180 



BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



Harvesting and delivering to dry-house $30.00 



Thirty-six pounds of seed , 7.20 



Thirty-six loads of manure, half of said value. . . 36.00 



Quarter value of last year's manure 8.00 



Interest and taxes 15.00 



$127.05 

 Cr. 



By tops fed to milch cows $15.00 



43 2-5 tons of beets sold, cost $2.58 112.05 



$127.05 



If, then, the actual self cost after every part of the work 

 performed has been well paid is $2.58, the result has been 

 satisfactory. 



Mr. Alex. Johnston, in Wiscasset, has raised sugar beets 

 for seven or eight years in succession ; the crop has never 

 feiiled, and this year, though not as good as generally, he har- 

 vested by actual weight 24 tons, 700 lbs. per acre, while his 

 neighbor, who had the field of beets almost adjoining his, 

 whose soil is fully as good as his, but who appears to labor 

 under the impression because a kind Providence provides rain 

 and sunshine, perhaps Providence will also attend to the weed- 

 ing and cultivating ; he harvested not quite 11 tons by actual 

 weight and, measurement per acre. 



Mr. Libby, President of First National Bank, Portland, 

 harvested from his farm 17| tons per acre. Mr. Wentworth, 

 Superintendent of the Reform School, Cape Elizabeth, had a 

 still better yield, though he thought in the earlier part of the 

 season, which was very unfavorable, he would have no beets 

 at all. I might continue the list of parties who have done 

 well in beet raising, but this is enough to show that beets, 

 when properly taken care of, on land well prepared, will yield 

 as large a crop in the State of Maine as anywhere in the world. 

 But while grass or hay farming is in reality the lowest stage 

 of farming, requiring the least brain, the least care and atten- 

 tion,, the least work, and gives the least returns, barely keep- 



