Raising Vegetables for Canning 1567 



should be left on each beet in order to avoid bleedin^^ whieh would injure 

 the appearance and the quality of the root. For canning purposes small 

 beets are generally required, and it is therefore necessary to harvest them 

 when rather young. It must be remembered that beets are tender plants 

 and should not l)e injured, but should be handled with care and taken 

 from the field or garden and washed as soon as possible after they are 

 juillcd. Leaves trimmed from beets should be gathered together and 

 I)laced in the compost pile or destroyed. 



]'iclds. — Beets yield from four hundred to seven hundred bushels per 

 acre. 



SWEET CORN 



Soil and its preparation. — Sweet corn seems to be cosmopolitan as far 

 as soil conditions are concerned. It thrives best, however, in a fairly 

 rich loam, and it is not advisable to plant it in soil that is too hard or 

 clayey and therefore rather baclcward. Sandy or gravelly loams or even 

 a silty loam, if they are deeply tilled, will ]jroduce good sweet corn. In 

 crop rotation, corn may follow any other crop, but as a general thing, 

 it is grown where sod, preferably clover sod, has been plowed under. 



The ground should be plowed deeply early in the spring, from six and 

 one-half to seven inches or even deeper. Care should be taken not to 

 mix too much of the new subsoil with the topsoil, from one to one and 

 one-half inches being sufficient in any one year. Following the plowing, 

 the ground should be harrowed thoroughly, that is, tliree or four times 

 rather than once. Good practice is to han'ow twice with a disk harrow 

 and several times with a spike-tooth harrow. If the land is plowed early, 

 especially sod land, and thoroughly harrowed, a larger amount of moisture 

 will be conserved, particularly if harrowing follows soon after rain, than 

 if the plowing and harrowing is done at a later time. 



Manures and fertilizers. — If manure is used, it should be applied broad- 

 cast at the rate of from ten to fifteen tons per acre. If possible, it should 

 be well rotted, though com is less injured by fresh manure than some other 

 garden crops. If the soil is of a relatively heavy type and backward, 

 high-grade fertilizer in addition to manure may be applied to good effect 

 at the rate of from two hundred and fifty to five hundred pounds per acre. 

 If manure is not available, a fertilizer containing two per cent nitrogen, 

 eight per cent phosphoric acid, and ten per cent potash will give satis- 

 factory results if applied in the hill at the rate of about five htmdred 

 pounds per acre. This fertilizer produces better results if used on soil 

 where sod has been plowed under than if used on bare ground. 



Varieties. — In the eastern United States, the variety of com used for can- 

 ning more than any other is Crosby Early, which is a second early variety 

 among the named sorts in time of maturing. It has an ear of fairly large 



