COST OF SUGAR-BEETS. 51 



The cost of this crop and its value stand very nearly in 

 accordance with the figures below : — 



Ploughing and harrowing $2 00 



Carting manure (man and horse two days) . . . . 4 00 



Furrowing and covering manure 1 00 



Seed (six pounds) one dollar and twenty cents ; sowing fifty 



cents ........... 1 70 



Hoeing six days and a half . . . . . . . 6 50 



Cultivating five times 2 00 



Manure (five cords and a half at six dollars) . . . . 33 00 

 Harvesting (six days and a half), digging, and covering, pit 



included. .......... 6 50 



Interest on land at a hundred and fifty dollars per acre . . 6 18 



Taxes 1 50 



Total expense $64 38 



Cr. 



By 16 45-100 tons beets at five dollars (gross) .... $82 25 



One-third value of manure for future crops . . . . 11 00 



$93 25 



Balance to credit of crop $28 87 



This is at the rate of $41.99 per acre, and is equal to 

 53.597 pounds to the acre. 



[Statement of James Ellsworth.] 



I treated the field of sugar-beets grown by myself sub- 

 stantially as follows : — 



The land had one ploughing to the depth of eight inches, 

 at least. I thoroughly harrowed it, and marked out the rows 

 twenty-four inches apart with a double mole-board, one-horse 

 plough. I scattered in these furrows Thompson & Edward's 

 Chicago Animal Guano, at the rate of seventeen hundred 

 pounds per acre. I ridged over the fertilizer by passing the 

 same plough, used for marking, between every two consecu- 

 tive rows or furrows, thus making the seed-bed or ridge. The 

 seed was dropped from a Harrington machine. The crop 

 was hoed three times, and thinned out the second hoeing. 



I think that one-fifth of the growth was lost by the too 

 powerful action of the guano. One half of the quantity 

 used should have been sowed broadcast, and harrowed in, 

 and the other half applied as I used the whole. 



