Beet Sugar

the sugar obtained from the beet; similar to cane sugar, but inferior in sweetening power. Beet root contains an average of about 10 per cent. of saccharine matter; sugar cane, 18 per cent. Of the varieties, the white Selvig beet is richest. Of the 985,568,640 pounds of sugar produced in the United States in 1901, about one-third was from beets and two-thirds from cane, and of the 599,- (74,613 pounds of beet sugar imported, 484,344,004 pounds came unrefined. The annual statement of the American Beet Sugar Company furnishes ample proof of the advance which has been made by the beet sugar industry in the United States. In 1880 the domestic production of beet sugar was 357 tons, and in 1901 it had increased to 124,- 859 tons, a gain in 20 years of nearly 350 per cent. The quantity of beet sugar produced in the United States in the year ending -June 30, 1910, was 1,025,000,000 pounds, against 73,000,- 000 pounds in 1899, an increase of 952,000,000 pounds as compared with nn increase of 181,000,000 pounds of cane sugar in the same period. Of the total beet sugar production, Hawaii furnished 1,111,000,000 pounds; Porto Rico, 569,000,000; and the Philippines, 176,000,000. In 1905 there were PT beet sugar factories in the United States which had a combined product valued at $24,393,794; and in 1909 there were 1,273 beet sugar factories in Europe, which used 40,067,000 tons of beets, and produced 5,740,000 tons of sugar, and, excluding the United States, the world’s production was 6,061,000 tons, The beet sugar industry was: started by Marggraf, in Germany, in 1747, who was the first to discover that sugar could be extracted from the common beet. ‘The first factory for its manufacture was erected by Archard, at Kunern, in Silesia, in 1802. Napoleon i ued an imperial decree in the early part of his reign establishing this industry in France, and in 1812 he ordered the building of 10 factories and placed Dele ert in charge of their construction. In 1830 attempts were made in the United States to introduce the cultivation of the sugar beet. It was not, however, till 1876 that the first succe ful beet sugar factory was built, being erected in Alvarado, Cal.