to the former, to the greater exclusion of the
latter; unless some great change shall take place in the relative
perfection and manufacture of the two different descriptions of
produce.

Although, observes the _Economist_, the beet root sugar produced in
France, Belgium, Germany, and other parts of the continent is not
brought into competition in our own markets with the produce of the
British colonies, yet it must be plain that the exclusion of so much
foreign cane sugar from the continent, which was formerly consumed
there, must throw a much larger quantity of Cuba and Brazilian sugar
upon this market; and by this means the increased production of beet
root sugar, even in those countries where it is highly protected, does
indirectly increase the competition among the producers of cane sugar
in our market.

So early as 1747, a chemist of Berlin, named Margraf, discovered that
beet root contained a certain quantity of sugar, but it was not until
1796 that the discovery was properly brought under the attention of
the scientific in Europe by Achard, who was also a chemist and
resident of Berlin, and who published a circumstantial account of the
progress by which he extracted from 3 to 4 per cent. of sugar from
beet root.

Several attempts have been made, from time to time, to manufacture
beet root sugar in England, but never, hitherto, on a large and
systematic scale. Some years ago a company was established for the
purpose, but they did not proceed in their operations.

A refinery of sugar from the beet root was erected at Thames Bank,
Chelsea, in the early part of 1837. During the summer of 1839 a great
many acres of land were put into cultivation with the root, at
Wandsworth and other places in the vicinity of the metropolis. The
machinery used in the manufacture was principally on the plan of the
vacuum pans, and a fine refined sugar was produced from the juice by
the first process of evaporation, after it had undergone
discolorization. Another part of the premises was appropriated to the
manufacture of coarse brown paper from the refuse, for which it is
extensively used in France.

A refinery was also established about this period at Belfast, in the
vicinity of which town upwards of 200 acres of land were put into
cultivation with beet root for the manufacture of sugar.

The experience of France ought to be a sufficient guarantee that the
manufacture of beet root sugar is not a speculative but a great staple