THE BEETROOT SUGAR INDUSTRY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 201, 23 September 1878, Page 4

THE BEETROOT SUGAR INDUSTRY.

Having lately received a number of enquiries regarding this industry, we publish the following from ihe " New Zaaland Herald " :—

At the present tims, when the Government nro offering a bonus of £10,000 for the production of a certain quantity of sum»r produced from beetroots grown in the Colony, somo pnrticulnra of thia industry as carried on in Europe mny not be out cf plane. Whether the Government will succeed in Retting nay one to rnnke an Rtfempt to secure the bonus which they effer, is very doubtful in the face of the recent reduction in (he duty upon imported sugars, nud the uncertain nature of the problem to be soivpd wbpther beetroot can be grown in New Zealand with a sufficient percentHjifi of cryetalisable sugar as will pny for the mnnufacturp, end- leave a sufficient margin of profit to enable those engaging in Ihe indu?iry to successfully compete with the producers of cane su«ar in Fiji. The problem is one as yet wholly unproved. Some arc 1 of opinion thntboitroot grown here will yie?d a large percentage of sugar, while others think Shot tbe soils la most paris of the colony contain too large a percentage of saline matter to give even a profitable yield of sugar from beet locally grown. Ta?re are also those who consider thaf, owing to the heat and moisture of our climate, during the delicate elaborate mechanical and chemical process of extracting and purifying beetroot sugar there will be great danger of fermentation setting in, and thus cause an amount of iocs which will much interfere with the profitable character of the industry. These are matters upon which we offer no opinion, and for a satisfactory solution of the questions raised, direct experiments will have to furnish the trustworthy answer.

The hook from which the following particulars of the beetroot trade, etc., are token, is "The Beefroot Sugar Question," by E. F. De Mbd, Belgian Agriculturist, published by William Ridgeway, London. It is not a pretentious publication, but the writer evidently possesses a very fair knowledge of the production of sugar from beelroof, ns practiced in Belgium and Germany. Mr Man states that sugar ranks next in importance to bread and meat, end that as much money is spent in sugar as in bread, or nearly so. He shows that in 1869 no less than 12,120,593ewt. of sugar were imported Into the UniteJ Kingdom, of which quantity only !,500,000cwt. were produced fro™ beetroot. The British West India Islands furnished 2,671,332 cwt. of this total, and Cuba no less than 2 867,453cwf. All the other places (nearly 30 in number, from which eugar was imported), with the exception of Brazil, sent far less than 1,000,000 cwt. If all the other European States were to use sugar to the same extent in proportion to their population as Britain, the demand would bo about five million tons annually, equal in value to £150,000,000. One imperial acre would produce enough beetroot to produce a ton of eugar ; so thaf, were were all the sugar supplied from beetroof, no less than five millions of acres would be required to be cultivated to meet the demand. In place of this, ony 650,000 acres of beetroot were cultivated in 1868 for BUgar production. There is thus, in Mr Man's estimation, ample room for the profitable exteusion of this industry,

As to the exhaustive character of lhe crop, he quotes approvingly the ■words of Eiuhoff :—"Of all these rootplants the least exhaustive for the land is the beetroot." In Belgium a field is oftentimes heavily manured to produce a great crop of beetroot for cattle-feed, end the next year the same field is cultivated with beetroot for sugar ms.nfacture without any additional manure. One acre of beetroot is estimated to bring back to the soil, in form cf pulp, the refuse of beet aB food for cattle, or as direct manure to the land, the value of £3 per acre, for which, at this price, there ia a market without limit. Such being the case, the charge of being an exhaustive crop can hardly be sustained. Even when there is no opportunity of using the beet for sugar making, the crop can be ÜBed aa cattle feed, and in Belgium the beetroot has been substituted for mangold wurtzel, and it produces sweeter milk and better butter, besides possessing greater fattening qualities. He expresses surprise that British farmers should continue to grow mangold wurtzel when beetroot could be grown more profitably.

Germany take 3 the lead in this new industry. At the time Mr Man wrote there were 843 manufactories of sugar from beet ou the continent of Europe, each af them consuming from 20,000 to 60,000 tons of beetroot annually. The roots required by each manufactory are frequently grown by a great many farmers in the neighborhood of the factory. The farmer generally sows his seed from the first to the 15th of April, according to the wealher and nature of the land. A fortnight or ao before the crop comes to maturity, ihe agents of the numerous sugar manufactories go far and wide to purchase the beefroot crop as it atandß, paying generally from £21 to £24 per acre, according to the quality of the crop. The sale takes place generally about the end of September, and the very day that the crop ia sold the farmer receives cash for it, and he baß nothiiig more to do with the crop. Sometimes, in Belgium, the crop was sold at from £22 to £24 per ton of roots, but then tbe farmer has to

harvest and deliver the crop. It frequently happens that four or five buyers will visit the farmer in ons day trying to outbid each other. The total cost of cultivating a crop of beetroot, worth £20 per cere, in Belgium, is estimated at £8, leaving a clear profit of £12 per acre, which is considered a very profitable return, seeing that the crop only occupies the ground from April to September.

The soils most favorable for the sugar-beetroot are the silico-argileust 1 , cloy loam, and limey, or slightly dnmp in summer. Up^n poor, Ifglif, sandy soils beetroots always remain small, yet of superior quality; on the other hand, upon very wetland, the plant will grow large, aud will contain hut little su^ar and much water. Peaty soils are not suitable for beet?, nor atiif clay soils, and, more or Jeep, all soils in a bod stole of tilth are unsuituble for its cultivation.

Mr Man says that the rent of farma in Belgium ranges from 49s 'M per cere in Hainault, to 18* 3 1 in Luxembourg, ond i he price of land ranges from £81 per acie in Haiuoult to £19 in Luxera-

bourg, «ho average price for the country being £56 12s 3|d per HJoglish acre. On account, of tbe siinalion, or of particular circumstances, land in fiome plnces frequently reaches the value of £112 to £160 per acre.

A description of a manufactory capable of converting 6000 to 7000 tous of beet into sugar in a season is given. The cost of building, machinery, and all necessary utensils fs stated at £6COO, and an equal amount would be required to purchase root to extract the sugar from. This small scale of working is only adopted in Belgium. The manufactory of Mr Seheutezenbaob, in Galacia, produces 70,000cwr. of sugar every season, and includes within a circle of ten leagues a refinery and sixteen other establishments. The establishment of Waghaeusel employs 3500 people in eight establishments covering 14 acres of ground, and employs a capital of £400,000. In 1865, 1,340,000cwt of beetroot were manufactured in this establishment. Iv France there are several factories capable of working up about 60,000 tons of beets in the season of about six months. la France the cnpital employed in this industry ia £12,000,000; iv Beligum the cnpital is computed at £1,600,000. In France 250,0,0 people are profitably employed in the various branches of ibis trade, and in Belgium the number of men, boys, and girls so employed is about 50,000 In Belgium expert workmen employed in the sugar factories earn 4 franca (about 3s 4.1) per day; unexpert workmen, 2fr 50e (about Is 8J); boys, lfr 5Qi (about Is 3d); and pirls, Ifr 40a (about la 2d) per day. The abov* are price 3 which differ considerably from those vow paid iv thia Colony. Six different varieties of beet appear to be grown on the Continent of Europe for the production of sugar. They are — 1, the French or Belgian sugar-beet; 2, (he Quediinburg German sugar-beet; 3, the bileeian beet 3, the Siberian beet; 5, the imperial beet; and, 6, the vigorous beet.