108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



soil becomes hard and compact in a dry season, particularly after 

 heavy rains, and seriously retards the growth of the fleshy roots. 

 Wet lands tend to produce coarse, watery beets, with little sugar, 

 and a proneness to early decay. The best sugar beet root is 

 smooth, compact, of rather small size — as size is measured in the 

 root family — but must have room to grow without being stunted. 

 Beets of this sort, containing a large amount of sugar, approach 

 the nearest to perfection when grown in the soil above described. 

 Proper physical condition is the first requisite for a good beet 

 soil. As for most root crops, deep plowing and thorough pulver- 

 ization is a desideratum in this case. But when deep plowing is 

 undertaken on a field for the first time, it should be done in fall, 

 to secure the benefit of the action of winter frosts on the fresh 

 subsoil. Old tillage lands in fine condition are better adapted to 

 this culture than new soils ; for the latter, during the first few 

 years, usually produce coarse roots of inferior composition, on 

 account of the undecomposed organic matter. 



Ill — Manures. 



There is no phase of this subject so full of interest as that of 

 the eflect of manures upon the development of the root. For out 

 of its study, in Germany and France, arose the experimental 

 researches which led to much that is known to-day in regard to 

 the 00*601 of manurial substances upon plant growth. 



Rapid gi'owth in plants is seldom associated with early ma- 

 turity. The fruit tree which is remarkable for luxuriant growth 

 is not an early and abundant bearer, because of the lack of 

 maturity in the fruit-bearing twigs. In the so-called root crops, 

 luxuriance and rapidity of growth is not accompanied by an 

 equally rapid development of those features which produce solidity 

 an maturity in the substance of the root, but rather by coarse- 

 ness of texture, and a watery and saline composition. 



While a heavy crop may seem to be desirable, to produce which 

 large roots are necessary, it should be remembered that a large 

 root is always of inferior quality. From analyses of small roots 

 weighing 1^ lbs., and of large roots weighing 5^ lbs., it is shown 

 that ten tons of the small roots contain as much solid matter as 

 13 tons of the larger roots. The cause of this may be looked for 

 in the fact that the seasons are not long enough for the roots to 

 ripen. IIow the composition of the sugar beet varies in the 



