Sugar beet

“ The sugar beet, like sugar cane, needs a peculiar soil and climate for its successful cultivation. The most important requirement is that the soil shall contain a large supply of plant food, be rich in humus and have the property of retaining a great deal of moisture. A certain amount of alkali is not necessarily detrimental, as sugar beets are not especially susceptible to injury from this salt. The ground should be fairly level and well drained, especially where irrigation is practiced. ”

“ To successfully compete in the sugar markets of the world the sugar beet should enter the factory with an average percentage of sugar of not less than 12. Very much richer beets are often produced and in some of the irrigated areas of the west, where the climate is remarkably dry, an average percentage of 16 and 18 even has been obtained. In the whole beet sugar crop of the United States the average percentage of sugar in the beet is probably not far from 13 or 14. ”

“ At present, three eighths of the sugar used by civilized nations is produced by the sugar-beet. In like manner, the production of sugar from sorghum may not attain great proportions until some years have passed, but the plant is richer in sugar and is much more easily cultivated and handled than is the sugar-beet. The production of sorghum-sugar at a profit is less problematical than was the successful manufacture of beet-sugar when Napoleon issued the decree which laid the foundations of the beet-sugar industry in France. ”

“ Beet.—The turnip-rooted blood beet should be sown for the earliest crop; the long blood beet for the late crop, and for winter use. The blood beet is the proper garden beet. The scarcity, the sugar beets (so called) , white, yellow, and red, are inferior for table use. Every year we see accounts of new varieties, which are seldom mentioned a second time, while these old standard sorts hold their own from year to year. We see people running around among their neighbors for beet-seed, careless whether it is early or late, coarse fleshed or fine grained, sweet or insipid. ”

“ Obviously, if it is desirable to produce our own sugar, the tropical sugar-cane can not be regarded as the chief source of supply, and we must place our dependence upon some plant better adapted to our varied soils and limited rainfall.
The sugar-beet has much to commend it; it is successfully raised in France, Germany, and Austria, and furnishes, at the present time, thirty per cent of the sugar consumed by civilized nations. ”

“ K. Sullivan, Chemist to the Museum of Irish Industry, states that the Beet Sugar manufactured in France has increased from 51,000 tuns in 1840 to more than 100,000 tuns in 1850, in defiance of a large increase in the excise levied thereon—that the average production of Sugar Beet is in Ireland 15 tuns per acre, against less than 11 tuns in France and Germany—that each acre of Beets will yield 41⁄2 tuns (green) of tops or leaves, worth 7s. 6d. per tun for feeding cattle, making the clear profit on the cultivation of the Beet, at 15s. ”

“ Most plants contain sugar in their roots. But in some large quantities are deposited, as in the sugar beet, which is employed most extensively in France and on the continent of Europe for the supply of sugar for dietetical purposes. A series of specimens illustrating products from beet-root, including sugar, from Messieurs Serret, Hamoir, and Co., of Valenciennes, are exhibited in the Collection. ”

“ Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and California are the extensive sugar-beet producing states. The beets grow to an enormous size; they are planted in rows and cared for much as the beets that grow in our vegetable gardens. In California the Japanese are entering very largely into the sugar-beet culture.
The beet-fields call whole families to work. Several towns in the Northwestern states have sections made up entirely of Russians, and people from other lands, who have been attracted by the opportunities for employment offered by the beet industry. ”

“ But the growth of the sugar beet, and the extraction of beet-sugar, are superseding the chicory trade, and are gradually assuming the first place both in the rural and manufacturing industry of Magdeburg and its neighbourhood. The largest producer of beet-sugar in the world is France ”

“ The investigations respecting the culture of the sugar beet made, by the Ohio experiment station, indicate that some parts of the State offer considerable encouragement to the industry. In three respects of temperature, soil, and rainfall they seem to offer all that is necessary for the best production. There still remains, however, much to be done before it can be positively asserted that beet sugar may be profitably produced in Ohio. ”

“ In many localities where the conditions are favorable it has been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the farmer that a larger profit can be realized from growing sugar beets than any other crop, and in addition the land is improved by the superior cultivation given this crop. Furthermore, the value of the extracted sugar-beet pulp as a feeding stuff for animals is urged as an additional advantage to the agriculture in the vicinity of beet-sugar factories, which is being appreciated. ”

“ They are not infrequently infested by a small insect, the sugar-mite, many thousands of which have been detected in a single pound of brown sugar." Cane-sugar and grape-sugar, otherwise known as sucrose and glucose, are obtained from various sources. Most of the cane-sugar consumed in England is actually produced from the sugar-cane, but of beet-root sugar there is much in the market, and in America sugar is produced from the maple, from maize, and from the "sugar grass." ”

“ In Michigan the long summer days and the influence of the great lakes result in satisfactory climatic conditions for sugar-beet culture, and the crops raised in that state are large.
In order to cultivate beets successfully the land must be properly prepared. Deep ploughing is the first principle of beet culture. It allows the roots to penetrate the subsoil without much obstruction, thereby preventing the beet from growing out of the ground, besides enabling it to extract considerable nourishment and moisture from the lower soil. ”

“ In the United States there is a belt of beet-sugar land two hundred miles wide that runs irregularly across the country from southern New England to the Pacific coast. Sugar-beets can, of course, be grown elsewhere, but it is in this particular region that they thrive best. If even a small proportion of this area were to be planted with beets we could get enough sugar from them to enable us to ship it to foreign markets instead of yearly importing a large amount of it. The trouble is that we Americans are so rich in land that we waste it and fail to get from it a tenth part of what we might. ”

“ The process of selecting the beets richest in sugar content for mothers has now been continued for sixty years and is practised extensively every year, and yet there is no evidence that the maximum sugar content has been increased, and it is certain that the character of richness in sugar content has not been rendered permanently heritable, as sugar beet growers well know that their success depends upon the continuance of the selection. Here it is certain that no distinct unit character has been added by the continuous selection. ”

“ It has been affirmed, that those who manufacture into sugar beet root, raised on their own farms, realized a profit of 25 per cent.; and on the supposition that a quantity were raised adequate to supply the total consumption of sugar in France, it is said that the refuse of the beet root would of itself suffice to fatten for the market annually 120,000 head of cattle.—There are now about twenty beet root sugar refineries in full activity. ”

“ In the summer vast fields are to be seen blue with the flower of the flax, and tier many is one of the great linen-making countries of the world. The sugar-beet is widely grown, and a large quantity of sugar is made. ”

“ The subject of domestic cultivation of sugar bearing plants is, therefore, one of great importance to this nation, and it has accordingly engaged the attention of the U.S. Commissioner of Agriculture, and many experiments have been made in different parts of the country in the propagation of the various canes, roots, etc., from which sugar can be made. Among sugar-bearing plants, beside the regular sugar cane, are, sorghum, sugar beet, maple, watermelon, sweet and white potato, and corn stalk. ”

“ Powers' answer.
"I suppose sugar-beets are just like those in our gardens," ventured Van.
"No, they're not; they are, however, not unlike them. They differ in having more juice and in usually being white," replied Mr. Powers. "The ground has first to be plowed and harrowed, and is afterward laid off in eighteen-inch rows because beets, you know, are planted from seed. When the crop comes up trouble begins, for it has to be thinned until each plant has a good area in which to grow; the beets must also be carefully weeded and the soil round them loosened if they are to thrive." ”

“ Recent data from northeast Germany give the work during campaign 1890-91 of 54 associated beet sugar factories. They used 2,130,000 tons beets, obtained from 142,602 acres of land, average yield 12 tons. The total sugar amounted to 251,000 tons, of which 241,000 were from beets and 10,000 tons from molasses worked by special processes. The polarization of beet juices averaged 13.09; masse cuite, 14.31; extraction of sugar of all grades, 11.79. It required 848 lb. beets to produce 100 lb. sugar.
In every center where beet sugar is made there exists some local society ”

“ It would therefore appear, that even beet root sugar can compete in other than the producing country with the sugar of the tropics—a most significant hint that, unless the cane can be made to yield more and better sugar than is now generally got from it, there is some risk of its being ultimately beaten by the beet root, the cultivation of which is now carried on with so much profit that new works are springing up every year, in almost every country of the continent. ”

“ This effect was further magnified by the fact that the widely scattered location of sugar beet growing regions and their different accessibilities to market [22] give the refiners of each region certainly some advantage over growers and refiners in other regions, and undoubtedly large ones over those most distant from the segment of the interstate market served by reason of being nearest to hand. ”

“ The geographical poles of the sugar trade are now Great Britain and the United States, and the two great areas of production are the beet-sugar countries of the continent of Europe and the cane-growing countries of the American and the Asiatic tropics. These two areas of production have been in active rivalry for the past thirty years, and out of this rivalry have come some striking results. The first is, that beet sugar controls the world's sugar market ”

“ In the second place the young seedling is affected during the development of its crown of leaves, and of its roots, by numerous factors, which cannot change this average, but may induce deviations from it, increasing or decreasing the amount of sugar, which will eventually be laid down in the root. The best young beet may be injured in many ways during periods of its lifetime, and produce less sugar than could reasonably be expected from it. It may be surpassed by beets of inferior constitution, but growing under more favorable circumstances. ”

“ In the case of beet sugar, production is not infrequently a continuous operation in the same mill, from the beet root to the bagged or barrelled sugar ready for the market. The final product from both cane and beet is practically the same. Pure sugar is pure sugar, whatever its source. In the commercial production, on large scale, there remains a small fraction of molasses or other harmless substances, indistinguishable by sight, taste, or smell. ”

“ Whenever the history of the beet-sugar industry shall have been written, it will prove interesting and instructive to the student, as an achievement of science, and will present a problem to the political economist of grave import in its reflection on the future business possibilities. It is a matter of historical record that for many years, in the early part of the present century, continental Europe worked almost hopelessly to produce a sugar-yielding plant which would thrive in its northern climate and supply the sugar it consumed. ”

“ At the present time the beet-sugar industry has become so important that more than eight million tons, or about one-half of all the sugar produced, comes from this source.
There is a greater consumption of sugar each year which necessitates greater production either through larger areas, heavier yields, or its manufacture from other sacchariferous plants. ”

“ Beetroot contains twenty parts sugar. Everybody knows that the beet has competed with the sugar-cane, and a great part of the French sugar is manufactured from beet. Beetroot has a refreshing, composing, and slightly purgative quality. The young leaves, when cooked, are a substitute for spinach; they are also useful for mixing with sorrel, to lessen its acidity. The large ribs of the leaves are serviceable in various culinary preparations; the root also may be prepared in several ways, but its most general use is in salad. ”