No. 2 



Culture of the Beet — Fire. 



61 



thick on the ground and beautiful ; yielding 

 as follows : 



Tliree acres open fallow, 114 bushels, mea- 

 ures 33 bushels per acre, which at 65 lbs. per- 

 buslicl is 41 bushels per acre, millers' weight. 

 Two acres corn groun^ 68 bushels, mea- 

 sures 34 bushels per acre, which at 65 lbs. per 

 bushel is 37 bushels per acre, millers' weight. 

 It was found a hardier winter plant than 

 the red chaffbearded by its side, of more rapid 

 growth, and harvested a week earlier. The 

 three acres became so strong that I was in- 

 duced immediately after the breaking of 

 winter to pasture it off close by cattle and 

 sheep. 



The safety from fly enables us to seed it 

 early enough to obtain a strong root before 

 winter, which it consequently endures better, 

 while its early maturity has heretofore, and 

 will generally save it from rust or mildew. 



This grain is also grown in the southwest 

 of this county, and near New-Hope, in Bucks, 

 and is as it should be, rapidly extending. My 

 crop will all be seeded by myself and neigh 

 bors. 



believed) and three hundred bushels of beets 

 per acre besides ; those in open patch alongside 

 did not do so well ; the shade of the corn seemed 

 to be useful during the dry weather. 1 in- 

 tend repeating this plan next year. 



J. Jenkins. 



Chester county Valley, ) 



West Whiteland, 8 mo. 31,1839. ) 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Fire. 



" Fire is a good servant, but a bad master." 



Mistake iu tlie culture of the Beet* 



I am one of the root raisers — growing su- 

 gar beet, mangel-wurtzel, rata-baga, and 

 potato for feeding stock. And as farmers 

 may, in my opinion be as useful to each other 

 by reporting their mistakes and failures, as 

 their success, I will mention that my beets 

 were flourishing, and the admiration of the 

 public passing by them as late as the first 

 week in the seventh month (July.) But 

 the weather becoming hot and dry, and the 

 ground harder than I liked, concluded to run 

 the cultivator through them and loosen up 

 the soil. The consequence was, instead ofi 

 improvement, the leaves began immediately! 

 to wilt, cur], and the edges of them to die — j 

 the mangel-wurtzel worse than the sugar' 

 beet ; but all declined from that period until i 

 the late rains ; at the present the original ! 

 top is nearly all dead, and a new one formed, \ 

 M'hich bids fair to rival the first if left to stand 

 long enough. But it is supposed the root, al- 

 though a pretty good size, has lost much in 

 growth by the decay of the first top, and its 

 maturity protracted, if indeed tlie crop be not, 

 much diminished. My inference is, that/«^e 

 culture, even if the weather be seasonable, ! 

 may be injurious by destroying the fibrous 

 side roots, v.'hich seem to be indispensable to 

 the plant during its latter stage — and that 

 consequently the earth should be kept in 

 good tilth while it is young, and afterwards 

 left alone. 



The best crop of beets I have raised was 

 in 1837, alternated between rows of corn ; a 

 full crop of the latter was obtained, (as was 



Notwithstanding the cheapness of insur- 

 ance against loss by fire, and the many severe 

 losses which occur annually in our extended 

 country for want of it, yet it seems likely that 

 the great mass of our agricultural population 

 will continue to move along in the old icny, 

 and stand their own insurers, or in other 

 words not to be insured at all. I was much 

 pleased and instructed by reading an essay in 

 a former niunber of the Cabinet on the sub- 

 ject of spontaneous combustion, which has, 

 no doubt, been useful to your numerous read- 

 ers, and hope that it has incited to more care 

 and circumspection in preventing that most 

 terrible of calamities, fire, from being com- 

 municated to buildings. The writer once 

 witnessed the burning of a barn and all its 

 contents and out buildings, from a careless 

 person smoking tobacco ; and in another case 

 he saw a very valuable house set on fire by a 

 young man shooting a pigeon that was 

 perched on the roof; and a recent case has 

 occurred of a noble dwelling-house having 

 been reduced to ashes by the carelessness of 

 a young person in making a fire to boil tlie 

 tea-kettle, setting fire to some shavings that 

 ultimately consumed the house. About twen- 

 ty years since, a farmer in a neighboring 

 county had a person engaged in dressing of 

 flax, and coming near to the combustible ma- 

 terial with a cigar in his mouth, the flax dress- 

 er requested him to " keep further ofti" and 

 avoid the danger, but his employer told him 

 a cigar would'nt set it on fire, and in order to 

 prove the truth of his opinion he applied the 

 cigar to the flax, wlien contrary to his philos- 

 ophy the whole was inflamed, and his barn 

 was burnt with all its contents. His benevo- 

 lent neighbors made a collection to repair his 

 severe loss, but he refused to accept it. al- 

 though he was not well to do in the world, 

 considering it a just punishment fur his foll}^ 

 Many instances have occurred of buildings 

 being consumed for want of a bucket of wa- 

 ter in the incipient stage of a fire. Every 

 farmer should have one or more buckets of 

 water placed in a convenient place eve- 

 ry evening before retiring to bed, if they 

 should not be needed to prevent the house 

 from burning down, they can be made availa- 



