!>; | 



MOST. 



i the roots; but U is also Mid to nuke them more watery, Mtd 

 for tbe sugar beet it U not I ndnsjinnmlnd The seed, which ihouM be 

 ckoaen {ram the mo perfect planU, is nnni in April or May : if sown 

 sooner, there it tome danger from the frosty night* which often occur 

 about the begmwaf ol that month; or if the spring U warm and genial, 

 it geU too forward, and iiwtead of increasing in the root, it shoots up 

 a seed-eUlk, sad the root becomes comparatively useless. If it u 

 aown later than May, it never arrives at a full aim Wore the approach 

 of winter: henoe Ute bat week in April or flnt in May it the beet 

 tine in our climate. It U found by experience that thoee plants of , 

 beet which grow from aeed aown where they are to remain have larger 

 roots, in general, than those which are transplanted ; the aeed is there- 

 fore wmaUy drilled, or dibbled, in row* about thirty inches distant ; 

 the aeed* are put in lea than an inch deep, and when they are dibbled, 

 the holes are about 15 or 18 inches asunder, and two or three seeds 

 are put in a hole. After they coine up and are out of danger of frost 

 or insects, they are thinned out, so as to leave the plants at that 

 interval apart. Where the plants have failed, the intervals are filled 

 up by transplanting some of thoee which are superfluous in other 

 parts : in doing thU it b essential that the fibres of the roots be not 

 torn off in pulling up the plant; and if they are taken up can-mi ly 

 with some of the mould adhering to the roots, it will well repay the 

 additional trouble. If the ground is well prepared, there is little fear 

 of the plants not coming up, or of their being destroyed by the fly, as 

 U too often the case with turnips. A sprinkling of liquid manure 

 along the rows, about the time that the plants first appear above 

 ground, will in general secure an abundance of them ; and this may be 

 done with much leas trouble than would be imagined, by those who 

 have never practised it It requires only a water-cart, with a large 

 cask and two leathern hose, kept at a proper distance from each other 

 by a stick between them, so that they may pour the liquid manure 

 over two row* at once. If the field be not above a mile from the tank, 

 a man and horse will water two acres in a day, and if the distance is 

 half a mile, four acres ; the expense will be amply repaid in the crop.* 

 Putting the seed in with liquid manure is now not an uncommon 

 practice; and a liquid manure drill, invented by Mr. Chandler of 

 Aldboiime, near Hungerford, is largely used for that purpose; and 

 even where it is not the practice to sow liquid manure with the seed, 

 it is well to moisten the seed for a day or two before sowing in order 

 to ensure early germination. 



On a very large scale the practice of watering during the early growth 

 of the plant may not be so practicable ; but wherever a field of beet is 

 near the home-stall, the evident advantage of it will soon remove any 

 objection arising from trouble or expense. When the plants are three 

 inches above ground, they may be thinned out, the intervals between 

 the rows may be stirred with the plough, grubber, or horse-hoe, and 

 the intervals from plant to plant in the row with the hand-hoe. The 

 ground cannot be kept too fine and open, provided the soil be not 

 extremely porous. It is a common practice to throw the earth from 

 the rows against the roots ; but the most experienced cultivators do 

 not approve of the method ; on the contrary, they recommend drawing 

 the earth from the plants, or at least laying the whole ground level 

 Where the soil is naturally rich and deep, the drills may be made on 

 the level ground ; but if the soil is shallow, or the subsoil of a barren 

 nature, it is bast to raise small ridges, as is done for turnips on the 

 Northumberland plan, and bury the dung under them, by which means 

 the roots have more room to strike downwards. As soon as the outer 

 leaves begin to droop, they may be gathered and given to cattle, but 

 as the roote will not increase except by the aid of the leaves, they 

 should not be stripped until they are on the point of withering. This 

 practice of gathering the leaves is strongly recommended by some, and 

 they assert that the root does not suffer in the least, although the 

 leaves are reproduced ; but here we would give this caution, founded 

 OB experience and observation. The drooping leaves, if not gathered, 

 will decay and fall off; they have performed their office, and therefore 

 to gather thorn before they wither is a real economy : but to strip off 

 fresh and growing leaves must injure the plant, and the juices required 

 to replace them are so much taken from the growth of the roots. 

 When fodder is very scarce this may be a sacrifice worth making, but 

 U the object is to reserve the roots for winter food, the leave- 

 remain on the plant as long sa they look fresh and growing, until near 

 the time of taking up the whole crop : the top may then be cut off an 

 tetb above the crown of the root, and will be excellent food for the 

 1 



The roots are generally taken up and stored for winter, some time 



* re there is anv danger of considerable frost. They are stripped of 

 leaves and thrown into carts, without their root* being cut, or 

 b care taken to clean them, and thrown into heaps, which if large 



should have 10011 mesa* of ventilation, as a faggot thrust in to til* 

 !J tof them at top will afford. The heaps an then covered with 

 r and earth and left for the winter. Or the root* may be piled 

 hurdles, placed six feet apart from on* another, the interval 



If Cb* wt<t-cirt contain* 100 gallcM. It will water one-third of an acre in 

 ro of thrae tot dlrtsiiw ; the bora* will go orcr on* mile and a half In an 

 "J aaspcd fltld to water an sere, to whleh moat h added twice the 

 MstaBM frow Uw tank, taken three time.. ThU makei In all 1} + 8, or 71 

 mil* lot each acre, when tas dtrtsas* to one Bile. 



being filled with them, and piled up and thatched over, a faggot being 

 inserted every eight feet. And where several such lumps are placed 

 along aide at one or two feet apart, the bushy eaves of a rough 

 thatching interlocking over the interval affords sufficient protection 

 from the weather the interval* themselves should be also fill, 

 straw, and the whole of the heaps fenced round sad protected in a 

 .-iiuilar manner. In the case of earthing over the heaps, the roots 

 should be put in dry, and some time allowed for a HUght fermentation, 

 and the steam produced allowed to escape before the heap k 

 covered in, aud they will come out quite fresh and juicy till late in the 

 spring ; but if the proper precautions are neglected, they will often 

 rot or become IUUNU . .md then the cattle will not readily eat them. 

 There are few crops so valuable for winter food for cattle as the beet ; 

 Swedish turnip, or ruta baga, exceed them in the quantity of nourish- 

 ment, weight for weight, but on good light soils the produce of the 

 best per acre U much greater. On old pasture ground trench 

 enormous crops of mangel wunel have been raised. When the 

 Regents Park was forming, a |rt which had been trenched was sown 

 very thick with mangel wurzel seed, and such was the produce, that it 

 was sold by auction, in lots, to the cow-keepers in the neighbourhood, 

 at the rate of Si)/, per acre. 



For bullocks also they are excellent ; for horses Swedish turnips are 

 preferable. The proportional value of hay, potatoes, Swedish turnips, 

 and beet in feeding cattle, according to Einhof, whose statements 

 Thaer has found to agree with his experiments, is as follows : 18 tone 

 of mangel wurzel are equal to 15 tons of ruta baga, or 7J ton* of 

 potatoes, or 3j tons of good meadow hay, each quantity containing the 

 same nourishment : but the roote may be grown upon lees than an 

 acre, whereas it will take two or three acres of good meadow-land to 

 produce the equivalent quantity of hay ; and of all these root crops 

 the least exhausting for the land is the beet. Professor Johnston 

 gives their composition as follows, taking a rough avenge of several 

 varieties : 



Water 



Gum . 



Sugar 



Nitrogenous ingredients 



Fibre, 4o. . 



85- per cent. 

 0-S 



in- 

 0-4 



99-0 

 Dr. Volcker states in Morton's ' Cyclopaxtfa ' that the 



Flesh-forming ingredient* amount to . . . 1'S per cent. 

 The heat-giving ingredients to . . . . 11 "J ., 



The ash, to about ...... r 



And the water to ...... oti-0 



The ingredients of this ash are in such proportion, that each ton iv 

 acre removes from the soil, according to Professor Way, the foil 

 quantities of 



In tbe Bulb. In the Leaf. 



Ihs. UM. 



Potash ...... 4-99 7-88 



Soda ...... 3-02 2-52 



Lime ..... 0-41 3-31 



Magnnta ..... 0-43 3-17 



Oxide or iron .... 0-13 0-51 



1'ho.phoric acid .... '6U 1-M 



Sulphuric acid ..... 0-05 2-20 



Chloride of Sodium .... 5'2'J 12-82 



Silica ...... 0-51 0-78 



16-11 35-20 



The noticeable feature in these figures is the quantity of chloride of 

 sodium present, and it is a fact borne out by large experience, tli 

 common salt is a useful application along with the manure to the 

 mangold wunel crop. 



ivhite beet has been chiefly cultivated for the extraction of sugar 

 from its juice. It is smaller than the mangold wurzel, and more com- 

 pact, and appears in its texture to be more like the Swedish turnip. 

 We have given it to cattle, and are satisfied with the result ; lutt wo 

 have not made sufficiently accurate experiments to decide which sort 

 is the most advantageous. It will probably be found that the nature 

 of the soil will moke the scale turn in favour of the one or the other ; 

 but for the manufacture of sugar, the smaller beet, of which the roots 

 weigh only one or two pounds, are preferred by Chaptal, who, besides 

 being a celebrated chemist, was also a practical agriculturist, and a 

 manufacturer of sugar from beet-root 



This manufacture sprung up in France in consequence of Bonaparte's 

 scheme for destroying the colonial prosperity of Great 

 excluding British colonial produce. It having been found tli:\t (mm 

 the juice of the beet-root a crystallisable sugar could be obtained. he 

 encouraged the establishment of the manufacture by every advantage 

 which monopoly and premiums cmild give it. Colonial s\igar was at 

 tbe enormous price of four and five francs a pound, and t > 

 was become so habitual, that no Frenchman could do without it. 

 Several large manufactories of sugar from beet-root were established. 

 some of which only served as pretexts for selling smuggled < 

 sugar as the produce of their own works. Count Chaptal, however, 



