Las Vegas free press. (East Las Vegas, N.M.) 1891-1???, 1892-03-10
BEET-RooT SUGAR.

The American Register, of Paris
gives the following facts about the
beet sugar industry i'll France, an in
dustry that is fast becoming an i'm
portant one in the United States and
that will one day be a great industry
in New Mexico:
1t was Olivier de Serres-so claim
the French-who about 1900 discov.
cred that sugar could be made or ex-
tracted from beet-root. 1t was Mar
graff-so claim the Germans-who
about $50 years later made the same
discovery. Like De Series, the re-
suits of his labors were more hypo.
thetical than practical; and it is to
Achard, another German scientist, to
whom the credit of the discovery of
beet sugar is really due. During the
year 1889, this man applied himself
entirely to the cultivation of the
beet, at Caubsdorf, near Berlin, and
several years afterward, aided and
encouraged by the king, he erected
at Kunern, near Silesia, the first fac
tory for the making of beet-root
sugar In Europe. The establishment
was followed by the construction of
two identical ones near Paris. AT
that period the cost of production
amounted to about 10 cents per
pound; today its costs the manufac-
turer about 05 cents pound.
In the manufacture of beet-root
sugar the vegetables are first rasped
down to pulp. This pulp is put
into bags, and the juice expressed by
pressure. The liquid obtained is
then boiled after the addition of a
small quantity of lime and sulphuric
acid, both employed for clarifying
purposes. After the boiling, or, in
short, when it has reached the re-
quired density, it is filtered first
through flannel cloths, then animal
charcoal. A second time it is boiled
after the addition of lime water and
white of an egg, the surface of the
liquid being carefully scummed the
while. From this moment its con-
densation and moulding is precisely |
that described IN the case of cane
sugar.
Many thousand acres of land in
France are given over to the cultiva-
ton of the beet. Twenty tons of
the root may, under favorable con-
ditions, be obtained from single
acre of ground; and one ton of sugar
from twelve tons of the root.
As a comparison of the number of
factories on the continent of Europe,
in which sugar from beet-root alone
is made, we find, that there are in
Fance 440, in Germany 3s5; in Rms
STA $40; IN Austria 225; in Belgium
10; in Holland 10, and IN Sweden s.
Statistics from other countries are
unattainable.
The amount of sugar manufactured
in tons was lsS6-s7, 2,559,OOO; 1887
IS, 100000; lssss0, 9,5sS,OOO;
$4,000, 3,7ss,OOO.
The making of sugar and the re-
fining of it are closely allied. The
raw brown material is dissolved in
arge iron tanks of hot water. An adj
lition of bullock's blood is made; 1
The tanks are then heated, and as the
of the solution rises, the
albumen of the blood coagulates,
takes up in chemical suspension the
contained in the solution
and rises to the surface The skim
ming process is then repeated, and
The fluid drawn off into "bag filters"
These filters, made of closely woven
cotton cloth and capable of retaining
he minutest foreign substance, are
in a compartment filled
With steam, to keep their contents :
Tot only in a liquid state, but to
acilitate filtration. From these bags
he sugar is passed through the char
oal filter, from whence it comes
,ure, clear and transparent.
As in the early process of manu- =
acture, it is again placed in the va :,
uum pan, boiled, condensed and :
moulded. During the process of "
ooling, however, quantity of tre-
Gle, or sugar refusing TO solidify,