BEAT-ROOT SUGAR.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1014, 15 April 1869, Page 2

BEAT-ROOT SUGAR.

In Victoria and New South Wales, the culture of sugar-beet is again receiving a considerable amount of attention, more especially in the latter colony, where information on the subject appears to be very largely sought after. Ihe Sydney Mail , a journal which addresses itself more particularly to the agricultural portion of the community lately gave some interesting statistics about the cultivation of sugarbeet. These were chiefly drawn from a work by Mr Arnold Baruchson, compiled ro meet the growing demand of English agriculturists and manufacturers for information. It is to Mr Baruchson’s figures and facts, so far as as they seem to be useful, that we now wish t , direct public attention. The annual consumption of sugar m Europe and the United States Js about two million tons, of which 038,500 tons are manufactured from beetroot. Beetroot sugar dates from the experiments of Mararaff and Achard, Prussian chemists, in and 1773. France takes the lead m the production of beetroot sugar, and Mr Baruchson tells us that the painful experience acquired during its long struggle for recognition has born abundant fruit in the many improvements in the culture and manufacture of the root which French increnuity has devised. The percentage of saccharine matter extracted has largely inincreased. New uses have been discovered for the various refuse ; cheaper and more rapid processes of crystallisation have been adopted ; and since 1848 the progress has been amazing and uninterrupted, except so far as unfavourable seasons have influenced the harvests. Eminet French refiners, witn with whom he discussed the subject, told Mr Baruchson that as during the last ten years their production had doubled, they expected to again double it during the next ten, so constant were the improvements introduced, and so greatly was the root advancing in public favour. In 1802-3, it had reached 175,000 tons; in 1863-4, though the harvest was a comparative failure, 130 000 tons were produced ; the following season yielded 164,U0D tons ;in 1865-6, the spring and summer were so favourable, that not only was an immense amount of root raised, but the quality was remarkably good, the result of which was that no less than 274,000 tons came from the manufactories and the te ison of 1866-7 resulted in a yield of only 216,000 tons, for, though ground was sown sufficient to produce 300 000 tons, the season was very unfavourable. Of the 274,000 tons produced in 1865-6 about 500,000 were exported to England, which paid for them £1,200,000. Since 1840, France has manufactured about two million tons of beetroot sugar, representing a money value of over £40,000,000. The capital and labour set in motion by this industry in France alone are very considerable. In 1860, two hundred and eighty-one manufacturers expended close on two million pounds sterling, over one-fortli of which was paid to forty thousand labourers employed for six months M Dureau, writing in 1860, sums up the national results of the whole beet industry of France in the following manner :

Francs. Paid for agricultural products ... ... 45,000,000 Returned to the ground (pulp, &c.) 4,000,000 Sugar and molasses manufactured ... 20,000,000 Wages and salaries ... 46,000,000 Duty paid to Government ... ... 50,000,000 235,000,000 The European countries producing beetroot sugar are principally the following, from which it will be seen. that very considerable variety of climate is represented : France 216,000 tons per annum. Belgium ... ... 40,000 ~ ~ Holland 7,500 ~ ~ Zollverein ... 190,000 ~ ~ Austria ... ... 80,000 ~ ~ Russia ... .. 80,000 ~ ~ Poland & Sweden 25,000 ~ ~ Germany followed closely in the wake of France, so that now the quantity manufactured in the German provinces of Austria and the Zollverein is fully equal to the gross annual production of that country. The gradual increase of the manufactures in the Zollverein may be judged from the fact that while in 1836 the duty collected on imported sugar was £779,625, in 1856 it did not exceed £527,411, and in 1864 had fallen to £163,349. During 1868, says Mr Baruchson, the agriculturist m every direction, not only in the Zollverein, but also in France, Austria, Russia, and Belgium, sowed ten per cent, more land than had yet been used for this purpose, and showed undiminished confidence in beet as the most advantageous crop they can cultivate.