7 per cent.—­the latter from 7 to 8 per cent. as the extreme maximum strength of saccharine matter.  The cost of the root in Ireland—­for it is with that, and not with the cost of the Continental root, with which the West Indies will have to contend—­is said to be at the rate of 16s. per ton this; but will probably be 13s. next season.  The cost of manufacture is set down at L7 5s. per ton.  Calculating the yield of the root to be 71/2 lbs. to every 100 lbs., for 26 tons the yield would be nearly 2 tons of sugar, which would give about L9 10s. per ton, putting down the raw material to cost 14s, 6d. per ton, the medium between 16s. and 13s.  Thus a ton of Irish-grown and manufactured beet root sugar, would cost L16 15s. per ton.  Mr. Sullivan, the scientific guide to those who are undertaking to make beet root sugar at Mountmellick, Queen’s County, Ireland, estimates the cost of obtaining pure sugar at from L16 17s. to L19 18s. per ton, according to the quantity of sugar in the root.

Beet root is a vegetable of large circumference, at the upper end nine to eleven inches in diameter.  There are several kinds.  That which is considered to yield the most sugar is the white or Silesian beet (Beta alba).  It is smaller than the mangel wurzel, and more compact, and appears in its texture to be more like the Swedish turnip.  For the manufacture of sugar, the smaller beets, of which the roots weigh only one or two pounds, were preferred by Chaptal, who, besides being a celebrated chemist, was also a practical agriculturist and a manufacturer of sugar from beet root.  After the white beet follows the yellow (beta major), then the red (beta romana), and lastly the common or field beet root (Beta sylvestris).  Margraf, as we have seen, was the first chemist who discovered the saccharine principle in beet root; and Achard, the first manufacturer who fitted up an establishment (in Silesia) for the extraction of sugar from the root.  It was not before 1809 that this manufacture was introduced into France.

The manufacture sprung up there in consequence of Bonaparte’s scheme for destroying the colonial prosperity of Great Britain by excluding British colonial produce.  It having been found that from the juice of the beet root a crystallizable sugar could be obtained, he encouraged the establishment of the manufacture by every advantage which monopoly and premiums could give it.  Colonial sugar was at the enormous price of four and five francs a pound, and the use of it was become so habitual, that no Frenchman could do without it.  Several large manufactories of beet root were established, some of which only served as pretexts for selling smuggled colonial sugar as the produce of their own works.  Count Chaptal, however, established one on his own farm, raising the beet root, as well as extracting the sugar.  The roots are first cleaned by washing or scraping, and then placed in a machine to be rasped and reduced to a