| Two ploughings and harrowing | £1 | 1 | 0 |
| Expense of manure and carting | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Hoeing and seed | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Drilling and sowing | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Rent | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| £8 | 12 | 0 |
An average produce of 20 tons, at £15 per ton, would leave a profit of £6 8s. per acre, leaving the land in a state fit for the reception, at little expense, of a crop of wheat, barley, or oats for the next year, and of hay for the year ensuing; a consideration of no small importance to the farmer. The following estimates, recently given, are not by any means exaggerated:—
| 61,607 tons of beet, at 10s. | £30,803 | 10 | 0 |
| Cost of manufacture, at 11s. per ton. | 33,883 | 17 | 0 |
| 64,687 | 7 | 0 | |
| Produce 7 per cent of sugar, at 28s. per cwt. | 136,767 | 10 | 0 |
| Estimated profit | £72,080 | 3 | 0 |
The quantity of sugar made from beet-root in France in 1828, was about 2,650 tons; in 1830, its weight was estimated at 6 million kilogrammes[24] (5,820 tons); in 1834, at 26 million kilogrammes (24,000 tons); in 1835, 36,000 tons; in 1836, 49,000 tons. At the commencement of the year 1837, the number of refineries at work or being built was 543; on an average 20 kilogrammes of beet-root are required for the production of one kilogramme of sugar. The sugar manufactured from the beet-root in France a few years ago was stated to amount to 55,000 tons, or one half of the entire consumption of the kingdom. The Courrier Francais calculated that the beet-root sugar made in France in 1838 amounted to 110 million lbs., and the journal added, there is no doubt that, in a few years, the produce will be equal to the entire demand. The cultivation then extended over 150,000 acres, and in the environs of Lille and Valenciennes it has sometimes been as high as 28,000 lbs. per acre.
From returns of the produce and consumption of beet-root sugar published in the Moniteur, it appears that on the 1st Dec. 1851, there were 335 manufactories in operation, or 81 more than in the corresponding period of 1850. The quantity of sugar made, including the portion lying over from the previous year, amounted to 19,625,386 kilogrammes, and that stored in the public bonding warehouse to 10,556,847. At the end of June, 1852, 329 manufactories were at work, or two more than at the same period in 1851. The quantity sold was 62,211,663 kilogrammes, or 9,167,018 less, as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. There remained in stock in the manufactories 91,434,070 kilogrammes, and in the entrepot 4,597,829 kilogrammes, being an increase of 2,568,662 kilogrammes in the manufactories, and a decrease of 1,292,962 in the entrepots. The manufacture of beet-root sugar is every year assuming in France increased importance, and attracts more and more the attention of political economists as a source of national wealth, and of government, as affording matter of taxation. Thirty new factories, got up upon a very extensive scale, are enumerated as going into operation this year. They are located, with but two exceptions, in the north of France; fifteen of them are in the single department of Nord. Indeed, the manufacture of beet-root sugar is confined, almost exclusively, to the five northern adjacent departments of Nord, Pas de Calais, Somme, Aisne, and Oise. The best quality retails at 16 cents the pound.
I take from a table in the Moniteur the following statement of the number of factories and their location, with the amount of production up to the 31st May, 1851. At that date the season is supposed to end. A separate column gives the total production in the season of 1842, showing an increase in ten years of more than double, viz., of 41,582,113 kilogrammes, or, in our weight, of 93,559,754 pounds.
| Departments. | Number of Factories. | Kilogrammes Prod. 1850-1. | Kilogrammes Prod. 1843. |
| Aisne | 30 | 5,307,754 | 3,103,178 |
| Nord | 155 | 44,142,224 | 15,334,063 |
| Oise | 8 | 1,589,939 | 751,746 |
| Pas-de-Calais | 70 | 16,665,084 | 5,856,944 |
| Somme | 23 | 3,404,776 | 2,683,421 |
| Scattered about | 18 | 2,707,190 | 3,505,602 |
| 304 | 73,817,607 | 30,234,954 |
This information was given by M. Fould, Minister of Finance, upon the introduction of a bill making an appropriation for the purchase of 455 saccharometers, which had become necessary by reason of the late law ordering that from and after the 1st of January, 1852, the beet sugars were to be taxed according to their saccharine richness. The Minister declared that at that date there would be in active operation in France 334 sugar factories and 84 refining establishments.
The Moniteur Parisien has the following:—
"Notwithstanding the advantages accorded to colonial sugar, and the duties which weigh on beet-root sugar, the latter article has acquired such a regular extension that it has reached the quantity of 60,000 tons—that is to say, the half of our consumption. France (deducting the refined sugar exported under favour of the drawback) consumes 120,000 tons, of which 60,000 are home made, 50,000 colonial, and 10,000 foreign. The two sugars have been placed on the same conditions as to duties, but it is only from the 1st inst. (Jan. 1852), that the beet-root sugar will pay a heavier duty than our colonial sugar. In spite of this difference we are convinced that the manufacture of beet-root sugar, which is every day, improved by new processes, will be always very advantageous, and will attain in some years the total quantity of the consumption. In Belgium the produce of the beet-root follows the same progress. The consumption of sugar there was, in 1850, 14,000 tons, of which 7,000 was beet-root, made in 22 manufactories. This year there are 18 new ones, and although their organisation does not allow of their manufacturing in the same proportion as the 22 old ones, they will furnish at least 3,000 tons. The quantity of foreign sugar in that market does not reckon more than 4,000 tons. This conclusion is the more certain, as in 1848-1849, the beet-root only stood at 4,500 tons in the general account. It may therefore be seen from these figures what progress has been made. The same progressive movement is going on in Germany. In 1848 it produced 26,000 tons, and in 1861, 43,000. The following table shows the importance of this improvement. It comprises the Zollverein, Hanover, and the Hanse Towns:—