272 Subtropical Vegetable-Gardening 



Fertilizer for beets. 



Fertilizer ingredients in the following proportions should 

 be applied to beet land : ammonia, 5 per cent ; available 

 phosphoric acid, 6 per cent ; potash, 9 per cent. Use at 

 the rate of 600 to 1000 pounds of the above formula to an 

 acre. When beets are raised for sugar, sulfate of potash, 

 free from chlorine, is used as a source of potash. 



The following ingredients will give the desired amounts 

 for one acre : 



POUNDS TO THE ACHE 



Ammonia . . . . 



400 to 650 cottonseed meal ; or 



250 to 400 dried blood ; or 



160 to 275 nitrate of soda ; or 



130 to 200 sulfate of ammonia. 



Phosphoric acid . . 360 to 600 acid phosphate. 



800 to 1300kainit; or 



p , 100 to 180 muriate of potash ; or 



* 110 to 190 high-grade sulfate of potash ; or 



200 to 350 low-grade sulfate of potash. 



The fertilizer should be applied along the row, and 

 worked in thoroughly a week or ten days before the seed 

 is planted. 



Seeding and cultivating beets. 



The rows should be made 18 inches or 2 feet apart, 

 and the seed sown about three times as thick as the seed- 

 lings are wanted to stand. While the seed rarely fails 

 altogether, it does not come up evenly; so it should be 

 sown thickly, and cut out to make a good stand. Seeding 

 is best done by a seed drill. When the plants are about an 



