ART. VI.-Bulletin of Industrial Statistics. COST OF CULTIVATING COTTON IN GEORGIA. The cost of raising 40 bales of medium long staple Georgian cotton is thus stated: Plant. Value of a plantation sufficiently large to grow 40 bales of cotton ... ... ... ... ... Capital embarked in plant, &c., Annual Expenses. Interest upon capital embarked in plant, at 7 per cent., ... ... Shoes, clothes, and medical attendance of the negroes, at 15 dollars per head, 2,450 dollars. Salary of Superintendent, Total expense of the crop, 4,300 dollars. Producing 40 bales of S. I. cotton of the average weight of 350lbs., or a total of 1,400lbs., at 30 cents the lb. In these calculations, the depreciation upon the mules, carts, and utensils, and the sundry small accidental expenses are not taken into account, as they are considered to be compensated for by the annual increase in the value represented by the negroes. The produce of cotton per given area of land differs so much in different plantations, that it would be difficult to give a mean, even approximately. Some planters grow their rows of plants at very wide intervals, others on the contrary, grow them close. The usual basis of calculation is a certain weight of cotton for each negro employed. Two bales of Georgia Sea Island cotton are usually reckoned for each full hand." A full hand is a man in good condition; a woman and an old man are considered as the equivalent of a full hand, as are also two boys, for example, of from 13 to 14 years. A plantation force of 50 negroes of all kinds represent about 20 full hands, and are considered to manage as much land and as many plants as will yield a crop of 40 bales net of cotton. It is a fact well established, that the finer the cotton the more uncertain is its growth, and also the more hazardous is the produce of the crop, taking into account the area planted, and the hands employed. This observation applies particularly to the plantations on the main land, where the planters frequently abandon the cultivation of the fine kinds, in order to cultivate the coarser. The value of property in slaves rises or falls acording to the price of cotton. A full hand, say, a young man of from 18 to 25 years, is worth from 600 to 900 dollars; and if he is capable of executing the work of a carpenter, or of a smith, he may be estimated at from 1,000 to 1,200 dollars. The young women are considered to be worth from 500 to 700 dollars; but in selling a plantation force, the general price is understood to apply to men, women, and children, and this may be set down at from 250 to 600 dollars each, according to the price of cotton and the proportion which exists between the old persons and the children. The actual value of a good gang of negroes is about 500 dollars per head. The loss occasioned by disease and usury on slaves, is more than compensated for by the natural increase of their number, which exceeds the losses by about 3 per cent. per annum on an average. This is not the case in Cuba, &c., where the importation of slaves from Africa takes place, as there is but little, if any, increase, to compensate for the frightful mortality on the sugar plantations. The slaves habituated to the cultivation of Georgia Sea Island cotton, are frequently sent to other districts, to be employed in the cultivation of upland cotton, wheat and rice, or in the construction of railways. For the latter work, 150 dollars per annum may be easily obtained for each full hand; the railway companies finding the food and clothes of the negroes. The very fine qualities of Georgian long staple cotton can only be produced in the islands along the coast of Georgia and Carolina, or on such parts of the coasts as are under the influence of the saline vapours from the sea. The value of land adapted to this kind of cotton has considerably augmented during the last few years. An acre is now worth from 10 to 20 dollars, according to the situation and the fluctuation in the price of the cotton. All the islands where the Georgia long staple could perhaps be produced, are occupied by its cultivation, as well as the main land fringing the sea. The cultivation of the good kinds of ordinary Georgia long staple may still perhaps receive extension, to a moderate distance from the sea, but still under its influence, on the main land in Georgia, and also on the land bordering the sea in Florida.-Bulletin de la Société Industrielle de Mulhouse, No. 123, p. 287. PROGRESSIVELY INCREASING DEARNESS OF BREAD AND MEAT. The following interesting statistics, derived from the best official sources, showing the relative price of provisions in France at different epochs during the last 153 years, apply in a general way equally to these countries as to France. They present one of the most curious and important economical and social facts with which we are acquainted. Increase for Bread. From 1700 to 1763 the average price of 2lbs. of bread was 7 centimes.* From 1700 to 1763 the average price of 2lbs. of meat was 25 centimes. Thus from the year 1700 until the present time, the average price of bread has more than doubled, while that of meat has nearly quadrupled. And while the price of these different agricultural products has gone on increasing, we see that the price of all the products of manufacturing industry have gradually decreased. Thus cloths, and all woollen fabrics, have diminished by two-thirds; all fabrics of silk and cotton have fallen to the extent of three-fourths; iron itself has undergone a considerable diminution of price. Many articles of luxury and comfort have, like a vast number of other useful and necessary articles, also exhibited in their turn a remarkable fall from the prices at which they were formerly sold. It would be extremely interesting to compare the wages of the different classes of workmen at each of these periods, in order to see whether the labouring classes have gained or lost by the change. This would, however be a rather complicated question, as a great many elements would enter into the calculation.-Le Genie Industriel, Vol. VII. No. 39, p. 125. * 100 centimes-1 franc-9.69 pence. THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS. No. VII.-JULY, 1854. ART. I.-On the Manufacture of Beet-root Spirit. THE disease which has attacked the vine in France, especially during the autumn of 1853, so affected the produce that the manufacture of brandy fell off very considerably, and its price consequently rose. In several parts of the north of France, on the other hand, the crop of beet was rather inferior, and not well adapted for the production of sugar. These two circumtances have caused a great number of manufacturers to turn their attention to the subject of the production of spirit directly from the beet. Experience has shown that roots may be very unfit to be profitably used in the manufacture of sugar, and yet be rich in that substance. Now if this sugar could be converted into alcohol, it might give rise to the creation of a new branch of trade. That can now be done by a process as simple, as it is ingenious and economical. We alluded to this process in the first number of this Journal, and drew attention to its importance with reference to this country.* It has since then been fully tested, and its value placed beyond all doubt; whilst from an Irish point of view, circumstances have arisen which appear to us to recommend it strongly to the serious consideration of Irish capitalists. It is now quite evident that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has come to the determination of equalizing the duties upon spirits in England, Scotland, and Ireland. If this be done, there can be no doubt that the increase of price, caused by the elevation of the duty upon whiskey in this country, will cause a corresponding decrease in the consumption of spirits, and the Irish distilling trade will be materially injured, inasmuch as the Irish distiller will not be in a position to compete with a large majority of the British distillers. Very little raw spirit is consumed in England, the greater part being first rectified, to free it from the peculiar oils which give the flavour to corn spirit, and is then prepared in various ways to suit the public taste. The worst spirit, or, in other words, the spirit prepared from the cheapest * See Journal of Industrial Progress, No. I. p. 25. materials, made on the largest scale, and with the most improved form of still, will be just as good as the very best Irish whiskey. The English manufacturer has therefore to consult economy alone, whilst the Irish distiller, the greater part of whose produce is consumed raw, has hitherto been obliged to consult the taste of his customers rather than economy of production. The natural result of this has been, that judged from the latter point of view alone, our system of distillation, in all its details, is very far behind that of England. As an example, we may take our stills, which cannot be compared for a moment with that admirable apparatus, Coffey's still. The latter is now very largely used in England, or some other improved one upon analogous principles, whilst we believe there is not a single one worked at present in Ireland, although the inventor was an Irishman. Those which had been put up having been found to produce a spirit unfit for consumption in its raw state, were obliged to be given up. When the duties come then to be equalized, the Irish home trade will be reduced, and the Irish distiller will in most cases be unable to take advantage of the demand for inferior spirits in England. The introduction of the manufacture of bect-spirit would hence be of eminent service to Ireland, for, while it would not interfere with the manufacture of ordinary corn whiskey for consumption in its raw state, it could be made at so low a price as would enable its manufacturers to undersell those of every other spirit for rectification. With a view of again directing attention to the matter, we shall give a short history of the attempts which have from time to time been made to devise a simple process of making beet spirit,-introductory to a full and complete account of the best processes now in use in France, which we purpose to give hereafter. It is well known that alcohol can only be produced by the fermentation of liquids containing sugar, and that hence, every vegetable containing that substance, whether in that form of it known as grape or fruit sugar, or as ordinary cane sugar, can be employed for the production of spirit. And a great variety of them have accordingly been tried; but independent of the first and best source of spirit, the juice of the grape, corn has hitherto been the chief source of spirit in Europe. This has arisen, not only from the superiority of the spirit, but also because grain forms the chief object of culture among nearly all people. The cultivation of that class of crops denominated "green crops " has only begun to become general within a century. None of the plants of that class could therefore have been proposed as a source of spirit prior to that period. But already, in 1770, spirit was manufactured to some extent from carrots in Saxony. The manufacture did not, however, extend, and, what is very curious, no attempt was made to substitute beet for the carrots for a long period after that plant had become a source of sugar. The first person who seriously considered the advantages of using beet as a source of alcohol was M. Dubrunfaut, who, in his Treatise upon Distillation, published in 1824, states, that about 15 gallons of spirits a little over proof, might be obtained from one ton of roots, rasped up and pressed, as in the manufacture of sugar, and that the juice contained a substance capable of inducing fermentation, exactly like the yeast of beer. Nothing further appears to have been done relative to the subject until 1832, when MM. Louvet Gilles and Jallu, of Péronne, took out a patent for the manufacture of spirit from beet-root, by means of the improved still of Derosne. This process consisted in washing and rasping the roots, and pressing the juice exactly in the same way that the roots are treated in the manufacture of sugar. The pulp, after having been pressed, was placed in a vat with an equal weight of water at 140° Fahr., allowed to macerate for about an hour, and subjected to a second pressing; the juices resulting from both operations were mixed together, and brought to a temperature of 90° Fahr., run into a fermenting vat, and about half a gallon of yeast added for every 44 gallons of juice. Fermentation immediately set in, and according as the alcohol was formed, the vegetable albumen, pectine, &c., which would interfere with the distillation, were precipitated, so that a regular clarification was effected. They also proposed to heat the beet by steam, and then press the resulting pulpy mass, and treat the juice in the way just described. The next process proposed for the manufacture of beet-spirit was that patented by MM. Nicolle, Watringue Brongniart, and Monroy, of Arras, in 1838. According to this process, the juice obtained, as in the manufacture of sugar, was placed in vats at a temperature of 77° Fahr., and 34lbs. of sulphuric acid, 24lbs. of the pressed yeast of beer, and 4lbs. 6oz. of a special preparation, intended to prevent the fermentation from becoming tumultuous, were added. This mixture consisted of 16 parts of coarse rye meal, 9 parts of wheaten bran, 1 parts of fresh butter, 2 of Marseilles soap, 1 of salt petre, and 20 of boiling water. The spirit obtained by this process was rectified with about half a gallon of vinegar, and about 1 pint of oil of vitriol, in order to give it a flavour by the production of acetic ether. In the year 1844, M. Lalenne Delagrange, of Valenciennes, patented a process for the same object, which consisted in exposing the roots to the action of steam, then breaking them up into a pulp, and allowing them to macerate with a little hot water and some chopped oaten straw. The temperature of this mass being brought to 77° Fahr. by the addition of sufficient cold water, 10 parts of yeast were to be added for every ton of roots operated upon. In the same year also, M. Douay-Lesens obtained a patent for a process similar in many respects to the one just mentioned. The roots were steamed in close vats, the first condensed water being allowed to go waste until it was found free from smell and taste; in this way the peculiar essential oil of the beet, which renders the spirit obtained from the beet-root so disagereable, was got rid of. The steamed roots beaten into a pulp were then fermented, one per cent. of malt being added, and from 10 to 14 pints of yeast for every 440 to 484 gallons of juice. The produce of alcohol was estimated to be about from 15 to 18 gallons per ton of beet. From 1844 to 1852, a number of other patents were granted for the manufacture of beet spirit, none of which present any new features, and we shall therefore pass them over, with the exception of a second |