Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/165

Rh 1836, or thereabouts, France was the leading producer of beet sugar. Though Margraf had been able on a small scale by using alcohol to obtain from four to six per cent, of sugar, at first only two or three per cent, was extracted by the factory processes, but owing to improvements introduced in its manufacture as well as to the cultivation of beets with greater sugar content, five or six per cent, of sugar was obtained in the early thirties.

Schatten's invention of a saccharometer for estimating the amount of sugar in beets, and of several very important processes, revived the industry in Germany and placed that country in the van, which position it has held ever since. The growth of late years is shown by the fact that whereas in 1877-78 4,090,968 tons of beets passed through the factories, in 1898-99 the amount was 12,144,291 tons or 2.97 times as much. The amount of raw sugar produced in the same time increased from 378,009 tons to 1,710,000 tons or 4.52 times as much. It will be noticed that the increase in sugar produced is much more than the increase in beets treated. This is because of the greater amount of sugar extracted. Whereas in 1877, one ton of sugar required 10.82 tons of beets, in 1899 one ton of sugar required only 7.01 tons of beets. In other words, in 1899 three tons of sugar were made from the same weight of beets as in 1877 yielded but two tons.

Hardly had France and Germany succeeded in establishing the beet sugar industry before the United States made some experiments in the same direction. In 1840 a factory was located in Connecticut. It did not prove successful. Later other efforts were made, but with no better success. Among the causes of failure were careless methods of beet culture and very inadequate methods in the factory. It was even thought by many that simple apparatus, like that used in making maple sugar, was sufficient; moreover, the early factories were located in places that were not suitable. The first factory that had any appreciable success was at Alvarado in California. It was built in 1870; the company failed in 1876, but was reorganized in 1879, and the factory has been in operation ever since.

The Department of Agriculture under the federal government for a number of years carried on investigations and published reports and reviews, but its work was suspended in 1893. In 1897, however, it was resumed with renewed and increased vigor, and since then the government has taken great interest in the matter. It has distributed seed in a large number if not all the states and has sent out instructions to farmers who accepted seed for experiment. The Department of Chemistry has made analyses of thousands of samples of beets, and investigations have been made upon the influences of soil, temperature, rainfall and other conditions upon the growth of the beet, its sugar content and the purity of the sugar. In 1898 over twenty thousand