MANUFACTURE OF BEET SUGAR.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), 17 January 1881, Page 4

MANUFACTURE OF BEET SUGAR.

The following remarks on this subject appear in tbe Canterbury Times : —During the last session of Parliament a letter on the subject of beet-root sugar, addressed to the Premier by Pii* Julius Vogel, was laid on the tables of both Efousea, and to which, at the time, we specially drew attention. Farmers and others interested may have read, and inwardly digested, Sir Julius' letter and our own remarks thereon ; but the beet growing and sugar making industries have not yet taken root in the colony. Recently the subject has been revived, and in a very able manner, by I >r, Curl in a paper read before the Auckland Institute. The facts and statistics brought forward by this gentleman are, with some exceptions, of the most convincing nature. Tbey show the cultivation of beet and the manufacture of sugar to bo firmly established, and rapidly increasing industries throughotit almost the whole of < ontinental Europe. The sugar beet works admirably in a system of rotation, and is a good preparation for wheat, and in many respects takes the place on a small farm which turnips fill on a la-ge one. Dr Curl points out that, in some parts of France and Germany, ■when a farmer takes a load of beet to the factory, he brings back a load of pulp, from which the sugar has been extracted, and by feeding his cattle upon this substance, and also upon the leaves of the beet, and a' plying the manure thus formed to the land, the soil is found richer instead of poorer after the beet crops, and constituents of the sugar whioh havo been removed

being chiefly supplied from the atmosphere. Dr. Curl shows that in France, in the year 1850, the area under beet cultivation was equal to 87,000 British acres, and the production has doubled every ten years since. In Germany the progress of industry has been even greater than in France, while, in Austria there arc some 200 factories in operation. The cultivation of tho beet and the manufacture of sugar is also carried on largely in Russia, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, and Holland. The large range of countries over which the industry extends is a proof of its soundness, and although it hsis not been established in Britain, this is owing to the spocial agricultural conditions of that country, which differ almost as widely from those of tho Continent as they do from the circumstances under which production is carried on in the colonies.

Our climate and soil are botli highly favorable to beet growing, in fact i)r Curl estimates that we should produce a • much larger percentage of crystalised sugar to the ton of beet than is done either in France or Germany. He goes into figures as <o the capital required in a sugar factory, and the profits -which aro likely to accrue. Dr Curl is evidently somewhat of an enthusiast on the subject, and inclined to view it in the rosiest of lights. Ho has no difficulty in shewing a profit of 60 per cent, on the outlay, and and it is worth while to indicate how he arrives at this very satisfactory result. It would he says, be possible to start a factory with a capital of £25,000 but, in order to work it at the greatest ndvantagp from £75,000 to £100,000 would be required. In France and Germany the average cost of producing sugar is about £18 a ton, but much necessarily depends upon the completeness of the appliances. A factory with a capital of £75,000 could easily work up 30,000 tons of beetroot in a year, and if the beet, yieldel eight per cent of crystalised sugar, which in regard to this Colony is placing it at the lowest probable figure", the cost of production would be £43,056, leaving for profit an exactly similar amount. We cannot but admire the simplicity of Dr Curl's calculations. But this is only 50 per cent profit, and to make up the 60 per sent there would be 800 tons of molasses at £2 a ton, and 5700 tons of beet pulp at 10s per ton- We are inclined to think the worthy doctor is of a sanguine temperament. Nevertheless he has done good service in bringing the subject again before the public, and in adducing so large a number of well attested facts as to the position of the beet sugar industry in other countries. The culture of the beet requires no special training, and it might readily be taken up by any agricultural population. The production of our own sugar would keep so much money in the country, and would have so great an effect upon other important industries, that without being so sanguine as Dr Curl, there cannot be much doubt that if the manufacture of beetroot sugar were established in the Colony, it would prove a permanent source of wealth and beneficial to all classes of the population.