400 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tassa compounds and the phosphates which the juice has 

 carried off. 



The preservation of the press-cakes is easily accomplished. 

 They are packed closely into the empty beet-root pits, or into 

 brick chambers, being frequently interlaid with a small 

 quantity of chopped straw, and finally tightly covered with 

 soil. The fermented mass resulting from this operation 

 keeps in an excellent state of preservation for six to seven 

 months. t 



PRODUCE OF LEAVES. 



The leaves amount, at the time of the harvesting of the 

 roots, to about one-fourth of the weight of the latter : cal- 

 culating as previously, six thousand pounds of leaves 

 would result from an acre. The leaves are separated upon 

 the fields, and subsequently, in their green state, ploughed 

 under deeply, or they are fed either fresh, or in a preserved 

 state. 



The manuring effects of the beet-leaves is very great, since 

 they contain in their fresh state more potassa, more phos- 

 phoric acid, and more nitrogenous substances, than an equal 

 weight of roots. Their ash percentage is also larger than 

 that of the beet-roots, consisting mainly of alkalies and 

 alkaline earths. Almost one-third of all the potassa, one- 

 half of the phosphoric acid, and two-fifths of the whole 

 amount of nitrogenous substances of the entire sugar-beet 

 crop, is contained in the leaves. As they can be fed in 

 small quantity only, in their fresh state, they are salted 

 down in pits. 



The pits used for this purpose ought to be in a dry locality, 

 and dug to a depth of from five to six feet. The bottom is 

 covered, from two to three inches thick, with a layer of 

 chopped straw of oats, iye, or wheat ; then a layer, from four 

 to five inches thick, of fresh beet-leaves mixed with one- 

 quarter of one per cent of common salt, is put on and trod- 

 den down, and these alternations continued until the pit is 

 not only filled, biit raised from two to three feet above the 

 ground ; and then a layer of two feet of soil is added as 

 covering. In the same proportion, as the mass shrinks in 

 consequence of fermentation, new soil is added to keep the 

 covering above the level of the surrounding ground as 

 protection from the rain. 



