e 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