192 CULTURE OF 



When beets are gathered, those should be selected 

 which are intended for the production of seed the 

 next year. The following are the appearances by 

 which good beets for seed are chosen : 



1st. Choose those which are perfectly healthy. 



2d. Of middle size, thickness and length. 



3d. Be particular that they are not forked. 



4th. They should be perfectly white. 



A portion of the stalk and the leaves of the beets 

 you have chosen for seed, should be cut off'; but care 

 must be exercised not to cut down to the neck, as 

 that might injure, if not destroy, the germinating pow- 

 er. The next process is to pack them down in sand, 

 and place them in a cellar, or some other proper place. 

 In the beginning of spring, say about the first of 

 March or April, they should be set out, or planted up 

 to the neck, and about two feet six inches apart. 

 Give them room and nourishment, and they will put 

 forth luxuriantly, growing four or five feet high, 

 and will need propping. About the fifteenth or twen- 

 tieth of September the seed will ripen, when the 

 stalks should be cut off, several of them tied togeth* 

 er, and hung up where the air will circulate freely 

 through them. When they are perfectly dry, you 

 should strip them, which is done with the hand. The 

 seed should now be spread upon a board and dried by 

 a fire, or in the sun. After this process, the chaff 

 should be extracted, and the clean seed put away in 

 bags, where no mice or insects can injure them. Each 



