268 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the ridges with a garden rake. I sow with Harrington's seed 

 sower, at the rate of four pounds of seed per acre. 



Time of Sowing. As roots grow mostly after mid-summer, 

 many farmers think that a difference of two or three weeks in the 

 time of sowing will make but little difference in the crop. With 

 turnips and carrots this is the case, at least it is not essential that 

 these roots should be sown early. With field beets the success of 

 the crop depends very much upon early sowing. The very first 

 suitable weather after the frost is out, and the soil is sufficiently 

 dry to be worked, should be improved, even if this is as early as 

 the middle of April, as is sometimes the case. Beets, after grow- 

 ing to one half-inch in thickness, form a concentric ring or layer 

 about every fifteen days ; these vary in number from six to ten, 

 depending upon the length of the season of planting. The oldest 

 leaves are those at the bottom of the crown, and are in direct 

 communication with the older and central layer. As new leaves are 

 formed new layers are formed, the central leaves on the top of the 

 crown communicating with the last and external layer. Each 

 succeeding layer being external to the one preceding it, its diam- 

 eter and bulk increases in an increased ratio, the last two being 

 at least equal to the four internal ones, consequently doubling the 

 crop, and this generally after the first of September. 



If by late sowing the crop weighs but ten tons on the first of 

 September, we can hardly expect it will increase after that date to 

 exceed ten tons more, making the crop twenty tons per acre. 

 Whereas, if by early sowing we grow fifteen tons by the first of 

 September, our crop will at least reach thirty tons to the acre. A de- 

 lay in sowing of fifteen days after the first of May will often lessen 

 the crop ten tons per acre. There was a severe drouth in 1860, 

 commencing early in the season and continuing until about the 

 middle of August. Before the rains of that season the leaves of 

 our beets had nearly all withered and died ; apparently the crop 

 was lost. Soon after the August rains, and the warm growing 

 weather that followed, a new set of leaves started out from the 

 crown of the beet, two layers of great thickness were formed, 

 measuring in the largest beets one inch in diameter, and this rapid 

 growth, after the first of August, produced a fair crop that year. 



Planting or Drilling. Although drill sowing has long been my 

 practice, I am inclined, from a limited experience, to favor plant- 

 ing as the cheapest and best mode. The preparation of the land 

 for either up to the time of ridging is the same. 



