192 AN AMERICAN FARMER 2N ENGLAND. 



The ground for beet crops is wepared the same as for 

 turnips ; that is, it is finely and deeply tilled (and there is no 

 crop which will better show the value of draining and subsoil 

 ploughing), and manured with well-decomposed dung, com 

 post, bones, or guano, in drills from twenty-seven inches to 

 three feet apart. The seed is usually prepared by steeping 

 for from twenty-four to forty- eight hours, and is then rolled 

 in lime. As rapidly as possible after the manure is deposited, 

 it is covered with soil and the seed dropped, sometimes be 

 ing drilled like turnip seed, but more commonly dibbled. 

 There are two simple machines used here for dibbling. What 

 ever way the seed is planted, it must be expected that a large 

 part will fail to germinate. 



I have found dibbling by hand not very tedious, as fol 

 lows : One man making holes an inch deep, and six or eight 

 inches apart, with a round stick an inch in diameter, another 

 following and dropping three seeds in a hole, and a third cov 

 ering by a single stroke, and pressing, with a hoe. I have 

 obtained a large crop planting so late as the middle of July, 

 in the climate of New York. 



A rapid early growth of the plant is important. When 

 the weeds come up, the horse-hoe or cultivator is run through, 

 and as often afterwards as there is need, while the size of the 

 beets will permit it, they are horse and hand hoed. It is 

 found that earthing-up with a plough is injurious. When two 

 or three inches high, the plants are thinned to twelve inches 

 apart. When two or three plants come up in a bunch, one 

 only of them must be left. It will wilt down flat upon the 

 ground at first, but soon recovers. 



The outer leaves begin to dry and decay early in the fall, 

 and may then be plucked and fed to cows with profit, and 

 without retarding the continued growth of the root. The root 

 may be pulled by hand, and is harvested more readily than 



