The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-11-20
THE PRESS.
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Beet Sugar.

tnls STATE Wnen the manufacture of sugar is
successfully connected with the production of |
the beet on our own soil. The growth of
root that would command constant and
ready market, besides furnishing surplus of |
valuable food for home consumption, is of it.
self matter of no little Importance, for very
likely its cultivation would become an estab-
lished business, and it would stamp certain
distinct and fixed modes of hcsbandry wher-
ever it was raised, that might last for a CEN
fury. If we regard it therefore merely as one
of the staple products of country, its intro
duction is Of great Importance. When, how
ever, we consider how important factor the
manufactured article sugar is, not only in the
comfort of household life, but in the exports
of state and the calculations of political
economist, we find that the raw material is
entirely overshadowed. In order that coun-
try may be supplied from its own resources,
and especially Independent of others in time
of war, it may well be said with regard to this
article of universal use, that the efforts of
statesmen and scientific men would be well
expended, if by the labors of lifetime the
profitable manufacture of beet sugar could be
introduced into their own lands.
1t has already been satisfactorily demon
strated that the sugar beet can be raised in
Maine, as neither soil nor climate have proved
unfavorable to Its growth or maturity. Much
of our soil is originally adapted to its
growth, and more can be made so by
suitable additions. Our northern latitude is
by no means an impeachment to the growing
of the root or the manufacture of the sugar;
and in fact wherever these undertakings are
introduced into the colder regions, the work.
ing season is thereby prolonged, and the
farmers opportunity for labor is extended to
a considerable degree, as much of the bulky
and heavy transportation and the work of
manufacture may be done in the early
winter.
1t is not sufficient that the beet should
yield good crop merely as compared with
other roots, the important requisite is that il
contain sufficient saccharine matter for the
profitable manufacture of sugar, and entire
freedom from elements that are unfavorable
to it. Where nitrogen and potash exist in
excess in soils, or where heterogeneous manures
are extensively used the beet may be valu-
able as food for animals and yet COMPARE
lively valueless for the production of sugar.
1t has been ascertained that argillaceous,
silicious and calcareous soils differ but little
in their effects upon the sugar in beets.
Even poor soil MANFRED only with phos-
phate of lime and nitrate of potash, produced
large roots containing sixteen per cent. of
sugar.
Thus far, while the failures in this new and
important department of industry are appar
emily the fault of the practical business men
engaged in it; it is after all possible that the
entire weight of error lies at the door of the
chemist or scientist who may have escaped
censure. Land, and labor and capital are
not, and have not been wanting in this great
nterprise-nothing else is lacking to make it
an assured success, but scientific skill. In
this era of chemical fertilizers. when by the
addition to the soil of certain required e'e-
ments you are authorized to draw at sight for
a given crop, it almost seems as if failure
here was a cIime-not only involving the
loss of property but discouraging enterprise
and industry, and postponing indefinitely
what should be an accomplished success.
There should be no expenditure of time or
money in such an undertaking until
chemical analysis has stamped the
seal OF approval upon the soil, or
else clearly indicated what its deficiencies are
and how they are to be met. 1t is altogether
too late to wait until the investment is made,
and the experiment tried, and then declare
failure to be Inevitable. We hope to see su-
gar made from beets grown in our soil, and
trust in order that the first experiment. may
succeed that capitalists will require that sci
entific experts shall first declare that all the
conditions of the soil are favorable. We SUBJ
jein an extract from the Country Gentleman
which shows the present state of affairs in
Illinois, where costly experiments have been
made in the manufacture of beet sugar:
This has been abandoned for the present
in Illinois, at least so far as the establishment
at Freeport is concerned. Readers of the
Country Gentleman will recolect the fact
that about fifteen years ago, some wealthy,
liberal and enterprising gentlemen invested
large sum in lands, buildings and machinery,
at Chatsworth, Livingston Co., for the pur-
pose of making sugar from the beet; that af-
ter four or five years of costly experiment it
was found that the soil was unsuited to the
development of saccharne matter sufficient
to allow. of the profitable or even the paying
production of sugar. The establishment was
thereafter removed to Freeport, Stephenson
Co., and put under the charge of Mr. G. 81.
Rosential, an intelligent, successful and ener-
getic farmer, who together with Mr.. Bum of
Springfield, a banker and Mr.. Case of Ra-
cine, an agricultural implement maker, both
hot, \
public spirited gentlemen, held an equal own
ership in the concern. Abandoning, or par
TALLY abandoning the system undertaken at
Chatsworth, of growing beets and making
sugar from them. the firm contracted with
the neighboring farmers, largely German, for
the requisite quantity, paying for them Ode
lvered at the works. 81 to $3.50 per ton, in
1875. Considerable sugar was made and Of a
good quality. but at such loss that it was re-
solved on the part of Messrs. Bum & Case to
stop the works. Accordingly no beets have
been grown during tho season of 1876. When
passing the large, remarkably well built and
expensive works near Freeport, last week, I
was sorry to see that they, in common with
so many other unsuccessful manufactures in
Illinois, were closed, deserted and silent. I
understood from a gentleman met on the
train, that the property was in litigation, and
that there was possibility of the works be-
ing remodeled, and a new and related branch
manufacturing undertaken by new COM
pany.
The same excess of alkaline and nitrogen
Gus matter in the soil, which at Chatsworth
rendered the beets there grown comparatively
sugarless, was met with at Freeport and its
neighborhood, portion OF those there grown
scarcely yielding or per cent, and another
portion was found to be vaueless, because al
most wholly deficient in sugar. Moreover,
the farmers learned that 81 to $3.50 a ton
would not pay, and even ii the company had
continued operations, ii would have been i'm
possible to have renewed contracts except at
an advance of SOC to 81 per ton. 1t seems to
have been pretty clearly demonstrated that
soil rich enough in potash and nitrogen to
grow paying crop of corn, grass or potatoes,
contains too much of both for the production
of beets rich enough in sugar to pay for man
ufacture, and that unless some cheap way is
found for dscharging this excess from The
soil by previous cultivation of other crops, the
growing of beets for sugar can never be a sue.
cess. An excess of that which produces large
straw growth, developes rust and ends it
blasting the head and kernel in the wheat
plant, stimulates large gro With and prevents