The Farm.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 31, 26 August 1871, Page 9

The Farm.

THE SUGAR BEET AND BEET SUGAR QUESTION.

We clip the following from the “ Australasian,” of a late date :—Continuing our inquiry into the question of profit, we find that the lowest cost of a beet sugar factory to work a crop of 500 acres is estimated at £18,317, the sum of the following items, viz. : —Machinery for the production of steam, £1,000; washing and pulping, £1,907 ; defecation, £350 ; scums, £l5O ; sacks, trays, sack washing, £650; carbonation, £650; filtration, £6OO ; evaporation of juice, £2,500 ; crystallisation and turbing, £750; bone black department, £260; pipes and oocks, £750; tubs and tanks, £250; carriage of machinery, £500; building, £3,000. We note the absence of all mention of steam power and we suggest that in “ a building many stories in height,” which it is said would be required for a sugar factory, steam might be economically employed to a great extent to perform work which, in its absence, must be done by manual labor. The list above given confirms the general opinion that in beet sugar factories very expensive plant and many chemical agents are required. “In order to extract the sugar, lime, animal charcoal, crushers, hydraulic presses, defecating boilers, two series of filters, evaporating apparatus, syrup and molasses reservoirs, crystallisers, drying furnaces, &c., are used.” The adoption of the diffusive process would cause some diminution in the cost of apparatus, as presses are in that case not used. The root, after having been cut in slices, is sent to macerate. The process of utilising beetroot by submitting it to distillation involves a much smaller outlay of capital than that of making sugar. For working a crop of 500 to 600 acres, the following would be required : —2 steam generators of 90-horse power, £BBO ; 1 steamengine, 20-horse power, £300; 1 steam-engine, 8-horse power, £lO4 ; 1 steam engine 1-horse power, £72 ; 1 washer, £4B ; 2 crushers, £164 ; 6 presses, £960 ; 5 pumps £2BO ; 2 strainer’s, £24 ; 1 mixer, £2B ; 6 vats, £143 ; 1 reservoir £l7O ; Savalle still (iron and copper), £3,350 ; pipes and cocks, £sl2 —together £7,035; add to this for building, carriage, and erection of machinery, £2 965 we have a total of £IO,OOO Messrs Savalle assert that in countries where the excise regulations do not exist, the item £7,036 may be reduced by one-half. Then we have a balance-sheet of such a beetsugar factory as the above:—On the debtor side are two items —viz., 9,600 tons of beet at 14s sd= £6,920; all the expenses, £7,315 ; balance, £4,865. On the credit side, 650 tons sugar at 24s per cwt=£ls,6oo; 300 tons molasses at 55=£1,500 ; 2,000 tons pulp at 205=£2,000 ; total, £19,100; the profit thus appears to be 22 per cent. In the balance-sheet of the distillery, the pulp item consists of 5,760 tons at 8s ; the spirit at 192,000 gal proof at Is lQd. The net profit is stated at £9,000 or 64 per cent, on the capital employed. The inferior value of the pulp as compared with that left from sugar is doubtless owing to the more perfect extraction of the saccharine matter than in the latter case; it will be remembered that the last third can be profitably extracted for distillation, but not for sugar-making. Bub we are nowhere told the reason why the quantity of pulp resulting from the same quantity of roots is so much greater in theone case than in the other. Is the result in the one case that of pressing, and in the other that of the diffusion process ? In reporting upon the stills to which reference has been made,Dr Voelcker has incidentally mentioned a fact that may. prove most important here. He observes in effect that beets whieh on account of the presence of objectionable matter in the soil are not fit for sugar-making, may be profitably used for distilling. A man may unite the occupation of distiller with that of farmer with great advantage, because he may erect the plant of a distillery working 20 weeks in a year at the rate of 120 tons a week, giving about 48,000 gallons of spirit, being the crop of 125 to 150 acres, for £2,266, exclusive of the cost of the buildings. If the diffusion process were used the cost of the plant would be much less, and a still further reduction would be effected were there no excise regulations. The working capital of a distillery of the above capacity would be £2,000; the cost of the plant and a suitable building for a company is estimated at £4,000 ; the net profit is stated at 33 per cent: that of a distillery to work up 240 tons a week being estimated at 40 per cent, and of one that will consume 480 tons per week, 64 per cent. With regard to the uses to which alcohol is put, is is used so largely in the arts that the demand is practically unlimited. It is of course the basis of brandy, gin, whisky, rum, absinthe, curacoa, aniseed, marasquino, ratifia, chartreuses, &c., but it is also used largely in perfumery, especially in aromatic spirits and cosmetic lotions. It is the basis of tinctures and pharmaceutical extracts. Its uses indeed are vei’y varied, and they are farther treated of under the following headings, viz :—Anhydrous alcohol, hydrotimetry, preservation of plants, essay of raw sugar, essay of sodas, extraction of quinine, cinchonine, morphine, &c., alcohol in thermometers, spirit wine varnishes (an immense consumption for this purpose), polishing steavine candles, vulcanised indiarubber, collodion, aether, or bydric sether, fulminating powder, lighting, calorific power, and vinegar. In reference to this latter article it is said. “ With beetroot spirit, pure as it is produced by the Savalle stills, vinegar of first quality is produced at a low rate, and it is very easy to manufacture. It consists in filtering, on beech-tree shavings, eight gallons of pure beet trees spirit, 68 overproof mixed to 92 of water. This will be even a cheaper process than making vinegar out of sour beer.

MISCELLANEOUS. Corn husking should take place as soon as the grain is hard. Save no ears for seed which are not of medium size, fair, even, of the standard color, and borne at least two on the stalk. Butter made from sweet cream or new milk need not be washed if made in cool weather and worked with great skill and care. But the point is not whether under the most favorable circumstances butter can be made to keep well without using water in removing the butter milk, but whether it would be wise to advise the practice, seeing that nine out of ten women will learn to make excellent butter if they wash it, while not one in ton will make fair without washing.

The first shipment of wheat from Chicago to Europe was 78 bushels in 1838. Last year the quantity exceeded 70,000,000 bushels.

A gentleman of great experience in farming matters, speaking in reference to the most suitable horse for farm work, says: “A thoroughbred race-horse of ‘ bone and substance crossed with ‘ roomy’ mares, such as a good judge can readily find, gives ‘the horse of all work,’ and by constantly breeding from such Btallions a few generations will give the most fastidious lover of good horses just what he wants. Many years’ experience as the owner of from six to fifteen horses, constantly in service, has resulted in the opinion just given as to what constitutes the best animal for ordinary farm use. The weight of such a horse should fall a little below 1,100 pounds. For special purposes larger horses will be profitable, and for very light work smaller will do ; but for all work on a farm or on the road, except, perhaps, for what are known as livery horses, 1,100 pounds and 15$ hands, give the weight and height of the horse of all work.”

There is every year getting to be greater opening for men who know how to use economy, certitude, skill, and speed, in agricultural operations; who are clever in constructing machinery to crush, to plough, to sow, to mow* to reap, to thresh, to carry. There is a steadily brightening prospect for men who have a general knowledge of the chemistry of agriculture, and who are well up in most improved methods of other countries. Straw as fodder from the leading grain crops ranks as follows—the best first: —Oat, barley, wheat, rye. It is doubtful whether there is a better root than the potato for feeding for milk. A farmer who made the experiment found that thirty-six quarts of carrots gave bim 321 b of milk, and thirty-six quarts of potatoes gave him 401 bof milk. The other food given the cow was dry hay. An intelligent farmer, who had a field that was quite foul with weeds, and which had been improverished by constant cropping, met with complete success by the following treatment. He thoroughly ploughed his land in early winter, then spread it over with ordinary stable manure —a generous coating—and harrowed it well in. A splendid crop of weeds sprang up from the soil and manure. When they were a few inches high lie sowed on his seed, and then, with a large plough tooth cultivator, set to a two and a half inch cut in depth, cultivated and cross cultivated his land, covering the seed grain and destroying the weeds. The grain came up clean, and made a large yield of superior quality. A British agricultural paper says:—“The Prussians have for some years had the pick of the country, and have bought large numbers of our best mares. They also purchased Blue Gown for 5,000 gunieas, and last week bought the Colonel for 2,500 guineas. They have thus secured some of our best blood, and, if the drain on our stock should go on in the same proportion, is is quite possible that we may have ourselves eventually to go to the Continent to get first class horses.” In the livestock imported from abroad into the United Kingdom there has been a steady increase in the past three years, especially in in sheep and horned stock; but the total quantity after all is not large. In dairy produce butter shows a steady increase, and reached 1,259,000 cwt last year ; but how much of thisis tallow-manufactured Dutch butter the returns do not specify—our readers must guess for themselves. Foreign cheese is also in the increase, reaching now nearly I,ooo,OOOcwt. Eggs also show an enormous demand prevalent here : the only surprise is where the poultry are found which supply us annually with 442 millions of eggs. Our demands for American lard keep steady at about 250,000 cwt. Salted meats are in demand, principally, we suppose, for the royal and merchant navy and emigrant ships, as our imports last year were 1,157,600 cwt. A novel item in the returns is “ nleab not otherwise described,” to the extent of 90,OOOcwt or 100,OOOcwt. This, we presume, must be the tinned and other Australian meats, for which a market has lately been created, and public monthly sales commenced in London. — “ Mark Lane Express.”

On the Rio Negro, South America, English settlers are planting wheat, and with the bad returns that sheep farming has given in the last few years new settlers must turn their attention to corn growing. Free grants of land (6,700 acres) can be had here on the condition of building a house and placing a flock of 1,000 head of sheep on the land within a year. The cost of survey is about £4O. About five years ago the first Englishman settled at Frayle Muerto, and now there are 150, who have 4,000 acres under tillage. The Buenos Ayres “ Standard” states that Mr Melrose has about 800 acres under grain, and he is the largest local proprietor ; he bought, in 1868, the land on which the town is built and all around, to an extent of 40,000 ac-res (six square leagues), for £3,600. Mr Melrose sells small farms, unfenced, at 5s to £1 per acre, but stipulates that the buyers must fence it in within twelve months. They have at work here 150 ploughs, 80 reaping and 10 threshing machines. A remarkable instance of what American energy and enterprise are capable of is afforded

by the fact that a large trade in apples is springing up between the United States and Liverpool. One of the largest exporters is a gentleman of Port Huron, Michigan, who has contacted for the delivery, next autumn, of 10,000 barrels. A singular fact connected with this enterprise is that large quantities of the apples thus sent to Liverpool are transhipped to the Mediterranean in exchange lor the fruit of that regiou. When will our farmers, gardeners, and fruit growers rival their American cousius in this way? It is a disgrace to the colony that tens of thousands of pounds, in hard cash, are every year sent out of it for the purchase of bottled fruits, pickles, preserves, jams, &c, which might be produced here at a profit.

A correspondent of the “ Boston Journal of Chemistry” states that there is no doubt.that the girdling of fruit trees is a cause of abundant fruitage, but it by no means follows from this fact that a general principle can be deduced that trees would be improved, or the crop increased for a series of years, by such treatment. It is well known that gardeners frequently girdle a branch, by removing a narrow ring of bark around it, when they wish to increase the size and beauty of the fruit; bub it is done at the expense of its vitality, and, unless the operation is skilfully performed will invariably destroy it before the season of bearing the next year. The crude sap, taken up from the soil by the roots of the tree, ascends principally through the vascular tissue of the alburnum or sap-wood to the leaves of the branches, and there both this and the carbon of the carbonic acid, absorbed from the air by the leaves, are organised into the proper substance for the growth of the wood and fruit. It then descends on the outside, principally through the sieve tissue of the cambium layer, forming a new layer of wood and bark; while a part also goes to the nourishment of the fruit. If there is no obstruction of the elaborated sap in its downward course, it is equally distributed to the branches, fruit, 9tem, and roots; but, if the bark and cambium layer ai’e removed by girdling, it is stopped in its descent, and consequently received into the branches and fruit in excess, and they are thus increassed at the expense of the part below. In this way we account for the increase of the fruit by girdling. In new ground maize is best chipped in for the first year, and had better be planted in well worked spots, about two feet apart, in rows about five feet distant from each other. In each of these prepared spots, or holes, plant four or five grains in a circle of six or -even inches diameter, and cover them with pulverised soil about two inches deep. In land which has been previously cultivated, when it has been reduced to a good state of tilth, open the furrows with the plough, and drop the seed corn in about one foot apart, (the rows being, say, three to four feet from each other) covering the seed up well with the back farrow. Afterwards, plough between the drills, and as soon as the young crop requires lulling run the plough, a light horse one of course, up and down each side of the corn. This should be repeated perhaps again ; and some careful and intelligent farmers have men with hoes to follow, the more carefully to draw the earth to the roots, which the plough may have missed doing, or to free any plant that may have been covered. It may be found advantageous at a favorable time to run a cultivator between the rows of growing corn ; or, if only a small patch is grown, to chip it over with the hoe once or twice. It then requires nothing doing to it until ripe. If corn is planted in new or virgin soil, it should, all the time the crop is growing, be well worked by plough, cultivator or hand hoe. Land cannot be made too fine for maize, and, as a rule, the more it is worked the better. Maize will grow almost anywhere in this country, but it loves best rich alluvial flats, or, most of all, newly cleared brush land. Its leaves are eaten, when green, most greedily by all animals, and the stalks make, when salted and stacked, good hay for cattle. Markets an Element of Wealth : “Look at that prairie,” said a settler on the Red River to Professor Hind, the director of the Canadian exploring expedition, “ look at that prairie: 10,000 head of cattle might feed and fatten there for nothing. If I found it worth my while, I could enclose 50, 100, or 500 acres, and from every acre get from 30 to 40 bushels of wheat year after year, I could grow Indian corn, barley, oats, flax, hemp, hops, turnips, tobacco —anything you wish, and to any amount; but what would be the use ? There are no markets. It’s a chance if my wheat is taken, and my potatoes I may have to give to the pigs.” This is akin to the story of the Irishman in London, who, after describing the quantities of eggs and other eatables he could get in his country for sixpence, being asked why he had left so cheap a country, replied, “ Ah, sure, sixpences is scarce there !”