106 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of Saxonj', Germany, and may be obtained of the leading seed- 

 houses, but with greater safety from the factories already in 

 operation. The ordinary sorts of 8\igar beet seed sold by 

 seedsmen for stock food are worthless for the production of sugar. 

 Nitrogenous manures should be avoided, ou account of their 

 diminishing the percentage of sugar in the juice, and tending to 

 produce an over-abundance of tops. The sugar beet is decidedly 

 a potash plant, hence the German potash salts are a spocific 

 manure for this crop. It is recommended to appl^' 2.50 lbs. 

 each of sulphate potash (high grade) and superphosphate lime, 

 per acre. Sugar beets do best, in rotation, after a well manured 

 grain crop. A light soil, well drained, is best suited for this crop. 

 Large size should not be sought after, either for sugar or stock 

 food ; roots weighing one to two pounds are more solid, nutritious, 

 and contain most sugar. The land should be plowed early and 

 deep, and planted as soon as the soil will admit, before the winter 

 moisture has dried up, to avoid the danger of drought. 



II — The Seed and the Soil. 



Having premised that locality, climate, seed, culture and manures 

 greatly influence success in this business, and advised our readers 

 in everj' section to try the growing of sugar beets as an educa- 

 tional effort, as well as a source of immediate pecuniary profit, it 

 remains for us to consider more carefully the various points in- 

 volved. But so intimate are the relations of pocket and practice 

 in farm economy, perhaps we can start farmers to thinking more 

 interestedly on this subject by the statement that the easily attain- 

 able receipts per acre of sugar beets are upwards of $250. Allow- 

 ing a large estimate, 50 per cent., for expenses, we have a surplus 

 greater even than from a 150 bushel corn crop costing 20 cents 

 per bushel. And the surety of success is scarcely less than with 

 that good old crop in which the SdenUfic Farmer is striving to 

 create a new interest for the benefit of a "profitable agriculture." 

 Although no book of seed pedigrees has yet appeared — save the 

 seedsman's catalogue — the matter of selection is quite as impor- 

 tant in the vegetable as in the animal kingdom ; and the results 

 of growth are dependent upon ancestry with equal force. The 

 successful cultivator can almost 



" look into the seeds of time. 



And say which will grow and which will not." 



