Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-04-20

gions. First The middle di'
vision of the temperate zone ly.
ing between parallels $50 and
43o, comprising Massachusetts
Rhode Island, Connecticut, N.
! York, New Jersey, Pennsylva-
MIA, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
! Iowa, Nebraska, Southern Ida
| do and Oregon, with an area Of
$4,000 square miles, is favora-
BILE to beet culture the mean
! annual temperature varying
from At to So degrees b. Sc
cond The district between
parallels $50 and 800, embrac-
Ing the border States, Della
ware, Maryland, Virginia, w.
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Missouri, with Kansas, Colora-
do, Utah, Nevada and Northern
California, possessing an area
! of $4,000 miles, and a mean
annual temperature of 500 to
600 F., is also favorable to the
culture of the beet SO that it
would seem, according to theo-
ry advanced by the writer's on
European beet raising, that we
have a belt of country of seven
degrees of latitude, and of an
area equal to / ,129, 900 square
miles, capable of being devoted
to this special branch of indus :
try.
We are obliged, however, to
accept these conclusions with
many grains of doubt, mas
much as Utah has not proved,
by the experiments already
made, a sugar beet growing To-
cality. We obtained the beets
in profusion, and of large size,
but the saccharine property was
not there; and it may turn out
that other portions of the vast
area we have figured up, will
prove a failure in sugar beets,
or in beets Of a sufficiently SUI
gary character to allow us to
hope for a profitable industry
to be sustained therefrom. OBJ
servations have shown that the
sugar augments in the juice as
the plant grows, up to August;
ra.~I y is-any aatarpaiinassion in
July equal to-those of the next
two months. The per centage
of sugar, it is held, depends,
next to the rainfall, more on
temperature than perhaps any
other condition. We should
say that soil had much to do
with the proper maturity ofthe
beet, but the authorities we have
drawn upon for the data here
in presented, have said little
about soil. The per centage Of
sugar reaches it's maximum
about the middle of September.
Yet if the temperature of Au-
gust is high, it may occur in
that month.
7 Of late years, the sugar of
the beet grown in Europe has
decreased. Whether the pre-
sent decrease is due to the va
riety of beet, or to the peculiar
cultivation, whereby less aka.
line salts are introduced into the
root, and alkaline sugar-com-
pounds formed which Gas was
the case in the Utah expert
ment) prevents separation and
the crystalizing out of the SUI
gar, the beets raised the past
year in France have presented
the same character as the Utah
product; a great lack of sac
oharine property.
We take the following from
the Mercantile Journal, of
New York, trade paper, pro-
Tossing not only to understand
the laws ofpolitical economy,
but to be we'll versed in the
data of everything pertaining
to trade and commerce. When
it states that our climate and
soil are we'll suited to the cul-
tivation of the sugar beet, it is
an error. Cultivation has not
demonstrated that fact. Up
to this date sugar production
from the beet-root has been an
experiment of questionable
profit. Again, when that
journal says that the day is not
far distant when American beet
root sugar will find it's way to
the markets of the world, etc.,
etc., and that lit will be able
TO successfully compete in pri-
ces with colonial or European
productions, it is either entire