HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 283 



Prof. Porter. I want to take a little space in the report for a 

 subject that ought to have some interest. A great many in- 

 quiries have come to the station from diiferent i)ortions of the 

 country with regard to the value of the sugar beet. Two years 

 ago, in order to be able to answer these inquiries, we imported 

 from Paris thirteen varieties of their most celebrated strains of 

 seeds that were to be found in either Germany or France, for the 

 production of sugar. We planted them and the results are 

 given in one of the bulletins you have already received. I have 

 just received from the chemist an analysis made from these 

 thirteen varieties placed under different conditions of growth, 

 on natural soil, on soil fertilized with different compounds, etc. 



When they first commenced the development of the sugar 

 beet in Europe they got 1 per cent of sugar, and it took 100 

 years to bring it up to 6 per cent. In 150 years the maximum 

 was 15 per cent, running down to 9, 10, and 11 per cent. 



I will not take up your time only just to refer to the result of 

 this experimental work. So far as the yield is concerned we 

 have grown beets at the rate of thirty tons per acre; this year we 

 have run down to fifteen tons, but the soil was not fertilized. 

 The average per cent of sugar, as shown by the tests made, was 

 over twelve per cent. 



Mr. Underwood. What do you recommend them for? 



Prof. Porter. For sugar making or for stock. 



Mr. Underwood. What is the comparative value of the beet 

 and the carrot for stock? 



Prof. Porter. There is more sugar in the beet but less of al- 

 buminoids. But all this information will be found in the next 

 bulletin, to be issued in time for the spring planting. 



Mr. Ridout. The plan of sprouting potatoes in a hothouse is 

 all right in certain cases. I generally set my potatoes in frames, 

 one frame above another, behind the kitchen stove. I can start 

 potatoes enough very readily to set out a quarter of an acre. I 

 have a seedling that is two weeks earlier than Early Ohio; I 

 raised 160 bushels of potatoes on 38 rods of ground, or at the rate 

 of 673 bushels per acre. I have been growing them four years. 

 I have a sample of them here. 



Mr. Dartt. Mr. President, the thought came into my mind 

 that if it were possible to keep the iDOtato over the whole season, 

 so they would be good the second year it would some times be a 

 grand thing; especially this year when only worth twenty-five 

 cents. With the right atmosphere it might perhaps be done. 



