CULTURE OF THE SUGAR BEET. 



97 



Basset * says : 



Soils charged with mineral salts are injurious to the culture of the heet for extrac- 

 tion of sugar and are only suited to the cultivation of beets for distillation. In fact. 

 Ave know that the beet easily absorbs saline matters and that the alkaline salts con- 

 stitute one of the greatest obstacles to sugar extraction. 



Xew ground or that lately cleared of forest should not be applied to 

 the culture of the beet, and it is considered by good authorities to be 

 detrimental to the quality of the crop to make use of lands for this pur- 

 pose that have not been under continued cultivation at least ten or fif- 

 teen years. This insures an almost complete removal of the nitrates 

 and the organic matters containing nitrogen, which are always present 

 in large quantities in new soils, and which it is well known exert an in- 

 jurious influence upon the quality of the root. 



Basset, in his work,t gives elaborate tables of analyses of soils to 

 show the chemical composition of those most favorable to the culture, 

 but we will here give the more succinct tables of Champion and Pellet,! 

 showing the composition of soils from different departments in the 

 north of France in which beet-root culture is most extensively carried 

 on, and of one from a similar section of Bussia. Those numbered 1, 2, 

 and 3 yielded beets of fair quality, containing 12 to If parts of sugar 

 per 100 of juice, while that numbered f gave beets of bad quality. The 

 last, that from Russia, is quoted by Walkhoff as being well suited to 

 beet culture. 



Orsranic mutters . 



Silica 



Alumina 



Lime 



Peroxide of iron 

 Phosnhoric acid . 



Potash 



Soda 



Carbonic acid 



Other mat: 



5. GOO 

 81. 800 

 7.240 

 0.570 

 _ •• 

 0.070 

 0. 0C-1 

 0.085 

 0.400 

 1.351 



0.C08 



I 0. 130 



0.600 



6. 207 

 72.699 

 9.974 

 1.930 

 2.834 

 0.093 

 2.047 

 0.914 



1. 2S0 



2. 022 



The same authors quote Schiibler as giving the following as the gen- 

 eral composition of good soil for beet culture : 



Clay 33.300 



Siliceous sand 63. 000 



Calcareous sand 1.200 



Calcareous earth, humus 2. 500 



7 SB 



* Guide Pratique du Fabricant de Sucre. 

 t Guide Pratique du Fabricant de Sucre, 

 t La Betirave a Sucre, p. S2. 



