70 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND 



The brothers Fievet have a model farm of 552 acres 

 at Masny, which is considered the best in France. 

 They are sugar manufacturers, and fatten 800 head of 

 cattle and 3,000 sheep every year. I visited there last 

 winter, and spent a day in their manufactories and on 

 their farm. They attribute their success as cultivators 

 to the immense amount of manure that the beet pulp 

 enables them to make, to the improved condition of 

 the soil, and also to the increased amount of profitable 

 service of the land, consequent upon beet culture, no 

 fallows being required. 



They have cultivated the farm for thirteen years : the 

 crops are beet, wheat, oats, rye, and hay. I shall 

 give some of the results of the eleven years preced- 

 ing 1864. The average amount of land in oats had 

 been thirty acres. In 1853 the crop was 45 bushels, 

 in 1862 nearly 92^ bushels, and the average for the 

 whole time within a fraction of 70 bushels to the acre. 



The crop of straw increased in like proportion, and 

 averaged two tons to an acre. In 1863 it .was nearly 

 three tons. 



The crops of rye improved in a still greater ratio 

 increasing from 17 to 34^ bushels per acre, averaging 

 nearly 30 bushels, with two tons of straw to the acre. 



The average crops on 156 acres of wheat had been 

 over 36^ bushels to the acre. 



Parts of the land had sometimes produced 67! bush- 

 els to the acre, and no portion had ever yielded less 

 than 20^ bushels. The yield of hay had been over 

 three tons ; and of beets twenty tons to an acre. 



In 1865, thirty, thirty-five, and even forty tons of 

 beets were raised on an acre. 



