CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. 113 



ure, to permit their easy and frequent examination, 

 and their more expeditious and economical transpor 

 tation, without trampling upon and injuring the 

 ploughed fields. If the piles are in the middle of 

 the fields, and the ground is wet, more time and greater 

 power will be required to draw out the beets than if 

 they are at the road-side. I shall describe the method 

 of preserving in " silos," generally employed in Eu 

 rope, remarking again, that the size of these silos 

 varies in accordance with the different ideas of cul 

 tivators. 



PRESERVATION IN SILOS OR PITS. 



A pit is dug in dry soil, from twenty to twenty-four 

 inches deep, ten to twelve feet wide, and of any con 

 venient length ; the bottom rises a little at the centre. 

 If the pit is perfectly dry, it will not be necessary to 

 put anything on the bottom ; but if it inclines to moist 

 ure, then it would be advisable to give it a coating of 

 dry sand, and to make it sufficiently wide to have a 

 ditch one foot wide around the pile of beets. This 

 ditch should be five or six inches deeper than the bot 

 tom of the pile, and so arranged as to afford drainage 

 for any water that might otherwise remain in the pits. 



The roots are then put promiscouusly into the centre 

 of the pit, and a symmetrical wall of beets, laid with the 

 crowns out, at one end and at both sides. This wall 

 must incline regularly towards the centre, at the rate 

 of about one foot in three, care being taken to have 

 the sides of the pile perfectly straight and even. 

 When the pile has been carried up to the requisite 

 height, or seven to eight feet from the bottom, and the 



