RAISING OF SUGAR-BEETS. 47 



I may say the board drain is very simple to make. Hem- 

 lock plank would be better than boards, in some cases, espe- 

 cially if there is heavy teaming over it. Using plank, they 

 need not be so wide, and the cost would be but a little more. 

 Only a few nails are required to keep the tops in place, a 

 little opening being left all the better. I am sure such drains 

 will give satisfaction in low land where you cannot go deep. 

 The distance of the drains apart is fifty feet. 



HAMPSHIEE, FRANKLIN, AND HAMPDEN. 



[Statement of James Porter of Hatfield.] 



The land on which the beets that I offer for premium were 

 raised has been used for cultivated crops for several years, — 

 broom-corn, potatoes, Indian-corn, — and had not been en- 

 riched like most of the tobacco-fields. The amount of barn- 

 manure used was twelve two-horse loads, which was ploughed 

 in in the fore part of May. I used at different times during 

 the season eight hundred pounds of Stockbridge beet-fertilizer. 

 The land was ploughed one inch deeper than it had been 

 before, rolled, and well harrowed, and was sown near the 

 middle of May, using ten pounds and a half of seed fur- 

 nished by Mr. Lincoln. I used in sowing the seed the Wood- 

 ward corn-planter. With the same machine I distributed in 

 the rows, which were twenty-six inches apart, four hundred 

 and fifty pounds of the best fertilizer, it being previously 

 mixed with about the same quantity of dry earth. 



The beets not coming up as evenly as desired, two persons 

 spent one day in transplanting, which was done the 17th of 

 June. Immediately after, they were thinned so as to stand 

 from five to eight inches apart. The beets were cultivated 

 twice, and hoed three times. About the 25th of June I 

 applied some fertilizer on one-third part of the piece, scatter- 

 ing it near the row, and cultivating it in the soM. The result 

 was a larger growth of top than root. Near the 1st of 

 August I used one bag of fertilizer on one-fourth part of the 

 piece in a different place from that of June 25, and had a 

 heavy crop of the root. I commenced harvesting the 23d of 

 October, weighing each load. The weight of beets on one 

 acre amounting to 51,632 pounds. 



