The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-08-28
The Sugar-beet.


The sugar-beet, will grow in almost
any part of the temperate zone, and the
land that is best suited to it is soil in
which wheat viii grow readily; either
land that is clayey, but not too stiff, or
land that is rich, light and sandy. The
beets penetrate the soil from eight to
twelve inches, and their weight is from
one and half to four pounds. The
seed is sown in the spring, and when the
plants come up they are thinned out to
one plant in about every twelve inches.
As soon as they are sufficiently grown
they are worked with cultivator us we
now work corn. They are harvested
in September or October. Cows are
fed upon the leaves and upon the
pulp that remains after the extraction of
the sugar, and the result of such feeding
is said to be the production of very SUI
perior milk and butter, or high-class
beef, and of barn-yard manure Of very
rich kind The product of beef under
iudiciouS cultivation is from 30 to 40
tons to the acre, and the yield of sugar
is about s per cent. A case is mention
ed of French farm of S32 acres, the
sale of produce from which amounted to
5000 year before beet culture was in
troduced, but which, six years after the
first beets We're planted, yielded over
$40, 900 a year. us. t" '.
OF course, the very best results can
not be looked for at once. American
farmers will have to learn by experience
how to grow the crop to the greatest adj
vantage. 1t took nearly half century
to establish this great industry in Eu-
rope upon firm basis; but our farmers,
perhaps, will hardly have to wait so long
for the best success, because it will be easy
for them to avail themselves of the ex-
perience of the French and German
growers. France now grows about l.
SOC, 900 of tons of beet sugar every year :;
and not only does she supply her own
people, give employment to capital, Ia
borers, and land, but she makes hand
some profit upon her sugar exports.
This is the result of the resOlute deter
mination of the first Napoleon in 1912
to have the experiment tried in France
under promising conditions.
That it is equally well worth trying
here is certain The demand for sugar
is increasing and likely to increase. The
people of this country consumed, in the
wear 1876, 745, 900 tons, or ,669, 000, 900
pounds of sugar OF this huge amount,
only liz, 480, 900 pounds, or less than 10
per cent. were produced at home, chiefly
in louisiana The remainder, SOL, :
$50, $40 pounds, was imported from Gu
ba and other Spanish possessions, from
Porto Rico, Brazil, the British West In
dies, the Dutch East Indies, the French
West Indies, China, Mexico, England,
Germany, Belgium, and other countries.
In value the sugar imports represent
nearly one-sixth of all our imported mer-
chandise, the value of imported sugars in
1873 being SS1, 1S7 ,504. 1t is the sugar
imports also that give most trouble to
the Customs Department of the Govern
ment, the disputes about the quality and
so forth being endless. 1t is quite with
in the bounds of possibility that the time
may come when we shall pay to our own
agriculturists the vast sums of money
that are now expended for sugar in near
w all quarters of the globe hy Ameri-
cans; and it may happen here, as it has
happened in France, that besides sup
plying the home demand we may have
surplus for export. American enter
prise and ingenuity, operating upon land
as fertile as any in the world, and with n
favorable climate, surely can achieve as
much as has been accomplished by the
peasantry of France.-PhilaC'elpsia Bmt-
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