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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8360, 13 September 1890, Page 5

A paper has been recently read in the Westminster Palace Hotel, London, by Dr. Black- Summer, on the growing of sugar beet. The paper was interesting a.-! recording-, among other things, experiments which the professor had carried out, and analyses which he himself had made of roots. The salient points in the paper were such as these : A vital point was the use of good seed, the produce of roots that would yield a large percentage of saccharine matter. Another point was the soil, which should be a good loam, with a fair proportion of lime, and deeply cultivated. It was to have moderate-sized roots, the professor said, that rows of plants should be close, 18 inches apart only, and the plants in the rows 6 inches apart. By close planting the roots would be richer in sugar ; at the same time, their increased number would give the maxinum weight to the acre. There had been some correspondence on the subject. •James Carter and Co had remarked as follows : —" Whether or not sugar beet will be again tried in this country for sugar-making it is premature to form an opinion, but what is to us somewhat difficult to understand is the demand of the growers that they should have a certain price per ton guaranteed to them before sowing the seed. Why should this be necessary with sugar beet any more than with mangel? We make this remark with all the more confidence as not a few of our customers purchase sugar beet seed for growing roots for stock, maintaining that they grow more actual food per acre. So that a crop of sugar beet, even if it is not purchased by the factory, is surely the reverse of a white elephant." To these remarks, the editor of Live Stock Journal replied thus.-—" Messrs. Carter ask why farmers should require to be guaranteed a fixed price for sugar beet, seeing that not a few of their customers sow sugar beet seed, considering that more real food is produced from this variety than from common mangel. That, however, is nob the common impression, and there is more than one reason why a price should be fixed for sugar beet. In the first place, the sugar manufacturer requires to be ensured as to a certain acreage of the crop being grown, and if a farmer contracts to grow a certain area of a crop, it is only reasonable that he should have the price named. Secondly, there is no open market for sugar beet, and if no price were fixed the owner of tho factory near which the crop is grown would be able to got the roots at his own price, unless the grower chose to use them as food for stock. In the third place, the grower is required to cultivate and manure with a view to quality rather than to bulk, and if he is not to grow a heavy crop he ought to be secured a good price. It has been suggested that the fairest way of purchasing sugar beet would be by a standard of saccharine constituents, if such a standard could be arrived ao without much difficulty. What the outcome of this sugar boet agitation in Brwftjn may prove remains to be seen. « w ° al ™ probably be a capital thing tor Ireland it | the beet industry could he started on a , satisfactory basis; and not less a goc-o thing for sonao of the farmers in England. |