AGRICULTURAL TEXT-BOOK. 239 



plants; that is both two feet apart, lengthways and breadth 

 ways. 



According to Boussingault, the culture of a hectare (2.471 acres,) of 

 sugar-beet, requires, in France, the labor of a man for 113 days, and of a 

 horse for 35 days ; but much of this labor might probably be saved by a 

 better svstera of management and improved implements. 



524. The peculiar organization of this root requires great care 

 to be exercised in harvesting the crop, as the slightest injury to 

 it is sure to be followed by a tendency to decay when it is stored. 

 At the same time, it keeps well to a late period of summer if 

 carefully stored without injury by frost, or rain, or mechanical 

 causes. The beets which grow above the ground are best gath 

 ered with the hand ; kinds that grow underground require to be 

 loosened by running a plow along the drill. The tops are then 

 carefully cut off, without injuring the heart. In Alsace, it is the 

 custom to take away the leaves, and trim the roots upon the 

 ground, the refuse, which is a valuable manure, being plowed in 

 immediately. Or the leaves may be fed to cattle, though they 

 are said not to be very fond of them. Fine weather should 

 be selected for the operation, and especial care must be taken to 

 preserve the roots from wet and frost. It is desirable that they 

 should be exposed on the ground, for three or four days before 

 they are stored away, in order that they may lose as much of 

 their moisture as possible. 



525. Various modes of preserving them are used, such as (a) 

 storing in pits dug in the ground, 4 to 5 feet deep, and covering 

 with straw, and a thick layer of earth. To insure ventillation, 

 narrow ditches or gutters are made in the soil under the heap, 

 and chimnies are formed by inserting stakes to be afterwards 

 withdrawn. Or (b) the roots are piled between two rows of hur 

 dles, set up at 6 or 8 feet apart, and then built up from the top 

 of the hurdles in a long pyramidal form. A second row of hur 

 dles is then set all round, at a distance of 9 inches from the oth 

 er, and the space between the two filled with loose straw well 



