382 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



In France, where the sugar resulting from the sugar-beet is 

 taxed, spring manuring is more freely resorted to. The action 

 of the stable-manure used the year previous to the raising of 

 the beet-roots is increased by the addition of fertilizers of a 

 more special character. Superphosphates containing from 

 ten to twelve per cent of soluble phosphoric acid, or Peru- 

 vian guano, and concentrated Stassfurt, sulphate of potassa 

 (from two hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds of 

 each, or more, per acre), also wood-ashes with ground bones, 

 or Chili saltpetre with superphosphates, applied in the fall, 

 or at an early period of the spring, are highly recom- 

 mended for that purpose. The condition of the soil and the 

 amount of stable-manure previously used ought to decide as 

 to the proper quantities. 



Plants differ less in regard to the various kinds of food they 

 need than in regard to the quantities of each kind. 



The beet takes its food largely from the air, and, as the 

 proper physical condition of the soil increases its power to 

 absorb atmospheric plant-food, we find that stable-manure, 

 and green crops turned under, are among the best fertilizers : 

 the only caution needed is to apply them in time to have 

 them disintegrated before the seed is sown. The successful 

 sugar-beet grower sells nothing without replacing it in some 

 form or other, except what he has drawn from the atmos- 

 phere, the sugar : he considers almost every thing else part 

 of his real estate, which he cannot dispose of without injuring 

 its value. Whatever he sells besides sugar is merely a mat- 

 ter of exchange : the mineral constituents, and, to a certain 

 extent, the nitrogen which the articles sold contain, whether 

 in the form of milk, grain, or live-stock produced upon his 

 farm, he brings carefully back, either by buying fertilizers, 

 or, better, by buying good and strong articles of fodder, as 

 hay, corn, oil-cakes, &c, t© manufacture the manure on his 

 grounds. 



Potassa and phosphoric acid are, strictly speaking, the 

 only plant-constituents which have to be bought on account 

 of the extensive stock-feeding which is usually connected 

 with the farm management where the sugar-beet is cultivated 

 for manufacturing purposes. This is especially the case 

 where the molasses is sold; for that contains a very large 

 portion of the soluble saline constituents of the beet-roots. 



