1868 The complete Practical Distiller

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SPIRITS OF BEET-ROOT.

SPIRITS OF BEET-PtOOT.

When wo know that a vegetable body has iu it sac- charum, or sugar, we must take that as sufficient evidence that it possesses fermentable properties; and of course there is a possibility of drawing spirits from it. The sugar of the beet-root is identical with that of the cane when it is refined ; consequently, it is quite as fine and as good, and does not cost the farmer much of an outlay. The production of solid sugar in the beet-root, as all other vegetable products, is subject to agricultural chances. Some years are more favourable to it than others ; but an intelligent manufacturer, thoroughlj^ acquainted with his art, will always escape great losses in a more or less for- tunate way. So it is, for instance, that a manufacturer of beet-root sugar, finding in unfavourable years that the small quan- tity of sugar which the vegetable gives him would not defray his expenses of fabrication, meets with a precious resource in submitting it to distillation. The choice of the beet-root, either to make sugar or produce spirit, is not more indifi'erent in one case than the other. There exists a great variety of them, all of which are distin- guished by the colour of their peel and that 3f their pulp. The white, the yellow beet-root, and that which is white inside and red outside, are preferable to all others. Whatever be the colour of the root, it is essential to ap- propriate it to the soil, to cultivate it in a fit and proper