744 



THE TROPICAL AGTRTCTTLTURIST. 



Apeil i, 1885. 



s easons, which cutaius the uecessary proportion of sugar 

 for profitable extraction, and which is ot sufficient yield 

 per acre to repay the farmer for his trouble and cost in 

 growing. Moreover, if for any reason the supply exceeds , 

 the demand, and the crop caimot be sold to the factory, 

 it will prove of great value as a cattle food, quite equal 

 to a much heavier weight of mangolds, inasmuch as it 

 contains less water, and the sugar is very feeding. 



The farmers in the districts adjoining or within practic- 

 able reach of Lavenham may well pay attention to this 

 renewed demand for sugar beet, which can be grown on a 

 considerable variety of land, strong or light, provided 

 the surface is well worked clean, and the proper kind 

 of seed is sown in the manner recommended, and ordinary 

 attention paid to cultivation. Crops ranging from twelve 

 to twenty tons per acre may be looked for, and such 

 will pay much better than wheat at present and prob- 

 able rates. If the experiment proves a success at 

 Lavenham, it will be followed elsewhere; and over a 

 large area of the midland and southern counties the 

 soil and climate are suitable for the extended growth 

 of sugar beet. 

 To Messrs. Bolton and Partners, Limited, 4, The 



Sanctuary, Westminister. S. "YV. 

 Gentlemen. — In accordance with your instructions I 

 have visited and carefully inspected the chief districts 

 where sugar beets have been grown this year for your 

 new sugar factory at Lavenham. ***** 

 Golden Rule for Growers.— In the majority of the past 

 season's trials, sufficient attention was not paid to the 

 golden rule of having as close a plant as possible. Small 

 roots and many of them are best, both for the grower 

 and the sugar maker. The smaller the root, the richer 

 it is in sugar ; the less saline matter does it extract from 

 the land, or the manure; and the easier it is to lift. 

 When the roots are near to one another the bulbs are 

 not so much expressed, and the proportion of leaf to 

 root is smaller ; theyare also less likely to he fanged and 

 forked. 



Advantages of a Close Plant.— The following calculation 

 exhibits, in a' tabular form, the advantage of a close 

 plant. The first column gives the distance between the 

 drills; the second that between the single plants in the 

 rows; the third shows the number of roots per acre; 

 while the fourth column gives the yield per acre on the 

 assumption that each root weighs but 1 lb. : — 



Inches. Inches. Roots. Tons. cwt. 



15 6 69,696 31 2 



18 9 38,720 17 



18 12 :.. 29,040 12 19 



18 15 23,232 10 7 



21 18 15,004 6 12 



What Manures arc suitable. — Another lesson taught by 

 these trials relates to the manuring of the crop. With 

 your improved strontia process, by which the sugar is 

 directly precipitated from the beet juice, no hesitation 

 need now be felt in using superphosphate of lime, nitrate 

 of soda, and other artificial manures suitable for sugar- 

 beet. The increase thus caused of saliue matter in the 

 roots no longer interferes with the extraction of the 

 sugar. Farmyard manure, however, should never be 

 applied directly to the sugar-beet crop, but to that which 

 precedes it. Where it has been used, especially in the 

 spring, the roots have been uneven in size, coarse in 

 quality, and much fanged. In light soils and dry seasons 

 farmyard manure may help to secure a tolerable yield, 

 but at the sacrifice of almost every desirable character 

 in the root. 



Lund must I'C < 'lean.— A third lesson to be drawn from 

 these experimental trials relates to the * cleanness of the 

 luiiil. Weeds, especially couch grass, have sadly diminish- 

 ed the yield of roots in not a few cases. 



Other Directions for Cultivation. — Many other points as 

 to cultivation might be noticed did space permit. In the 

 printed instructions issued by you on the subject of sugar 

 beet growing, emphasis was l'aid on the importance of 

 thick sowing; of early thinning and careful singling; of 

 earthing up the exposed part of the roots ; of cutting off 

 any "bolted" or runaway stems ; of selecting the proper 

 time for pulling the crop ; of drawing without wounding 

 the roots; and many other details of cultivation. It is to 

 he hoped that, in the future, these necessary directions 



will be followed faithfully, and that a strict uniformity 

 of practice will prevail. 



I'roofs in favour of Sugar Beet Growing in England. — 

 Aware, as I am, that there still remains much sceptic- 

 ism amongst well-informed and even amongst scientific 

 men interested in farming, as to the possibility, in 

 average seasons, of producing in this country a crop of 

 sugar beet having a high proportion of sugar, it may be 

 well to give further proofs of the soundness of the 

 position taken up by the advocates of English sugar-beet 

 growing. Putting on one side the older and better-known 

 examples of successful trials of this plant, I will begin 

 by citing the experiments made under your auspices in 1884 

 in Surrey, Berks, Oxfordshire, Middlesex, Northamptonshire, 

 Lincolnshire, Staffordshire,' Worcestershire, Warwickshire, 

 Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Essex and a'so in 

 co. Wexford, Ireland. We have between thirty and 

 forty analysis of fair average parcels of roots grown in 

 different localities and under conditions which, for the 

 most part, cannot be regarded as favourable. * * 



Experiments at Rothamsted, 1871-1875. — The Rothamsted 

 experiments of Messrs. Lawes & Gilbert (1871— 1875) are 

 not less confirmatory of the value of fugar beet in this 

 country as an industrial crop. With dressings of 5 cwt. 

 per acre of nitrate of soda, on land which had received 

 no manure for eighteen years previously, 21| tons of 

 roots per acre were obtained, the percentage of sugar 

 in these roots being 11. Vilmorin's green-top white 

 Silesian beet was the variety grown at Rothamsted. It 

 must not be forgotten that several improved sorts of 

 sugar beet are now at our disposal. * * # * 



Value of Sugar Beet as Cattle Food. — The limits of my 

 space forbid further enlargement of this report, although 

 there are many topics connected with your important 

 undertaking on which I should have been glad to dwell. 

 But I cannot refrain from adding a few words as to the 

 valve of sugar beet as cattle food. Several of the farmers 

 who have grown these roots for you in 1884 have been 

 glad to use a part at least of the crops for feeding 

 their stock; the results have been most satisfactory. 

 Chemical analysis explains the superiority of sugar beet 

 over other roots for feeding purposes. While mangolds 

 commonly contain 90 per cent of water, and swedes 

 and white turnips often more, sugar beets will generally 

 be found to average about 81 per cent. Thus a crop of 

 sugar beet, even though its gross weight may not be 

 much more than half that of other kinds of roots, will 

 contain quite as much solid nutritive matter. Moreover. 

 it will present the further advantage of containing less 

 of those saline matters which, without being of use in 

 animal nutrition, tend, by their removal from the soil, 

 to its exhaustion. — A. H. Church, M. A., F.I.C., sometime 

 Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Agricultural College. 

 Cirencester. — Field. 



■ 



Woodlands in Emu. and. — Sussex formerly included six 

 forests within it confines, and it still possesses a large 

 area of woodlands and coppice than any other English 

 county. The giowth of hops occasions a market for 

 underwood and promotes good management. The total 

 area of the county of Kent slightly exceeds a million 

 acres; hops cover 42,000 acres, and the extent of wood- 

 lands and coppices is about eighty-three thousand acres. 

 It is worthy of note, too. that in Kent, underwoods 

 are cultivated expensively but profitably on land worth 

 ISOs. an acre to rent, while in Scotland woodlands 

 generally have been created upon barren moorland, worth 

 nothing to plough, and only a shilling or two for grazing. 

 In Sussex tin- woodlands cover 113,000 acres, the hops 

 between nine and ten thousands acres, the total area of 

 the county being 031.0110 acres. Hampshire is another 

 county well provided with woodlands, of which it has 

 105,000 acres, with a total area as great as that of Kent. 

 Tins.- are the three best wooded counties in England, 

 having from 10 to 12 per cent, in wood and coppice, 

 while Essex, with its one million and odd acres, has only 

 27 000 in woodlands or about 2h per cent ; many other 

 counties having much the same proportion, and England 

 generally having about 1,500,000 acres of woodlands, and 

 a total area of 32,597,398 acres, the percentage of wood- 

 laud amounting therefore to about 4i. — Held. 



