estate of Prince Salm, by the Royal Schleswig Agricultural Society in 1856, but it was discontinued in 1864. In 1855 an experimental station was established in the most munificent manner by Prince Johann Adolph von Schwarzenberg, in Lobositz, a private enterprise, but connected with it were Dr. Hannamann and Dr. Breitenlohner, highly distinguished in their respective departments. Quite recently, Carl Maximilian, Count von Seilern, the well-known author of 'Nourishment of Plants,' has established an experimental station upon his estate, Prilep, in Mähren. Finally, in Bohemia must recognition be made of the activity of the experimental station connected with the academy of Tetschen-Liebwerd. In 1866 the number of stations in operation in Germany was twentyeight.

"The first chapters in the history of experimental stations is a record of discouragements, injustice, and partial failure. The development of such an enterprise must necessarily be slow, and the practical results not immediate. But, not considering the series of years needed for experiments, the public exacted speedy and marvelous results. Failing in these, the scheme was denounced as a failure, and popular sympathy and support withdrawn; nor did the strife of the agricultural chemists among themselves tend to raise their authority in the eyes of the prac tical. For a time the stations seemed to be in a hopeless condition because of this distrust. Now, experimental stations stand recognized in the first line in the service of science. It is less than three decades since agriculture took its rank among sciences. Its first purpose must be, as in the case of every other science, the discovery of truth; then adaptation of that truth to practical ends.

"The most pernicious foes of science are those who constantly demand the useful, and ignore all truth, the immediate marketable value of which is not evident. Reverence for truth must so fill the minds of scientific workers that a false description of the most insignificant plant would be felt as much a reproach as a false description of the solar system. Simple, pure truth must be the end of all naturalists. Science can never accept as her task the discovery of what we wish, but the discovery of what is true; and never can the welfare of mankind be attained by even the pleasantest illusion, except through the complete and simple truth.

"These stations are working great practical good to agriculture; and in the future the results will be more marked. Their task is threefoldto seek, to teach, and to warn.

"A few statistics will show the results of knowing the elements of the soil, the nature of manures, &c. In Belgium, where agriculture is most rationally pursued, a square mile produces means of nourishment for 7,345 persons, whereas the Polish three-field farming produces food for only 2,229 persons per square mile. Therefore the Belgians are better nourished than the Poles, though the country of the latter is more fruitful by nature. Great Britain, in the commencement of the nineteenth century, produced grain for eleven millions; now, for at least seventeen millions. Still the results of searching out the secrets of nature are chiefly in the future. The most important questions look to future experiments for their answer.

"In regard to animal productions, the results of scientific farming are not less marked. Austria produces on one square mile 3,796 head of stock; Prussia, within the same limits, 5,537; France, 5,970; Great Britain, 11,447.

"Added to the questions of plant and animal production is that scarcely less important one of agricultural industrial manufactories, as

breweries, distilleries, refineries, and, above all, sugar manufactories. There is a rumor of a prospective undertaking in Hungary in behalf of the beet-root sugar interest, viz., the establishment of a manufactory with large experimental rooms attached. It is intended to be a complete sugar manufactory, with accommodations for fifty students from various parts of Austria. These students will have the advantages of a large manufactory in operation, and opportunities for study and experi ment. The intention is to establish it under government patronage; the whole concern, after a stipulated number of years, to belong to the nation, in consideration of a yearly subsidy from government to assist in carrying out its purposes during this interval.

"The second duty of experimental stations is to teach, or to convey to the people, the advantages deducible from study and experiment; to make possible the practical adaptation of the theoretical truth discovered. "The third duty is to warn; to be the people's true knight, fighting off from them falsehood and trickery. In the one field of adulterated and worthless manures are sufficient opportunities for science to expose and defeat impostures.

"The locations of experimental stations is now the subject of much discussion. They were first established on isolated estates, generally remote from great cities, chiefly because scientific land owners offered the land and certain assistance to such enterprises. Now, however, the necessity for locating them near large cities, and in connection with academies and universities, is urged. The ground for such change is twofold: the necessity of full apparatus for experiment, and an increase of the staff of scientific workers. At isolated stations the investigations must be chiefly chemical, as a chemist is in charge, generally without allied workers in other departments of natural science, and the means for experiments are generally such as a chemical laboratory can furnish; but scientific agriculture calls for aid from mineralogy, geognosy, physics, physiology of plants, physiology of animals, &c. Such union of strength can at present only be reached for experimental stations when, by connection with academies or universities, they have the co-operation of the entire faculties of such institutions. If means were unlimited, agricultural stations, however isolated, might command such corps of workers; but while the investments for experimental stations are so small, only their union with institutions can sufficiently broaden their scope. Again, in isolated localities, only such students as make practical agricultural chemistry a specialty could turn aside to avail themselves of the advantages of such stations. Allied to institutions, the advantage is reciprocal; the station drawing strength from the faculty and apparatus of the institution, and the students of the high-school or university having access to all the records and participation in the experiments of the station. Considering the meager expenditure upon experimental stations, the results upon the agriculture of the country have been most remarkable. Within this decade they have cost, at highest, forty thousand thalers, hardly enough to maintain a company of soldiers for the same length of time; and yet with this paltry outlay they are expected to revolutionize the agriculture of Germany.

More important than the place chosen for experimental stations is the working capital at their command. Only with a liberal outlay of money and time can liberal results be reached. Not lightly does nature allow man to wrest the seal from her treasury of secrets."

I remain, most truly, your obedient servant,

J. II. MCCHESNEY.

Hon. HORACE CAPRON, Commissioner.

REPORT ON BEET SUGAR IN EUROPE.

SIR: In obedience to your request, I present a few statements showing the progress and condition of the beet-sugar enterprise in Europe, after personal investigation of the operations of each establishment.

The time when sugar first became known in Europe cannot be stated with any certainty, but the statements of various authors, such as Theophrastus, Plinius, Paulus Ægineta, and others, leave no doubt that cane juice, boiled to sirup, was known, and used as a medicine by the most ancient people. Still earlier, the art of making sugar appears to have been known by the Chinese, Alexander von Humboldt having seen Chinese paintings on porcelain of great age representing various methods of working sugar cane and extracting its juice. Asia undoubtedly is the mother country of sugar, whence it was first brought by the Turks to Cyprus, in the ninth and in the eleventh century; also to Rhodes, Sicily, and Crete, and probably all around the Mediterranean; thence by the crusaders, especially by the Venetians, to the more western countries. Later, perhaps in the fifteenth century, it found its way over Madeira and the Canary Islands to Brazil; and, in the sixteenth century, to the West India Islands. There is no doubt that the cultivation of sugar cane on a large scale was first introduced into America, and especially into the West Indies, by the Europeans.

The first importation of sugar into Europe which is particularly known was in the year 996, into Venice. In the year 1319 the Venetians brought a cargo of 100,000 pounds of sugar and 10,000 pounds of rock candy to London. The first sugar refinery on the continent of Europe was built in Augsburg, in the year 1573, by a man named Roth. Another was built in Dresden, in the year 1597. While in its early days sugar was found only in apothecaries' shops, and used as a medicine, it is counted now among the provisions, and has become a necessity second only to meat and flour.

The first discovery of beet sugar was made the 3d of March, 1747, by the Prussian chemist Margraaf, (Andrea Sigismund,) director of the philosophical section of the Academy of Science at Berlin, who read, at its general meeting, an essay, in which he proved the existence of cane sugar in many home-grown roots. He stated that the most sugar was to be found in the Silesian beet, produced samples, and specified the method by which he had obtained them, and proved it not only practicable, but remunerative, to produce beet sugar on a large scale. It will be borne in mind that this was during a time of war, when the ordinary means of transportation were interrupted and money for importations was scarce, in consequence of which sugar was high; but, as soon as peace was restored, sugar prices went down, and the great interest taken in producing it at home died out.

No sooner, however, had war commenced again, than the subject of beet sugar production was resumed. Shortly after 1790, Achard built on an estate (Cunern) in Silesia, which the King of Prussia had presented to him for the purpose, the first beet-sugar factory. In this factory he worked, supported by the Prussian government and under the observation of a government officer, 7,000 pounds of beets per day, from

which he obtained six per cent. of raw, or five per cent of white sugar. In November, 1799, Van Mons caused a letter to be published in the Annales de Chimie, written by Achard, in which he described the results obtained in his.sugar works at Cunern. He states the cost price of raw sugar to be 5.4 cents per pound English, (65 centimes per kilogram,†) besides the beet pulp, beet leaves, and molasses; the former he used for fattening cattle, and the molasses for making alcohol.

These results caused a great sensation in France. All the newspapers republished them. The enormously high price which sugar commanded after France had abolished slavery in lier colonies was the reason why the National Institute of France appointed a chemist of great celebrity to examine this new process and report upon it. M. Deyeux made his report in 1800, and, although he considered the advantages to be derived from beet-sugar industry overestimated, two experimental factories were established near Paris-one at St. Rouen, the other in the old abbey of Chelles. Neither of the two reached results which could be compared with those of Achard, and were, therefore, closed again, and for a long time were the laughing-stock of those who knew of them. Meantime, two new factories had been built in Germany, one by the Baron von Koppy, in Silesia, the other by the celebrated Mathusius, in Althaldensleben, near Magdeburg. The publicity given to the results obtained by the three German beet-sugar factories drew anew the attention of the French government to the subject, and new trials were made in 1810 by Deyeux and Derosne, and in 1811 by Barrud and Isnard, with the German method of extracting the sugar from the beet, and the result obtained proved more satisfactory. The war which devastated Germany during 1813, 1814, and 1815 left the country in an exhausted condition, from which it did not recover for many years. Industry in general was paralyzed, and no efforts were made to perfect the system of sugar-making. It was dif ferent, however, in France. The new impulse given to chemistry and engineering showed its effect on the sugar factories, which were considerably improved, one of the principal improvements being the use of animal charcoal. In 1828 one hundred and three factories were making beet sugar in France, producing three thousand three hundred tons of sugar, and during the year 1836-37, fifty-five thousand tons; but, in consequence of a tax being levied on it, the production fell the following year to twentyfive thousand tons.

The beet-sugar production in Germany or in the Zollverein made little progress till 1836, but it has since reached such dimensions that it not only supplies the home demand, and prevents cane sugar from coming into competition, but has become a regular article of export, competing in the English and the Dutch markets with the sugar of the tropics. The table (A) shows the enormous dimensions which the beet-sugar industry has attained during the period between 1836 and 1867. Of the one hundred and twenty-two factories in operation in 1836, ninety belonged to Prussia and thirty-two to the various other states of the Zollverein. During the year 1866-67 two hundred and ninety-six factories were engaged in making beet sugar, two hundred and fifty-seven of which were located in Prussia and its provinces, while only thirty-nine were in the other states of the Zollverein. The increase in the number of factories has been almost exclusively in Prussia, where its number was trebled during thirty-two years. The tax levied on beet sugar in 1840–41, of 0.575 cents per centner of green beets, diminished the whole number

* Centime, $0.00192.

+ Kilogram, 2.204737 pounds. Centner, (Prussian,) 113.44 pounds.

of working sugar-factories from one hundred and fifty-two to one hundred and forty-five; in 1842-43 the tax was doubled, when the number was reduced to ninety-eight factories.

The small and poorly-constructed establishments could not compete with the new and larger ones, nor with the cane-sugar refineries, the proprietors of which strained every nerve to drive beet sugar out of the market, and the former, therefore, had to suspend work. Although, in 1843-44, factories were at work again, the number was reduced to ninetyeight the next year, and to ninety-six in the following year, the tax having been again increased. Since 1846-47 the production has taken a decided start, the number of factories having grown from year to year, and they emancipated themselves from the cane-sugar refineries by producing either molasses or white loaf-sugar direct from the beet juice, without first working it into raw sugar; so that when, in 1850-51, the tax on beet sugar was again doubled, it did not prevent new factories from being built.

While the number of sugar factories increased, the quantity of the beet worked by the same increased in a far greater ratio. It must be taken into consideration that official figures have been kept only since 1840-41, when records were commenced on account of the tax to be levied, and comparisons should be made only of years included in the official figures. Accordingly, the columns 2 and 3, table A, show that during the twentyseven years from 1840-41 to 1866-67 the number of working factories increased from one hundred and forty-five to two hundred and ninetysix, making an increase of about one hundred and four per cent., while the quantity of beets worked in these factories increased from 4,829,734 cwts. (of one hundred pounds) to 50,712,709 cwts., making an increase of nine hundred and fifty per cent. Of course the quantity of beets worked by each factory must have increased in proportion, as may be seen by column 15, table A, according to which each fac tory worked, on an average, in 1836-37, 4,155 cwts., or 227 English tons; in 1840-41, 33,309; while in 1866-67 the high average of 171,327 was reached. The variations in columns 3 and 15 of table A are the results of unfavorable beet crops. According to column 8, table A, the internal revenue or tax paid on the beets has increased from a quarter of a cent to seven and a half cents, or thirty-fold, while the actual revenue derived, as given in column 9, has increased from 40,248 thalers* to 12,678,177 thalers, or nearly three hundred and fifteen fold.

These averages are correct according to the best authorities, and go to show the enormous progress made not only in manufacturing beet sugar, but in cultivating and producing beets. It is obvious that the great variation in the average weather of the various years necessarily accounts for the variations of percentage of sugar and foreign matter in the beets, and the more or less difficult working of the same.

The systems of taxation in the different countries influence the general result in many particulars. In Prussia, or the Zollverein, the beets are washed and trimmed, and then weighed by government officials, and the revenue collected according to the quantity which enters the factory. From that moment the sugar manufacturer is at liberty to work at will, the government taking no notice, or at least not interfering, no matter how rich the beets, or how much or what kind of sugar is made; in fact, leaving him entirely free to do with the beets as he may please, except working them into alcohol.

A thaler is about 73 cents.