, 1893-06-07
BERLIN oass2o o1o 9
Berlin, April 22nd 1873.
E~Ostsiaaa Planter, 1874 May.

Editor Louisiana Planter: We regret to
report that. the dry weather continues, and if
there is 9 slight improvement il 10 the rise Of
temperature, which is now In keeping with
the season. The drought, now persisting
nearly a month, is quite phenomenal at this
time of the year, and it 10 not only injurious to
the beet sowings, which oan not germinate,
and far less come up, but also to other Drops,
such as cereals, rape, linseed, etc. They are
all looking sickly, and the hopes of the farm
ers, who previously rejoiced in this years
crop prospects, are now fading entirely away.
On the 10th inst when the change Of the
moon took place, q change was predicted, but
the weather prophets this time sadly missed
the mark, for the dry weather keeps on, and
at present writing the sky 10 as blue as ever.
No doubt if there is not an. early change
and copious rains do not set in very soon the
first seeding of beet will be lost and resolving
must be effected on a very large scale. But
even this can not be we'll done before it rains,
at least in certain places, because of the soil
being hardened and almost impenetrable to
the plows and Aarrows, etc.
III Austria, part Of the young plants appear.
ing above the ground have been killed by the
frost, and this also necessltates q breaking up
OF the fields and a second drilling of the seed
Kernels. Besides, in that country the drought
is quite as intense as in Germany; and 30 it is
IN France, Holland Al1 Belgium, in short al
Western Europe, whilst ia Russia, the takiu,5
up OF field work and commencing Of tho beet
sowingS is delayed by snow storms and rather
Wlntry weather in general. AT any rate, the
meteorological conditions in the growing
seasoA must be exceptionally favourable, if
the present baCkwardness shall be recovered
provided such a thing is possible at al.
The GarDnon pr0Jrct;n, of Tho 0l1 oo,OC,;r,
is now known up to March B, and as fore
snadow d IN these letters it is only little IL
excess Of The quantities turnel out in The same
period Of last year. II raw value tht prodac-
ton Of March was II, l05, tons, us against 20,
373 tons IN the same month, 1892. and for the
first seven months Of the working year It
amounted to ISL, 687 tons. against / ,I45, $40
tons in 1912. A notable feature Of this
years production is that the working Of mo.
lasses has experienced a marked decrease,
which must be oonsideIe ed as one of the effects
of our new sugar law When the tax was levied
on the beets it was considered as practically
an additional item in the price of the beets,
and thus the manu- cturer had to deal with j
dear raw material. At this mode Of taxation
has been abandoned, the stimulus to exhaust
the beet to TIE utmost has vanished, and many
manufacturers find it no longer profitable to
continue the working Of molasses, which III
the average yield about S5, per cent. Of its
weight in sugar. Even the establishments
which had been erected exclusively toi the
purpose of extracting the sugar contained in
molasseas have so far worked less of molasscs
than last year, although the reason Of this is
not quite obvious. True there is also some
export of m~olasses, aud the distilleries are al
80 consuming a good deal, but there is hardly
sc. much thus absorbed that the working of
molasses iuto sugar should lie restricted there
by. The price Of the article is besides at
present much lower than it used to be when
it was worked in the beet sugar factories on a
larger scale.