SUGAR FROM BEET.

Otago Witness, Issue 875, 5 September 1868, Page 15

SUGAR FROM BEET.

The following particulars as to Sugar Beet and its Cultivation in Europe, as translated from a German Lexicon, have been received from the Home Agent of the Province : Beet Root, a species of the common mangel wurzel, is originally a native of Southern Europe, and was transplanted by the Spaniards into Holland. It is divided into food beet and sugar beet. The different kinds of food beet are the Burgundy beet (Brassica Syinestris), &c, &c. To the sugar beet belong the Silesian white beet (Brassica Alba), of middle size, with white stalks and white flesh ; the Quedlinburg red beet, the large yellow beet, the large white beet (Brassica lutea major), of medium size, longish and pear-shaped, with greenish yellow stalk and yellow flesh ; the yellow pearshaped beet, with black cellular flesh ; the Imperial sugar beet, pear-shaped, slender, flesh fine, and pure white. The best sugar beets are those which have a uniform shape, few fibres and lateral roots, firm flesh aaa! small head : that do not grow over the ground, and that yield a slightly colored sweet juice ; those with large green heads contain much salts, but little sugar. Beet root, for the manufacture of sugar, requires a deep, mouldy, loose, somewhat bindingsoil, neither too moist nor too dry — a mild climate, and a deep working of the ground, which must be free from wetds. It follow s either after grain or potatoes, or itself. The best manure is a, mixture of guano and Chili saltpetre, guano and oilcake, guano and bonedust. It must not, however, be too strongly manured, otherwise the quantity of sugar is 1- ssened. In autumn the ground must be wrought with the subsoil plough, and La spring ploughing is repeated. After the field has been entirely harrowed and rolled, it must be drawn over cross ways with the marker, and at a distance of 15 inches sown with seeds (10 pounds for an acre) ; so that the seeds are laid upon the marked cross. On each place are laid three to five seeds, which, are covered one inch and a- half high with earth. The beginning of May is the time for sowing. Before that the aeeds are steeped for three days in a weak Bolution of spirit of nitre. As soon as the plants show themselves, the ground must be hoed, and this must be repeated whenever weeds appear, till the ground is hardened. Should more than one plant appear out of one hole, the weakest must be cut away. When the roots have grown to the thickness of a finger they must be earthed up. Each, plant mustbe placed 14 to 16 inches from the other ; they thus take the form most adapted for producing sugar. The plants must not belt afed till 14 days before the harvest orgathering of them, which occurs when the lower leaves become strongly yellow and incline towards the ground (middle of October). Their harvest must take place indry weather, before the setting in of frost. Immediately after the roots are taken up, the leaves and crown, or top. are cut off and cleaned from the adhering soil, rootlets, &c. The beet is test kept in heaps of pyramid shape, of from two to two and a half feet high, with the heads to the outside. At first these are covered with straw, and on the approach of frost with earth, the produce of the acre is on an average 170 centner (hundred weight) of beet. For seed such beets are selected as have a spindleshaped root, without prongs (or secondary roots).

Auckland City is waxing fat. A correspondent writes as follows to a contemporary: —The effect of the gold discoveries is becoming beneficially felt in Auckland. A fewmonths since, there was almost universal insolvency, clamorous meetings of the unemployed were constantly held, and any amount of labor to be obtained at three or four shillings a day. Now, the tradesmen are in good spirits, many who had contracted their operations with the intention of winding up have again launched out into large transactions, wages have risen, and carpenters and other skilled mechanics are demanding thesame wages as at the time of the large waxexpenditure—viz., ten shillings a day.