COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS

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Aume covered with removable boards. As needed, the beets are
carried into the factory from the bins by the swift current of the
water in the flume.
The process of manufacture consists of cleaning and slicing the
beets, placing the slices in large cylinders and extracting the sugar
by diffusion. This is 2ccomplished by successive treatments with
hot water. The extract is clarified by treatment with suitable
chemicals, the sludge-like precipitated material removed by filtering,
 and the clean juice evaporated under reduced pressure until a
mass of sugar crystals has been formed. The sugar is finally separated
 from the molasses by centrifugals. After several strikes of
sugar have been obtained, the molasses is further desugarized by
other processes. From the centrifugal machine the sugar is sent
to the driers, where excess moisture is removed by a current of warm
air. The sugar is then ready to be sacked and sent to market. In
Europe, where raw beet sugar is produced in many factories, the
product is sent to a refinery for manufacture into the final product
in much the same manner as raw cane sugar is refined in the United
States, where (and to some extent in Germany) the beet-sugar factories
 themselves turn out the final product.
The principal by-products of beet-sugar manufacture are beet
pulp, which may be fed to stock wet or may be dried for stock feed,
and molasses, which is highly valued as a stock feed and for manufacture
 into such products as alcohol, fusel oil, and vinegar.