![]() ![]() The majority of the factories were closed, and new development proceeded slowly. After Napoleon’s fall, sugar again was readily available from the tropics, and prices collapsed due to excess supplies. Napoleon encouraged new research with sugar beets, and between 18, over 79,000 acres were put into production with more than 300 small factories being built in France. After supplies were cut off by the English blockade of continental Europe during the Napoleonic Wars, the demand for sugar grew throughout Europe. During the early 1800’s most sugar was obtained from the West Indies. Prior to this time, sugar was only obtained from the tropical sugar cane and was prohibitively expensive for most Europeans. The development of the beet sugar industry of Germany, France, and other European countries can be traced to these humble beginnings,as he freely shared the results of these researches with others. He built the first sugar factory at Cunern in lower Silesia (modern day Poland), and developed effective processing methods using the poor germplasm sources from genepool of the white fodderĪvailable at that time. One of Margraff’s students, Franz Karl Achard, conducted research in this area and because of his success in establishing the beet as an economic source of sucrose in Europe, he is now considered to be the father of the sugarbeet industry. He predicted then that domestic use and manufacture of sugar was possible in temperate climates, but these ideas would not be realized for another 50 years until new ways of extraction could be developed. Developing the Sugar Beet of Todayĭuring the mid-1700’s, the German chemist Andreas Margraff discovered that both white and the red beetroot contained sucrose, which was indistinguishable from that produced from cane. ![]() George Washington conducted experiments with them at Mount Vernon and by 1888, Burpee’s Farm Annual offered seven different types of mangels, twelve varieties of table beets, and one variety of chard. They were well established by the eighteenth century, as mention is made of chard, and red, white, and yellow beetroot being grown in U.S. An unfortunate English mistranslation of the German mangold-wurzel (“beet-root”) as mangel-wurzel (“scarcity root”) resulted in the belief that this plant would be excellent food for the poor during periods of famine, but turned out to be better suited for cows.īeets were brought to North America by American colonists, but it is not known when for certain. They were introduced into England in the 1770’s for use as livestock feed after being developed from early fodder beets in Germany and Holland. White beets appear to have been more common, but less desirable than the red.ĭuring the 18th century, the large-rooted beets, known as the mangel-wurzel, were being fed to cattle. It was used as a vegetable and was boiled in stews, baked in tarts, and roasted whole. It was also found throughout Europe and hybridized with leaf beet types (chard) to produce the vast range of color and shape found in table beets today. Beetroot, both red and white, were developed in Italy (thus known as the “Roman beet”) by selection from the wild beets native to the seascoasts of the Mediterranean. The swollen, fleshy taproot familiar today was not known until the second and third century, A.D. Chard was originally used medicinally and for its dense foliage growth as a pot herb much like spinach or some of the Chinese leaf vegetables are used today. However, the oldest known beet type, chard, was domesticated by at least 2000 B.C, and was grown by both the Greeks and Romans. It is said to get its name from the Greek letter beta because the swollen, turnip-like root resembles a Greek B. The sugarbeet as we know it today is derived from many years of breeding the domesticated beet ( Beta vulgaris L.). ![]()
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