CULTIVATION OF THE BEET. IOI 



main ") is used for both operations, and oftener still for 

 cultivating across the lines. The " rasette a main " is 

 mounted on low wheels, and is a species of thrust hoe 

 and cultivator combined. The cultivator should not 

 be run very deep upon its first passage, for fear of dis- 

 turbing or covering the young plants. 



In case the field is not cultivated across the lines 

 either by the horse or hand rasette, it is necessary, as 

 soon as cultivation between the lines has taken place, 

 to thin out the beets, leaving single plants standing, 

 from twelve to fourteen inches apart in the rows.* 

 This can be done best when the ground is moist. 



The ground should afterwards be loosened about 

 the plant with a sharp, short-handled hoe, four or five 

 inches in width, leaving the earth light and easily ac- 

 cessible to the fertilizing influences of the atmosphere. 



In case there are vacant spaces in the lines, enough 

 plants should be left in adjoining rows to furnish the 

 means of filling the spaces by transplanting as soon 

 as the beets are sufficiently large, which will generally 

 be at the time of the second weeding. 



Vacant spaces in the lines should be filled by trans- 

 planting. This can be done best when the beets are 

 about one half or three fourths of an inch in diameter. 

 A moist day should be selected, and the plants taken 

 up with a spade, or, better, with a transplanting trowel, 

 from those lines where thinning is required, and 



* In thinning, particularly in dry weather, take a flat wooden 

 knife with which to separate the plants and hold down the earth, 

 while the beet to be removed is pulled up. If the earth is too dry 

 to remove the plant easily, use a steel dibble," with which the 

 beet can be destroyed. 



