380 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



importance ; for fitness of soil, as far as a necessary amount 

 of plant-food is concerned, may be secured by a carefully 

 selected system of rotation, aided by a proper selection of 

 special manures. Inferior kinds of soil may in some ex- 

 ceptional cases answer for beet-sugar cultivation, yet they 

 ought not to be relied upon as a safe basis for beet-sugar 

 manufacture. 



Extremes of soil, or much exhausted lands, are not, as a 

 general rule, to be recommended for the cultivation of 

 many crops. Cheapness does not always imply economy. 



The successful cultivation of special crops for a definite 

 industrial purpose requires lands on which the farmer can 

 control their growth by a special system of manuring, or 

 otherwise, and so promote the development of qualities 

 which increase their commercial value. The grower of 

 tobacco for smoking, for instance, aims at the production of 

 leaves which do not char when burned ; and the cultivator 

 of sugar-beets for the manufacture of sugar must aim to pro- 

 duce roots which contain the largest possible amount of sugar 

 under the most favorable conditions for economical extrac- 

 tion. Soils which are overcharged with soluble mineral 

 elements and unusual quantities of nitrogenous substances, 

 resulting from a decaying vegetation, produce a luxuriant 

 growth, which in the beet-root is unfavorable to the main 

 object of its cultivation ; namely, the successful, economical 

 manufacture of sugar. Wood-lands and prairie-lands but 

 recently brought under cultivation offer little encouragement 

 for starting in the beet-sugar industry : they may produce 

 excellent results later on, or after repeated cropping, espe- 

 cially if they incline to be sandy, and have a permeable 

 subsoil. 



TREATMENT OF THE SOIL. 



The rules for preparing the soil may be summed up as 

 follows : manure in the fall, and plough the manure in deep 

 (if obliged to manure in the spring, use only well rotted 

 compost) ; begin the work in the fall at any rate, and turn 

 the soil two or three times ; do not work the soil when wet ; 

 pulverize it with the best implements, and just before sowing 

 the seed ; let not much time be lost between the last mechan- 

 ical operation and the seeding. 



