KEEPING O^E COW. 19 



up roots, but I have always used a common spade, ground sharp, 

 and an empty flour barrel to hold the beets. It takes but a few 

 minutes to cut up a mess of beets in that way. 



MANUKE. 



With a bin of road-dust, and one of leaves, a winter's supply of lit- 

 ter is secured, and it is surprising what a pile of manure we have in 

 the spring. Another valuable source of manure is the pigsty, with 

 plenty of leaves for a warm bed, and sufficient road-dust to ab- 

 sorb all the liquids, it is astonishing how clean our pigs are, and 

 the sty is free from all bad odors ; the big potatoes and mammoth 

 beets, show the richness of the pig-pen fertilizer. I think our 

 fifty hens pay for all their food with the droppings the poultry- 

 house furnishes. The roosts are over a slanting platform, which 

 is kept covered with road-dust both summer and winter; the 

 droppings fall on this floor, and roll down into a large box twelve 

 feet long, three feet wide, and three feet deep. The dust the 

 chickens work down with the droppings is sufficient to absorb all 

 the ammonia and preserve all the fertilizing qualities of this most 

 valuable guano. A large box of road-dust is always kept in the 

 water-closet, a liberal use of which furnishes a quantity of most 

 valuable fertilizer, besides freeing the closets from all noxious 

 smells. The wash water and slops from the kitchen are utilized 

 by being thrown on a pile of sods and other rubbish, which are 

 forked over, and as soon as decayed, carted to the manure 

 pile. From so many sources we are enabled to give our small 

 farm a most liberal supply of manure each spring and fall, 

 so that even with the double cropping most of it gets, it 

 continues to improve, and yields more bountifully each suc- 

 ceeding season. 



CHOPS AND TILLAGE. 



In the cultivation of sugar beets, the ground is first manured 

 heavily, plowed deep, and thoroughly pulverized with the 

 cultivator, then marked out in rows with a garden plow, two feet 

 apart. Manure from the poultry-house is scattered in each fur- 

 row, which should be lightly covered with soil, so the seed will 

 not come in contact with it ; drop the seeds about six inches apart, 

 covering lightly with the garden rake. When the leaves are about 

 four inches long, thin out to one plant in a place, and fill any 

 vacancies with the plants pulled out. Hoe them thoroughly, de- 

 stroying all weeds, which can easily be done by cultivating each 

 time before hoeing, with an arrow cultivator. Keep the ground 



