266 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



large amount of healthful, nutritious food raised to the acre, have 

 brought this beet into general use, almost every farmer raising his 

 cellar full of them to feed, and hundreds of bushels are sold yearly 

 in Middlebury village. Every man keeping a cow wants a load 

 or more of beets to feed during the fall, winter and spring. By 

 great care in selecting for seed beets that were of uniform shape, 

 fair size, well developed, without forks or lateral roots, and good 

 culture, this beet has been much improved since its first introduc- 

 tion. Yielding, as it now does, a greater amount of food per acre 

 than any other, at less cost, of better quality than the turnip, 

 ready to feed by the first or middle of October, keeping sound 

 through the winter until late in the spring, this root is growing 

 rapidly into favor and general use, cattle, sheep and swine feeding 

 greedily upon it with favorable results in their health and condi- 

 tion. 



Soil. The sugar beet does well in most soils, but, unlike the 

 carrot, a light sandy soil is least suitable to it, while the various 

 loamy soils, and especially those containing a large proportion of 

 clay and lime, are best adapted to its growth. Some of the finest 

 crops that I have ever seen, were grown on clay loam, a soil 

 containing not more than twenty per cent, of sand. Such soil, 

 when thoroughly drained, the surface made light with manure and 

 deep tillage, is one in which the sugar beet delights, and will give 

 remunerative returns. 



Preparation of the Soil. In the first place all stagnant water, 

 either on the surface or within reach of the roots of the beet, 

 should be removed by thorough drainage. Although the beet 

 requires a large amount of moisture to carry on a vigorous and 

 healthy growth, yet I know of no plant that will show the pres- 

 ence of stagnant water quicker than the beet, by its assuming a 

 yellowish hue aud sickly aspect. It will not extend downward 

 its usual length, but on reaching stagnant water will divide into 

 numerous small fibers, which spread in alf directions, to the great 

 injury of the crop; hence in the preparation of most soils, and 

 especially clay soils, thorough drainage is absolutely necessary. 



The best one-fourth acre of land I have for beets was naturally 

 very wet. On this I laid twenty rods of drain, and from this 

 small plot of ground there flows during the spring, and in wet 

 seasons as late as the first of July, a stream of water that would 

 fill a common-zized pump log. 



Land intended for beets should be kept in high condition by a 



