CHAPTER XIX. 



MY EXPERIENCE WITH SUGAR-BEETS. COST OF RAISING ONE* 



FOURTH OF AN ACRE, AND THE YIELD. 



DEBIT. 



Seed . . . . . . . . <-..;... . $i 50 



12 bushels wood-ashes . i So 



loo pounds salt 50 



2\ cords manure at $6 per cord . . . . . 'V . 15 oo 



Ploughing twice ..........200 



Cultivating and harrowing . . . . -.. . . i oo 



Raking the ground half a day . 50 



Planting one-fourth day ......... 25 



Weeding and thinning, 4 clays 4 oo 



Harvesting, 2 days : . ' , '. 2 oo 



Total . - ,. ' . . ' . 28 55 



CREDIT. 



252 bushels at 60 Ibs. to the bushel, 15,120 Ibs. at $4 per ton . . $30 24 

 One-half the value of the manure, salt, and ashes left in the ground 8 65 



Total / . , . $38 89 



Cost 28 55 



Profit $10 34 



The piece of land was broken up a year ago last spring, planted that 

 season with potatoes and beans, manured HgJitly in the hill. The beetles 

 ate the potato-vines all up, so that potatoes there were none : the beans 

 bore a very light crop. Before it was broken up, the land produced 

 perhaps half a ton of hay to the acre of fine June grass. This was the 

 first time I ever raised sugar-beets, and the result so well satisfied me 

 that if there were a beet-sugar factory near me I would raise five to 

 ten acres next year. The profit on an acre would be $41.36, which is 



