The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-23 00:00:00

FRENCH COMMERCE.

The demand from abroad for French produce, which is
steadily maintained, gives employment to a multitude of
bands in tha ironworks in Paris and the neighbourhood.
Spain demands locomotives and railway carriages; Geneva,
machinery; Russia, various articles of wrought iron. The
frost has impeded the progress of the new buildings in
course of construction, but other employment is found for
the operatives engaged on them, and it is said that less dis-
tress exists at present in Paris than is usual at this season
of the year. The accounts received from the seaport state
that the markets are generally dull. Tho price of cotton at
Ilavre on Saturday was firm at 2251 for Madras ; Havana
sugar, 42f. The Nantes market is likewise quiet. There
were 10,000 bags of Brazilian sugar sold at Marseilles on
Saturday at 3ff, and 100 casks of coffee from Porto Rico at
105 f. Smyrna cotton is quoted at Marseilles at 2651., and
Jumel, 3221. 60c.

The accounts from the agricultural districts represent the
injury to the young wheat caused by the frost to be less than
was / epresentd by interested parties. Some damage is
spoken of on the banks of the but the particulars have
not been rccoved. There were few an.ivrds of can ships at

Marseilles last week, and millers found it necessary to look
for a supply in the provicial markets on the Saone. The
price of wheat has risen from 50c to 7.5 c the hectolitre in the
South of France, from Toulouse to Perpignan. Bordeaux
is well supplied with wheat, and the price is quoted at from
19f 50e to 20f the hectolitre of 80 kilogrammes. Flour is
in demand from 33f to 36f 50c the 100 kilogrammes. The
demand for flour for the English market having ceased at
Rouen, the price has fallen, and the article is quoted at
from 45f to 45f 50c the sack of 159 kilogrammes. Thera
was a good supply or farmer's wheat in the Pari3 market
last week, but buyers found it difficult to obtain more than
a reduction of 50c the sack of 120 kilogrammes. There
were no sales of merchants' wheat effected. Oats, barley,
and rye were neglected. Bakers' flour, which was quoted
at from 49f to 53i the sack the preceding week, fell last
week to from 47f to 52f. Flour of the six marks fell 50c
the sack. It was officially quotel on Saturday afternoon
at 51f the sack. The factors declared on Saturday 526 sacks
of flour, of which 178 of first quality sold for delivery with-
in 30 days at 47f to 471 50c the sack.
The princieral article of speculation in the Paris market
at present 's sugar, and prices are again rising. Raw beet-
root sugar is quoted at 841 the 100 dilogrammes.
An idea may be formed of the importance of the beetroot
sugar manufacture in France from the fact that the beetroot
crop in the year 1862 produced 190,000,000 kilogrammes of
raw sugar. Daring the same period the beetroot distilleries
produced 40,000 pipes of alcohol of 100 degrees strength,
and 40,000 pipes of alcohol of molasses—in all 80,000
pipes, or about 500,000 hectolitres of alcohol. It required
77,000 hectares of land to produce these 190,000,000
kilogrammes of raw sugar. It requires 1,800 kilogrammes.
of beetroot to produce 100 kilogrammes of raw sugar, or
about 24 metrical quintals per hectare (21 acres), It requires
30,000 hectares of land to produce 500,000 hectolitres of
alcohol. It requires 2,500 kilogrammes of beetroot to pro-
duce 100 litres of alcohol, It is supposed that last year there
were at least 110,000 hectares sown with beetroot, but I here
was a great deficiency in the produce in consequence of the
long continued dry weather. II is calculated that the last
crop will not produce more than from 90,000 to 100,000 kilo-
grammes of raw sugar, and from 30,000 to 35,000 pipes of
alcohol, or about 200,000 hectolitres at 100 degrees strength.
These figures explain at the same time the high price of
sugar and of alcohol, and the complaints of the growers of
beetroot. The last year's crop amounts scarcely to two-fifths
of an ordinary crop. To this first cause of the nigh price of
sugar must be added others, and among them the deficiency
of the crop in foreign countries, which is estimated at
350,000,000 kilogrammes. The dry weather, by reducing
the crop of beetroot cultivated in France by three-fifths, he I
moreover inflicted a severe calamity on farmers. The loss
may be estimated from a report published by the Agricul-
tural Society of St. Quentin. It appears from that report
that previous to the cultivation of beetroot the arrondisse-
ment of Et. Quentin did not produce more than 15 hectolitres
of wheat the hectare. Since then, in consequence of the culti-
vation of beetroot and the manure produced by feeding cattle
with the pulp, the wheat produced has been doubled.
Previous to the establishment of sugar manufactories, the
arrondissement of St. Quentin possessed but few horned
cattle. At present it feeds tenfold more, and this increase
is entirely due to the nutritious quality of the refuse of the
sugar manutactories when used for feeding cattle for the
butcher's stall. Another revolution caused by the cultiva-
tion of beetroot is the substitution by farmers of oxen for
horses for field work. The consequence is that traiaed
plough bullocks are at present more valuable than stall. fed
oxen.
There are three varieties of beetroot grown in France.
The first is excellent as regards the fattening of cattle, but
it is very poor in saccharine matter. It is, consequently,
never planted except in places where there are neither sugar
manufactories nor distilleries. The yellow globe has been
recently introduced, and has displaced the first. It contains
more sugar and more mucilaginous substance. It is, how-
ever, more suitable for fattening cattle than for making
sugar, inasmuch as it contains a salt which prevents the
proper crystallisation of the sugar, and cannot be neutralised.
It is grown exclusively by farmers. The third variety,
which is the most admired by sugar manufacturers, is the
Silesian beetroot, better known by peasants as the sugar
beetroot. It is white or red, and it enters completely into the
earth. Sugar manufacturers prefer the roots which weigh
from 21b to 41b. The Silesian beetroot is said to be capable
of producing from 10 to 12 per cent of sugar. It contains less
mucilaginous principle and less acid than the yellow globe,
and the extraction of its saccharine matter is less difficult.
When the extraction of sugar from beetroot was first at-
tempted, manufacturers produced scarcely more than 1 or 2
per cent. of sugar capable of being crystallised. The machi-
nery for the extraction of sugar was then naturally imperfect.
At present from 5 to 6 per cent. is the average production.
A small quantity of boiled beetroot has produced 8i per cent.
It is expected that when further improvements aro made in
machinery raw beetroot sugar may be sold at lid the pound.
The demand for wino is becoming more brisk at Bercy.

and at the entrepot on the Quay St. Bernard. The retailers
in Paris, who sold largely during the Carnival, are now re-
plenishing their stock ; they give the preference to the wines
of the South of France, which contain more alcohol. New
Bordeaux wine is likewise in demand for private families.
The following are the last prices :—Roussillon, 1862, 18
degrees, 42f to 45f the hectolitre—Narbonne (old), 33f to
49f—Montagne, 1862, 28f to 301—Tavel (old), 32f to 35f
Bordeaux, 1863, 85f to 90f the cask of 228 litres—Cher, 75f
to 80f the cask of 250 litres, exclusive of the octroi duty.
The demand for wine is still moderate at Bordeaux.
Some small farmers, however, at St. Estephe have sold all
their last year's crop at from 350 f to GOOf the tun of 912
litres. Some purchases have likewise been made in the Lower
Medoe at from 3501 to 400 f. The sales in the city are regu-
lated by the requirements of the consumet s, Some tuns of
Narbonne of the last vintage were sold last week for mixing
at from 180 f to 225 f.
There is a better demand for wine at Nantes. Ordinary
is called for at 25f the barrel, and superior at 55f and 57f.
There was a large amount of business done in leather and

tallow at the great fair of Caen, which is held on the first
Monday in Lent. Ox and cow hides brought from 95f to
1041 the 100 kilogrammes, and sheepskins, unwashed, from
7f to 101 each; ox grease, for melting, from 90f to 1001 the
100 kilogrammes ; and mution suet, 75f to 901.
The Director-General of Customs has addressed a circular
to the agents under his orders, dated let inst.. instructing
them that a French factory has been established at Why-
day, on the western coast of Africa, which has lately become
the seat of a new Imperial Consular agency. Porto Nuovo,
another position on the same coast, has been lately placed
under French protection.
Tho Minister of Finance has decided, after consulting
with his colleagues of the departments of the Marine and
of Commerce, and at the suggestion of the Director-General
of Customs, that palm and cocoa oil, imported under the
Frenca flag from Whydah and Porto Novo, shall enjoy the
benefit of the ordnance of May 16, 1863, regulating the
duties payable or, produce arriving from the French estab-
lishments on the western coast of Africa.

HARDLY PROBABLE,—Those who have studied
the position of the Royal Academy and the National
Gallery (says the Queen) will not be much surpassed to
hear that Government is now proposing to give up the
whole of the3Trafalgar-square building to the Royal
Academy, and send the National Gallery to a building to
be erected upon the site at Burlington-house. It is now
many years since the late Prince Consort developed his
favourite scheme of taking the National Gallery down to
Kensington, " The Boilers" were then his pet hobby, and
all the national collections (the British Museum included)
were to find their way down S.W., and become part of that
vast scheme for a Fine Art and Scientific University, over
which his Royal Highness and Messrs. Cole, Dilke and Red,
Brave were to be the presiding geniuses. Daring Lord Derby's
last short tenure of office, an attempt was mad eto accede to the
Prince's wishes in this respect, but i t was happily forbidd en by
the House of Commons. Subsequently it was agreed that the
National Gallery was to occupy the whole of the building
in Trafalgar-square, which was to be adapted and re-
arranged for the purpose, and the Academy was to build for
itself a habitation upon a site to bo granted to it for the pur.,
pose in the gardens behind Burlington House. This seemed
all right enough, for the i
Academy has plenty of money to
build itself a house 'withal,
and is so much of a private body
in its character, that to give it a site to build upon would be
treating it very handsomely. This plan was considered to be
settled upon, and the Atheneum went the length of an-
nouncing that plans had been adopted for the new Royal
Academy. But if these plans ever existed, they have never
since been taken from the drawer to which they were rele-
gated. The Academy had not then, and has not now, any
idea of spending its money in such a way. Its influence in
the Government has been sufficiently strong not only to
withstand the breath of hostile criticism with which it has
been ass ailed for years, but even to better its position in
sptte w
of it.as spendinglt haaquietly bided its time, whilst Govern-
ment money upon the Trafalgar-square build-
ing with the pretence of fitting
it for the reception of the
National Collections, and it now quietly steps forward to
reap the fruit of its long• suffering and indomitable patience.
More pt blit mcnnv is to be spout in providing a new
National Gallery in a back street behind Piccadilly, and the
Royal Academy is to hold undivided possession of the im-
' preyed test, in which it has 1),:,r1 so /or pr—frrmi7T the
Part of tho cuckoo.