ield the most sugar is the white or Silesian beet
(_Beta alba_). It is smaller than the mangel wurzel, and more compact,
and appears in its texture to be more like the Swedish turnip. For the
manufacture of sugar, the smaller beets, of which the roots weigh only
one or two pounds, were preferred by Chaptal, who, besides being a
celebrated chemist, was also a practical agriculturist and a
manufacturer of sugar from beet root. After the white beet follows the
yellow (_beta major_), then the red (_beta romana_), and lastly the
common or field beet root (_Beta sylvestris_). Margraf, as we have
seen, was the first chemist who discovered the saccharine principle in
beet root; and Achard, the first manufacturer who fitted up an
establishment (in Silesia) for the extraction of sugar from the root.
It was not before 1809 that this manufacture was introduced into
France.

The manufacture sprung up there in consequence of Bonaparte's scheme
for destroying the colonial prosperity of Great Britain by excluding
British colonial produce. It having been found that from the juice of
the beet root a crystallizable sugar could be obtained, he encouraged
the establishment of the manufacture by every advantage which monopoly
and premiums could give it. Colonial sugar was at the enormous price
of four and five francs a pound, and the use of it was become so
habitual, that no Frenchman could do without it. Several large
manufactories of beet root were established, some of which only served
as pretexts for selling smuggled colonial sugar as the produce of
their own works. Count Chaptal, however, established one on his own
farm, raising the beet root, as well as extracting the sugar. The
roots are first cleaned by washing or scraping, and then placed in a
machine to be rasped and reduced to a pulp. This pulp is put into a
strong canvas bag and placed under a powerful press to squeeze out the
juice. It is then put into coppers and boiled, undergoing certain
other processes. Most of the operations are nearly the same as those
by which the juice of the sugar cane is prepared for use; but much
greater skill and nicety are required in rendering the juice of the
beet root crystallizable, on account of its greater rawness and the
smaller quantity of sugar it contains. But when this sugar is refined,
it is impossible for the most experienced judge to distinguish it from
the other, either by the taste or appearance; and from this arose the
facility wit