40 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Beets. Bushels. 



Harris' Improved Yellow Globe 1,104 



Wordeii's Grunge Globe 873 



YoUow G lobe 1,014 



Kod Tankard 381 



Is^orbiton 1,107 



AVhite Sugar.. 1,414 



Lane's Iniproved Sugar 8G1 



Vol niorin's Sugar 798 



Maine Sugar* •. 1,255 



Red Globe 1,02G 



Yellow Intermediate.-. 1,026 



Long Yellow. __ 1,140 



Improved Mammoth 1,140 



Golden Tankard 581 



Long Red 1, 596 



An average yield of 1,021 bushels to the acre, or taking the ten highest, au 

 average yield of 1,182 bushels per acre. 



The roots were carefully measured in bushel baskets, well rounded up, 

 some of the beets holding so much more dirt than otheis, that they could not 

 be weighed accurately without washing. 



The sugar beets have very many fibers or roots and grow almost entirely in 

 the ground. Some of them could not be pulled with a heavy potato hook and 

 had to be spaded out, the white sugar being the hardest to dig. Tlie other 

 beets grow mostly above ground ; the Harris and Yellow Globe could be pushed 

 over with the foot. "We would estimate the cost of harvesting the sugar beets 

 to be at least twice that of the others. The Long Red, which gave the greatest 

 yield, grows long and crooked. Many of the beets were 30 inches in length. 

 They are tender and break easily and will not probably keep well. The Har- 

 ris Improved is round, hard as a rutabaga, and will probably be a good keeper. 

 It is easy to harvest and very desirable for general culture. Five bushels of 

 each variety were buried to test their keeping qualities. The yield was good, 

 but we think can be increased in our garden after it has been brought into a 

 better state of cultivation. This one trial is of course not decisive as to the 

 comparative yielding qualities of these varieties; the experiment should be 

 repeated several times and on different soils to decide anything of value. 



CORN CULTIVATION. 



A series of experiments in testing the effect of root pruning, and different 

 ways of cultivating corn, were commenced last year. The corn plats planted 

 for the same purpose this year were so infested by meadow moles tliat the 

 experiment was given up for this season. Last year a part, seven plats of 

 corn, some manured and some not, were root pruned from one to five times 

 during the season, the remainder of each plat being cultivated in the ordinary 

 way. The pruning was done by attaching a knife to the side of a five-tooth 

 one-hor.-c cultivator, standing upright and cutting about eight inches deep. 

 The cultivacor was run about four inches from the row pruned, on eitlier side 

 cutting off all the side roots. When harvested the corn on the pruned and 



* The Maine Sugar beet was grown from imported seed, but is the same variety that is grown In 

 Maine lor sugar. 



