The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1886-01-12
Sugar Decentralization in England.

At first sight ii may appear strange experiment.
to cultivate an article that for long time has
been regarded as selling below cost Of production,
although cultivated on the cheapest lands and
with low priced and in some instances slave la
Dor upon the dearest land and with comparatively
the dearest labor i'll the world. Unassisted by
any grant from the government or any protection
whatever, it is indeed bold experiment to attempt
to produce sugar in England the cheapest sugar
market in the world. While Germany, Austria,
France and Russia not only protect their sugar
producers by ironclad tariff they also assist the
refners to export sugar by large export bounties.
England is the market in which not only the
bounty-fed sugar of Europe has TO be marketed,
but which, TO a large extent, absorbs quantities OF
cane sugar, the average price of refined sugar in
London being about 60 per cent lower than in any
other market. It's evident that the cultvators Of
sugar In England will have 10 meet the keenest,
and in many instances unfair competition; there
fore the experiment is all the more important as
indicating what can be accomplished by free and
untrammeled labor.
Professor A. II. Church, NJ. A., L. G. s., T. /. c.,
has visited all the farms where the experiment has
been tried and reports that:
1.-The extraordinary dryness of the spring and
summer of 1884 told unfavorably upon the regular
ity and yield of the crop. On the shallow and hot
grayelly or sandy soils, the seeds IN many places
failed TO terminate or the plant did not develop
properly. However, IN spite of the unusual drouth,
and IN spite of the mistakes made by some OF the
growers in the manuring, the sowing, the singing
and after treatment of the crop, the results of the
urSt year S experience Is encouraging. Although
the weight OF the crops has been small IN some IN
stances yet yield of about twelve tons per acre
has been secured on large proportion of the farms
while the average quantity of sugar In the roots
has nearly reached IL per cent corresponding to
production of one ton and half of crystalliZable
sugar per acre. Even taking into account the
whole of the sixty farms on which the trials were
made, and from which returns have been received
the figures will not be very much less favorable
for although in few instances the yield per acre
has been less than five tons Ill others 1t has eX-
ceeded fifteen or been as high as twenty while the
whole $40 acres have produced II total of about
| $3.50 tons of roots, or over ten tons per acre..
The Professor also gives the following particular
cases where success or failure was most complete:
At Brent Eleigh the Rev. Il. X. Longden OBJ
tanned II tons per of shapely small roots; the
land was clean and well farmed, the drills being
about lG inches apart. In an ordinary season the
! plant so managed would have given yield of at
least 20 to % tons. As contrast to this trial,
Professor Church mentions an experiment near
Stowmarket, where the drills were % inches apart
and the distance between the plants in the rows
was no less than feet. A crop of unsatisfactory
roots, at the rate of only 81 tons per acre. was the
result. This Is compared with Mr.. G. II. Nunn's
trial on IL acres at Bury st. Edmund's. From old
meadow land, well farmed, 200 tons were obtained,
| or yield of Is tons per acre. In this instance,
however, the percentage OF sugar was rather low
/ namely, l04. That fair crop for such season
is not incompatible with richness of sugar is shown
/ by the 10 acres under sugar beet on Mr.. Garrett
| IaylOrs farm near Norwich Here the yield was
II tons per acre and the percentage of sugar 14I.
The roots averaged, as they should do, less than
pounds apiece. If only inches instead of Is had
| been left between the roots in the rows (Which
were Is inches apart,) the crop might have been
doubled, with further benefit TO its quality, we'll
as with considerable of increase IN its quantity.
Similarly, Mr. o. d. johnson of Barrow, with dis
lance of 20 inches by 9, obtained 10 tons per
acre. the roots showing Az per cent. of crystal
| liable sugar. These roots were even and fair,
although grown in gravely soil everything the
chalk. IN the majority of the past seasons trials,
Professor Church states that sufficient attention
was not paid TO the golden rule of having close
plant as possible Small roots and many of
them are best, both for the grower and the sugar
maker. The smaller the root the richer it is in
sugar the less saline matter does 1t extract from
the land the manure, and the easier it is TO lift.
In many instances part of the crop beets were
used for feeding purposes, AID III nearly every
the experiment. and in the majority of cases it is
! pronounced complete success. In conclusion, in
| pointing out the advantages of cultvating sugar
| beets, the professor says:
Chemical analysis explains the superiority of
sugar-beet over other roots for feeding purposes.
While mangolds commonly contain 80 per cent. of
water, and swedes and white turnips often more,
sugar beets will generally be found to average
about 81 per cent. Thus crop of sugar-beet, even
| though its gross weight may not be much more
than half that of other kinds of roots, will contain
| quite as much solid nutritive matter. Moreover,
1t will present the further advantage of contain
| ing less of those saline matters which, without
being of in animal nutrition tend, by their re-
moyal from the soil, TO its exhaustion.-BTGd-
| streets