178 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



tongue-like, run into the square field. This half acre had no 

 manure in the fall because the stock was completely exhausted. 

 In the spring some fresh manure had accumulated and was 

 placed on the half acre, in the same proportion as on all the 

 rest, and the beets planted. The whole field came up well, 

 but in about one week every plant from the tongue-like piece 

 had disappeared, leaving the land completely bare, while on 

 the other two and a half acres almost surrounding it, the crop 

 looked well, and when harvested, gave a good yield. A 

 second field came under my observation brintjing the same 

 features out very prominently. Two acres of poor land were 

 well prepared and planted and came up well, but in less than 

 a week every plant disappeared, because it had perished ; 

 thinking something «might be the matter with the seed, the 

 field was worked over with a cultivator and freshly planted, 

 when to the great delight of the young men, in eight days 

 the beet rows were all up again. They informed their parent 

 of the fact, expressing their confidence that they would yet 

 reap the reward of a good crop for their labor, but alas for 

 worn-out soil, in a few days they had all perished again. 



In judging from these fields, the conclusion forces itself upon 

 the close observer, that every field which was in a good con- 

 dition and would have given fair returns of any other crop, 

 gave a good yield of sugar beets, while over-cropped and 

 ill-prepared land, even if manured in sj^ring, did yield but 

 little if any crop ; between land in a good state of fertility 

 and land even too poor to produce a crop of buckwheat, 

 there were fields in every stage of fertility and poverty, most 

 or at least many were abandoned, some ploughed up others 

 not. To the surprise of many farmers a struggle ensued 

 between the crop and the weeds and in many cases the former 

 predominated. 



The more favorable summer season which followed the bad 

 spring, brought out many a neglected and backward field, 

 and many farmers who had given up only too readily, came 

 to the conclusion from observation on their own fields, that a 

 good crop of sugar beets can be raised with proper care on 



