"
"Does beet-sugar taste any different from cane?" inquired Bob.
"Not a whit; you couldn't tell the difference," was Mr. Powers'
answer.
"I suppose sugar-beets are just like those in our gardens," ventured
Van.
"No, they're not; they are, however, not unlike them. They differ in
having more juice and in usually being white," replied Mr. Powers.
"The ground has first to be plowed and harrowed, and is afterward
laid off in eighteen-inch rows because beets, you know, are planted
from seed. When the crop comes up trouble begins, for it has to be
thinned until each plant has a good area in which to grow; the beets
must also be carefully weeded and the soil round them loosened if
they are to thrive."
"How long is it before they are ready for sugar making?" inquired
Bob.
"Practically five months; it depends somewhat on the season. When
they are ripe they are dug up, the tops are removed, and they are
floated down small canals where washing machines with revolving
brushes remove from them every atom of dirt."
"And then?"
"If they are to be made directly into syrup and do not have to be
shipped in bulk they go into slicers which cut them into V-shaped
pieces about the length and thickness of a slate pencil, these
pieces being called cossettes. The sliced beet-root is next put into
warm water tanks in order that the sugar contained in it may be
drawn out. Built in a circle, these tanks are connected, and as the
beets move from one vat to another more and more sugar is taken from
them until they reach the last vat when the beet pulp is of no
further use except to be used as fodder for live stock.
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