
 
 Extract from a Letter of HON. LEVI LINCOLN, President of 
 the Worcester County Agricultural Society. 
 
 " WORCESTER, Nov. 13, 1839. 
 
 " Pursuant to your instructions, I have forwarded to 
 your address and the care of Ellis Gray Loring, Esq., 
 the box of sugar, which was intended for exhibition at 
 our Cattle Show, but unfortunately was not seasonably re- 
 ceived. Availing of your kind permission, samples of the 
 sugar were submitted to the inspection of several gentlemen. 
 
143 
 
 The brown sugar was found to be pure, very sweet, and en- 
 tirely free from any bad taste, and its quality, in every respect, 
 was highly satisfactory. The refined or lump sugar, seemed 
 not so well granulated as is desirable. Still we are well satis- 
 fied, that as an experiment in the manufacture, it is highly 
 encouraging, and we all felt that the country was largely in- 
 debted to your intelligence and enterprise, in demonstrating, 
 beyond all question, how entirely this application of domestic 
 industry is at her command. I scarce need add, that your 
 treatise on the subject will be looked for with much interest. 
 
 From MARTIAL DUROY, Confectioner. 
 D. L. CHILD, ESQ : 
 
 Dear Sir, Knowing the interest you take in all that refers 
 to Beet Sugar, and thinking you might like to know how your 
 beet sugar stands a high degree of concentration, I take this 
 opportunity to communicate to you the result of my experi- 
 ence, confident that if my suggestions are not new, you will 
 at least excuse the motive that prompted them. 
 
 Having, while in France, heard the confectioners, in gener- 
 al, deprecate the use of beet sugar in their work, I was 
 naturally a little prejudiced against it, when I was called 
 on by you to make some confectionary for the Ladies' Anti- 
 Slavery Fair. I was pleased to find upon trial, that your raw 
 beet sugar was extremely easy to clarify, and that it grained 
 freely. These attributes of good and pure sugar, reconciled 
 me at once with it ; and I made a variety of confectionary as 
 easily and as handsome, as with the best Havana. But its 
 power of crystalization 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 estab- 
 lish it, I think beet sugar obtained by your process does crys- 
 talize 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 su- 
 gar of a corresponding quality. I found also, this molasses of 
 a pleasant taste and well adapted in its chemical composition 
 to culinary purposes. 
 
 Accept, Sir, my best wishes for your success in the noble 
 enterprise you have enlisted in, while I subscribe myself, Sir, 
 Your very ob't servant, 
 
 MARTIAL DUROY, 
 
 Boston, Nov. 1S39. 
 
149 
 
 Extract from Baring, Brothers <$* Go's. Prices Current, 
 London, January 26, 1839. 
 
 " The advices from St. Petersburg are unfavorable, the 
 deliveries having fallen off, partly owing to the increase of 
 smuggling, and partly to the extending cultivation of Beet- 
 root. It appears, by some recent reports, that in France the 
 manufacture of Sugar from Beet-root the past year has reach- 
 ed 50,000 Tons in that kingdom ; these facts should make 
 our friends cautious as to entering into speculations in White 
 Havana, at high prices." 
 
 Extract from the same, March 22, 1839. 
 "The continued unsatisfactory accounts of the disinclina- 
 tion of the negroes in the West India Islands to work 
 under the new system, gives serious grounds for appre- 
 hending a very great deficiency in the crops there. This has 
 caused a material advance in the prices of West India, Mau- 
 ritius, and Bengal kinds, particularly on the low qualities, 
 which may be quoted fully 6s per Cwt. dearer. From St. 
 Petersburg the advices are flat." 
 
 Extract from the St. Petersburg Prices Current, 
 
 July 24, 1838. 
 
 "The increasing success of the Beet-root Sugar Establish- 
 ments in the interior, would for the present seem more than 
 adequate to meet any supposed augmentation in the general 
 consumption of raw Sugars, without any addition to the sup- 
 ply received from abroad." 
 
 Extract from the London Mechanics Magazine, Aug. 1836. 
 
 " MANUFACTURE OF BEET-ROOT SUGAR IN RUSSIA. 
 
 " Sir, The manufacture of Beet-root into sugar in the 
 Russian empire his of late become very extensive; there are 
 already no less than twenty-five large establishments for this 
 purpose in different parts. Thinking that the following ac- 
 count of one of the principal of these establishments, viz. 
 Micharlofsky Sugar-works in the government of Tula, the 
 property of Count Bobrinsky, may be interesting to the Eng- 
 lish public, I send it for insertion in your widely circulated 
 Journal : 
 
 13* 
 
150 
 
 The quantity of beet worked in the year 1835 was 200,000 
 poods, equal to 85,357 cwt. qr. 16 Ibs ; the sugar produced 
 from it, 15,600 poods, equal to 5014 cwt. 1 qr. 4 Ibs. 
 
 Price of a pood of beet .... 15 copecks. 
 Expense in working do 35 do. 
 
 50 
 
 Produce of one pood of beet 2f Ibs. of raw sugar at 1 ro. 
 10 co. per pound. 
 
 The number of men employed 250. 
 
 The quantity of land required to produce the beet 350 
 deciatines, equal to 945 acres. 
 
 The beet is generally taken from the peasantry instead of 
 the obrok or fine, they as serfs, have to pay their baron. 
 
 The proprietor of this manufactory is an accomplished 
 nobleman ; his experiment in this case has been highly suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 One great evil is the impossibility hitherto experienced of 
 keeping the roots any length of time, which makes it expedi- 
 ent they should be worked as soon as possible after they are 
 taken from the ground. 
 
 I have been favored with a specimen of raw and refined 
 sugar from these works, of which I send you a small sample, 
 and am only sorry the distance does not allow me to send a 
 a larger one. 
 
 The Russian Ib. is equal to 144 oz. English; a pood 40 
 Ibs. Russia, equal to 36 Ibs. English ; a rouble, equal to 100 
 copecks ; Stirling value 10d. 
 
 Your constant reader, 
 
 J. K. 
 
 Petersburg, June 25, 1836. 
 
 [The samples sent are excellent ; the raw sugar not quite 
 so good as that from the cane, but the refined equal to the 
 products of our refineries. ED. M. M.] 
 
 Extract from the Philadelphia National Gazette, Sept. 1839. 
 " The States, composing the German Customs Union, pos- 
 sessed, towards the close of 1838, eighty-seven manufactories 
 of Beet-root sugar in full operation, viz. Prussia, 66 ; Bava- 
 ria, 5 ; Wurtemberg, 3 ; Darmstadt, 1 ; other States, 15 ; 
 besides 66 which were then constructing. 
 
-^* 
 Q 5 
 
 4J CC 
 
 H I 
 
 li* 
 
 I j 
 
 *i f/) ^ 
 
 I! 
 
 W" -- 
 K^ -4^ 
 
 O <N 
 
 s" "^ 
 
 "c *2 
 
 & 
 
 II 
 
 S 3 
 
 If 
 
 S 
 
 *. t. 6 a 
 
 3 i^i 
 
 ^ *j" -2 S 
 g S 
 
 CU O hn 
 
 ^ -is 
 
 If I 
 
 (8 "J ^ 
 
 2P 
 
 CO ^ 
 
 |s ^ 
 
 3 w I 
 
 "E a 
 
 ^J O ... 
 
 S-sl 
 7 fa 
 
 hi 
 
 ? d 
 
 CO 
 
 IE 
 
 o 2 
 
 ^W 
 
 
 < CO >O ?* 
 
 5 CO 
 
 OOOO <> 
 Tfor~o^ t~- 
 
 S 
 
 
 Si 
 
 ^ 
 
 li 
 
 n 
 
 g S 
 i s 
 
 K o 
 
 ^ * 
 
 O} ^D ^^ *5^ O 
 
 oico -4 
 
 o - to co 
 
 CO CO S- CO 
 
 S 
 
 ;'*^ t ^C C^ iO O O O^ ' 
 
 CO CO -^ c4 O O t^ I 
 
 
 ' 
 
 s -3 -5'5 S 5.1 >a J -s 
 
 3 'C 'C > 3 IS ' * 13 'C 
 
152 
 
 Imports of Sugar into the United States during 5 years, beginning Oct. 
 1, 1833, and ending Oct. 1, 1338, together with the annual cost thereof, 
 and the price per pound, at which it was purchased in the foreign 
 market. 
 
 
 Pounds 
 Brown. 
 
 Dollars. 
 
 Pr. p. Ib. 
 Cents. 
 
 Pounds 
 White. 
 
 Dollars. 
 
 Pr. p.lb. 
 Cents. 
 
 1834 
 1835 
 1836 
 1837 
 1838 
 
 107.483.8U 
 111 806.880 
 181.243.537 
 120.416.071 
 139.200 905 
 
 5 027.377 
 5.751 074 
 1 1 623.699 
 6.118.166 
 6.466.199 
 
 
 
 6,4 
 5 
 
 4,6 
 
 7.906.014 
 Il.229.3o9 
 10 182.578 
 15.723740 
 14.678.238 
 
 510.452 
 1.055.100 
 890.805 
 1 084.502 
 1.120.161 
 
 6, 4 
 9. 3 
 
 8, 7 
 6, 8 
 
 7, 6 
 
 Imports of Molasses during the same period. 
 
 
 Gallons. 
 
 Dollars. 
 
 Cents 
 
 1834 
 1835 
 1336 
 1837 
 1838 
 
 17.086.472 
 18.971.603 
 18.051.784 
 16.451.182 
 21.196.411 
 
 2.989 020 
 3.074.172 
 4.077.312 
 3 444.701 
 3.865.285 
 
 17,4 
 
 16.2 
 22,5 
 21 
 18,2 
 
 Estimated quantity of Sugar and Molasses produced in Louisiana in 5 
 years, commencing Oct. 1, 1834, and ending Oct. 1, 1839. 
 
 
 Ibs. Sugar. 
 
 gals. Molasses. 
 
 1835 
 1836 
 1837 
 1838 
 1839 
 
 86.983.300 
 22.502.450 
 63.024.850 
 60 281 300 
 65914.550 
 
 4.349.165 
 1.125.122 
 3.151.242 
 3.014.065 
 
 3.295.727 
 
 The average import of Sugar for the last five years has heen 144,000,- 
 000 Ibs. per annum ; the average production of Louisiana 60,000,000 
 Ibs., and the average export 20,000,000 Ibs., leaving for the annual con- 
 sumption of the United States, without taking into the account maple 
 sugar, nor the products of the sugar mills in Florida, Arkansas, Mis- 
 sissippi, Alabama, and Georgia, 184,000,000 Ibs., which it would take 
 920 beet sugar mills, working at the average rate of those in Europe, to 
 make. 
 
 The average import of Molasses for the same period has been upwards 
 of 18,000,000 gallons, the production in Louisiana nearly 3,000,000 gal- 
 lons, and the export trifling; consequently the annual consumption of 
 molasses in the United States, omitting maple, is 21,000,000 gallons. 
 
 N. B. The discrepancy of the quantities stated pp. 144 and 151, are 
 caused by omitting in the first estimate the domestic consumption of 
 Louisiana. In the last estimate we have added the supposed domestic 
 consumption of that State to the export, and doubled that sum to get the 
 whole production of sugar in the State and vicinity. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Achard, . 105, 122 to 124 
 
 Acid Muriatic, . . 79 
 
 Acid Phosphoric, . 72 
 
 Acid Sulphuric, . . 72 
 
 Aitchison, . . 112, 122 
 
 Alluvial soil, . . 10 
 
 Alsace, . . .130 
 
 Alumina, . . . 105 
 
 American beets, . . 99 
 
 Ammonia, . . 63, 128 
 
 Animal charcoal, 79 to 82, 94, 104 
 
 Animal manures, . . 25 
 
 Arras, . . . 125 
 
 Ashes, . . .25 
 
 Austria, . . . 127 
 
 Baden, . . 
 
 Barrow-drill, 
 
 Basin, 
 
 Baton Rouge Ag. Society, 
 
 Bavaria, 
 
 Beer from beets, . 
 
 Beets, raising one's own, 15, 
 
 American, 
 Beet sugar, opinion of cane 
 
 planter, 
 
 Beet sugar, quantity per acre s 
 Belgium, 
 
 Berlin and Milan decrees, , 
 Blanquet, 
 Bobrinsky { 
 Bohemia, .. 
 Boiling, 
 Boiling over, 
 
 134 
 31 
 
 85 
 137 
 134 
 8,44 
 
 99 
 
 136 
 137 
 127 
 . 122 
 . 127 
 103 
 30,41 
 73 to 75 
 
 -.-, .71 
 
 Boiling in vacuo, . 110, 116 
 
 Bone-black, . 79 to 82, 94, 104 
 Bone and bone-black ma- 
 nure, . . 23 to 25 
 Bouchet, . . 109 
 Brandy from beets, . 8, 44 
 
 Canary islands . 
 
 141 
 
 Cane sugar, quantity per acre 
 
 in Louisiana, . . 137 
 
 Capital employed in cane and 
 
 beet sugar compared, . 35 
 
 Cattle , fattening, littering, &c. 58 
 Celerity of operations, . 84, 87 
 Cellars, . . .39 
 
 Central Committee of Louis- 
 iana, . . . 137 
 Certainty of beet crop, 15, 144 
 Chalk, . . . 11 
 Champannois, . 113, 146 
 Chaptal, 36, 91, 94, 125, 136 
 Chemical tests, . . 72 
 Chemistry, Annals of, . 122 
 Chevalier, . . 13, 115 
 Children employed,27, 29 to 32, 139 
 Chimneys, . . .70 
 Clarification, or defecation, 59 
 Cleaning beets, . . 49 
 Cleanliness, . . 84,87 
 Clemandot, . . .78 
 Clement des Ormes, . 93 
 Climate, . . .9 
 Clover, ... 12 
 Coffee from beets, . . 8 
 Concentration, 69, 73, 105, 109, 112 
 Concentrating pans, 69 to 71, 
 
 cleaning of, . 72, 115 
 
 Condenser, . . 114 
 
 Consumption of sugar in 
 France, 126, in United 
 States, . . 146 
 
 Continental system, . . 123 
 
 Connecticut river meadows, 14, 45 
 Cooler, . . .75 
 
 Cornstalks, . . 100 
 
 Cost of beet sugar, . 100, 108, 122 
 Cost of cane sugar, . 140 
 
 Crops, ameliorating and ex- 
 hausting, . . 12 
 Crespel,28, 31, 91, 93, 125, 131, 137 
 
154 
 
 Crete, . . .141 
 
 Crucibles, . . .8 
 
 Crystalizing point, . 74 
 
 Culture of beet as preparing 
 land for other crops, 14, 47, 
 94 ; as substitute for fal- 
 lowing, 132; expense of, 
 45 to 47 ; of cane and beet 
 compared, , . . 138 
 
 Curcuma, . 72 
 
 Curing room, . . 77 
 
 Curing by atmospheric pres- 
 sure, . . .116 
 Custom House duties, . 130 
 Cutworm, . . 47 
 Cyprus, . . .141 
 
 Dardant, . . 91 
 
 Davidof, . . 102, 106 
 
 Davis, . . . 112 
 
 Decoloration of juice and sy- 
 rup, . . . ' 68 
 Defecation, 60 to 65, 97 ; cold, 
 
 104 ; colonial, . . 124 
 
 Defecating pans, 59 : cleaning 
 
 of, . . 66,97 
 
 Demerara, . . . 115 
 
 Derosne, . 114, 124 
 
 Deyeux, . . .123 
 
 Dessication, 95, (this is print- 
 ed "91" in the book, in a 
 part of the edition,) 97,99, 
 by steam, . . 100, 102 
 
 Dombasle, 9, 13, 14, 16, 34, 
 38, 54, 87, 90,96,105,110, 
 
 113, 124 
 
 Drapiez, . . 91, 123 
 
 Dubrunfaut, . . 13 
 
 Dumas, . . .93 
 
 East Indies, . . 141 
 
 Edinburgh Review, . 128 to 133 
 Excise on beet sugar, . 126 
 
 Exhausting crops, . .12 
 
 Expense of culture, . 45 to 47 
 Expense of manufacture, 91 
 
 to 95, 100, 108 
 
 Extractor. . . .109 
 
 Evaporation, 69; continued 
 
 do., 71 ; by hot air, . 114 
 
 Evaporating pans, 69 to 71, 
 
 105 to 107 
 
 Fallowing, . . 12 
 
 Factory, self-alimentation, of 
 
 12, 52, 65, 73, 84 
 Farm manufacture of beet 
 
 sugar, . . 117 to 120 
 
 Feed for cattle, 7, 12, 58, 91, 
 
 94, 107, 120 
 
 Fertility of United States, . 22 
 Filling moulds, . . 75 to 77 
 
 Filters and filtering boxes, 66 to 68 
 Filtration, . . 66, 73, 98 
 
 Forked beets, . . 11 
 
 France, 5, 7, 17, 19, 26, 31 to 
 
 33, 127, 133 
 
 Frost, . . .37 
 
 Fumblers, . . 52 
 
 Furnaces, . . 60,69 
 
 Furrower, 
 
 Germany, . 6, 26 to 29, 43 
 
 Factories in, . . 127 
 
 Gluten, . . .104 
 
 Grain and strength of beet 
 and cane sugar compared, 143 
 
 Grainage, . . 106, 116 
 
 Grape sugar. . 123 
 
 Grass-land for beets, 
 
 Grater, or rasp, . 50, 53 to 56 
 Velocity of, . . 53 
 
 Grating, . . 53, 56, 107 
 
 Gravelly soil, 
 
 Great Britain, . 7, 127, 129 
 
 Harrows and harrowing, 18 to 22 
 Heaps, form and covering of, 40 
 Herdsgrass succeeding beets, 47 
 Hilling, . . 18,38 
 
 History of beet sugar, 120 to 135 
 Holland, ... 7 
 Horse-drill, . . 30 
 
 Horse-hoe, . . 33 to 35 
 
 Howard, . . 110 
 
 Humboldt, ... 9 
 Hungary, . . 12 
 
 Identity of beet and cane su- 
 gar, . . .127 
 Institute. National, . . 122 
 Isnard, . . .124 
 Italy, . . .127 
 Ivory black, . 79 to 82, 94, 104 
 
155 
 
 Keeping beets, 8, 38 to 41, 50, 99 
 Kiln, ... 80 
 
 Kneller, . . .114 
 
 Kyan, . . .133 
 
 Labor, price of, 33 to 35, 93, 
 95, (this is printed "91" in 
 the book, in part of the 
 edition,) 141. 
 
 Labor-saving, 53, 56, 66, 90, 108 
 Ladle, . . .85 
 
 Land for beet and cane com- 
 pared, . . .140 
 Lettsom, . . 5 
 Levigator, . . .108 
 Library of Arts and Trades, 13 
 Lime, . . 23,61 
 Quantity for defecation, 62, 
 
 97, 104, 115 
 
 Liquid manure, . . 23 
 
 Litmus, . . .72 
 
 Loam, . . -11, 25 
 
 Louisiana, . . 135 to 145 
 
 Maceration, 87 to 90, 96, 102 to 104 
 Macerator, . . .87 
 
 Madeira, . . 141 
 
 Mangle Wurtzel, . . 5, 6 
 
 Manufacture at Northampton, 
 
 Mass., . . 95 to 102 
 
 Manufacturers in the East, 117 
 Manures, 16 to 18, 22 to 25, 
 
 50, 94, 120 
 
 Quantity of, on beet sugar 
 farm, . . .58 
 
 In powder, . . 23, 66 
 
 Margraff, . . 95,121 
 
 Marls, . . . 11 
 
 Marmont, . . 91, 125, 136 
 
 Martin, . 146 
 
 Maturity of beets, . . 35 
 
 Milk, . . .5,7,8 
 
 Molasses, . 99, 100, 134 
 
 Reboilingof, . . 78 
 
 Moscow, . . . 124 
 
 Mossy soil, . 11 
 
 Moulds, filling of, . 75 to 77 
 
 Taking out sugar from, 78 
 
 Muriatic acid, . . 79 
 
 Night-work, . . 89 
 
 Northampton, 14, 35, 37, 43, 
 95, (this is printed '<91" in 
 the book, in part of the 
 edition.) 
 
 North of France, . 9, 43, 130 
 Nosarewsky, . . 96, 118 
 
 Oaks & Dobson, 
 
 Oats succeeding clover, . 
 
 115 
 13 
 
 Napoleon, 
 Newton, Wm., 
 
 124 
 114, 118 
 
 Pale red beet, . . 7 
 
 Palette, ... 88 
 
 Paper from beets, . 8, 44, 133 
 Payen, . . .24, 77 
 
 Peaty soil, . . 10, 11 
 
 Pecqueur, . . 107 
 
 Pelletan, . . .108 
 
 Phosphoric acid, . . 72 
 
 Pits, . . . 39 to 41 
 
 Plants, distance of, . 26 
 
 Number to an acre, 26, 27 
 
 Plaster of Paris, . . 25 
 
 Plough, root-digging, . 38 
 
 Ploughing . . 15 to 18 
 
 Pont a Mousson, . . 125 
 
 Potash from beets. . 8 
 
 Press, . . 57,97 
 
 Pressing, . . 56 to 58 
 
 Price of sugar in France, . 122 
 
 Fall of, . . 126, 129 
 
 Produce per acre, . . 43 
 
 Profits, 46, 92, 95. 116, 120, 127, 131 
 Proprietors, small, . . 27 
 
 Protection, . . 128 
 
 Prussia, . . . 135 
 
 Pulp, 58, 95, ( this is printed 
 
 "91" in the book, in part of 
 
 the edition,) . . 102 
 
 Pulverization of beet, 96, 120 
 Pumpkins, . . . 100 
 
 Pushers, ... 53 
 
 Radicles, . . .11 
 
 Real estate, advance of, . 131 
 Red beet, ... 5 
 
 Red and white beet, . 6 
 
 Rhodes, island of, . . 141 
 
 Robinson, . . 112 
 
 Rollers, . . .31 
 
 Rolling, . . . 18,22 
 
 Root-cutter, . . .87 
 
156 
 
 Rotation, 
 
 Roth, 
 
 Roville, 
 
 Rows, distance of, 
 
 Russia, factories in, 
 
 12 to 15 
 . Ill 
 
 34, 125 
 
 26,31 
 
 127 
 
 85 
 
 Saccharometer, 
 
 Saccharine richness, 8, 10, 18, 
 
 25, 97, 99 
 
 Sacks, . , .57, 84 
 
 Saline soil, . . .11 
 
 Salts, . . .12, 25 
 
 Sand, . . .11 
 
 Sandy soil, . . 10 
 
 Saturator, . . .109 
 
 Saws, ... 54 
 
 Say, Louis, . . . 144 
 
 Schools chemical, in France, 124 
 Schuzenbach's system, 95, 
 (this is printed "91" in the 
 book, in part of the edition,) 
 
 101 
 134 
 23, 38 
 , 50 
 25,66 
 7 
 11 
 
 History of, . 
 
 Scourings of ditches, 
 Scraping of beets, 
 Scums and sediment, 
 Sea-beet, 
 Sea-sand, 
 Seed age of, preparation of, 
 for sowing, . . 6,27,28 
 
 Quantity to acre. . . 29 
 
 Number to a pound, . 32 
 
 Raising of, . . 42 
 
 Small manufacture of beet 
 
 sugar, . . 117 to 120 
 
 Snail, ... 52 
 
 Soda, . . . 12 
 
 Soils, . . . 10, 11 
 
 Sorel and Gautier, . . 109 
 
 South of France, . 9, 30 
 
 Sowing, . . 11, 26 to 33 
 
 Time of, . . 32,36 
 
 Spalding, . . .136 
 
 Stable manure, . . VI 
 
 Steam, , . . 107 
 
 Street- sweepings, . 26 
 
 Strength and grain of beet 
 
 and cane sugar compared, 143 
 Sub-soil, . . 10, 18, 38 
 
 Sugar, proportion of, 98 to 102, 123 
 Sulphuric acid, . 72, 104 
 
 Sun, pernicious to beets after 
 
 digging, . . 38 
 
 Tobacco, 
 
 Toursel, 
 
 Towels, 
 
 Transplanting, 
 
 Tubs, 
 
 Tuscany, 
 
 12, 18 
 
 96 
 
 . 57 
 
 28, 32 
 
 90, 102 
 
 108 
 
 Uncertainty of cane crop in 
 
 the United States, . 144 
 
 United States, 22, 27, 28, 64, 94 
 
 Vacuum pans, . 110 to 112 
 
 Vinegar from beets, . . 44 
 
 Washing and washing ma- 
 chines, . . 50 to 52 
 Weeded crops, . . 13 
 Weeding, . 33 to 35 
 Weight of beets, . 5 to 7 
 West Indies, 129, 138, 141 
 West India sugar, . 127, 144 
 Wheat succeeding beets, 13 to 15 
 White Silesian beet, . 6, 8 
 Wine from beets, . . 8 
 Women employed, 29 to 31, 139 
 Workshop, . . 85 
 Wounds of beet, . 39, 49 
 Wurtemburg, . . 134 
 
 Yellow, and yellow & white 
 beet, . . 6 
 
 Spirits of wine from beets, 
 St. Thomas, island of, 
 
 8 
 141 
 
 Zinc, 
 
 Sulphate of, 
 
 56 
 105 
 
 INDEX TO FIGURES. 
 
 Fig. 1, Common French Harrow, 20 
 " 2, Rhomb Harrow, 21 
 
 " 3, Roville Horse-hoe, . 34 
 " 4 ; Grater, ... 55 
 
 Fig. 5, Workshop, &c., . . 86 
 
 " 6, Saccharomeier. . . ib. 
 
 " 7, Ladle, . . . . ib. 
 
 " 8 ; Basin, , . . ib. 
 
RETURN TO: 
 
 CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 
 198 Main Stacks 
 
 LOAN PERIOD 1 
 Home Use 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS. 
 
 Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. 
 Books may be renewed by calling 642-3405. 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 AUG o J 2GS4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 FORM NO DD6 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 
 50M 4 04 Berkele V' California 94720-6000 
 
/5447 
 
 U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
I 
 
 1 
 
 ( 
 
 
 
 HI 
 
 w