No. 63.] 309 



and for milk cows ilecidedly preferable. The latter increase the 

 quantity, but deteriorate the quality of the milk, while the former 

 improves both. My cows are kept exclusively on straw, with a daily 

 allowance of these roots, and their milk certainly holds out well. 

 Even my calves have no better fare; and no where have I seen any 

 in more thriving condition. Another consideration, much in favor of 

 raising the beet, is that it has a favorable effect in ameliorating the 

 soil; and being fed out on the farm, it returns more to the soil than 

 it takes from it. This idea may be new to some; but every one who 

 has but a partial knowledge of vegetable physiology, or the laws 

 which govern the growth of plants, is aware that all exogenous plants, 

 or such as grow by the addition of successive layers to the outside^ 

 and particularly those having broad and fleshy leaves, imbibe by far 

 the greater portion of nourishment from the atmosphere; while the 

 endogenous, or those which grow by the addition ot' successive por- 

 tions on the inside^ such as the narrow-leaved grasses, and all the ce- 

 real o-rains, derive most from the soil. Hence the correctness of the 

 above remark in favor of the beet, is at once apparent. The same 

 remark may also be applied to the potatoe, but not to the same ex- 

 tent. It is another law in the vegetable economy, quite as satisfacto- 

 rily ascertained, that the comparative amount of the nutriment derived 

 by the plant from the atmosphere and from the soil, bears some pro- 

 portion to the relative amount of the surface of the leaves, compared 

 with that of the minute fibres of the roots. Hence the superior 

 advantages of the beet or the turnep in this respect, over the potatoe, 

 cannot fail to be perceived. 



I am aware that the beet is generally considered an uncertain crop; 

 and probably under the ordinary mode of cultivation it is so. Still, 

 I believe the fault is not in the kind of crop, but in the system of 

 culture. In my experience, the fact is otherwise; no crop I raise, 

 having proved more uniformly successful. And I have no doubt that 

 under an improved system of cultivation, the experience of others 

 would correspond with my own. 



If any who have hitherto been skeptical or unsuccessful in raising 

 this crop, should, by these remarks, be induced to make a trial, to 

 such 1 would say — Prepare your ground by deep and thorough plow- 

 ing; if the soil is not already rich enough, plow in long or unfer- 

 mented manure; if it is clayey or wet, make free use of straw, chip 

 dirt, saw dust, or other coarse materials; and if sandy, of clay, and 

 substitute compost for long manure; work the land thoroughly with a 

 many and fine toothed harrow; smooth the surface with a light roller; 

 and having procured a drill-barrow of the right kind, regulate it so 

 that it will deposit the seed at a distance of eight or ten inches asunder 

 in the drills, and three-fourths of an inch deep — or, if the weather and 

 the soil are damp — half an inch; or if they are unusually dry, one full 

 inch deep — but never more; and then deposit the seed in drills 30 in- 

 ches apart; if plenty of seed is at hand, or can be procured, use itfreely, 

 nothing doubting. As soon as the plants have acquired a little size, at 

 farthest before they are twelve days old, pass the cultivator or corn har- 

 row through them, and weed them out — leaving only two, or at most 



