^0.4. 



Cost of raising Sugar Beets and other roots. 



125 



gured above, for preparing roots for cattle, 

 (imple in its construction, it is not liable, to 

 et out of repair, is well built, and offered at 

 moderate price. It may be seen at No. 87 

 Jortli Second street, Philadelphia. 



:ost of raising Sugar Beets and otlier 

 Roots* 



In examining an estimate of the expenses 

 f making beet sugar in this country, many 

 inners will consider that the expense of rais- 

 [^g the roots is reckoned too low ; tliis is ow- 

 iig to the little attention that has been paid to 

 Got crops ; and to farmers in general not being 

 cquainted with thebestand most economical 

 aethod of culture, and not having machines 

 nd implements to enable them to manage the 

 •rowing of root crops to advantage. 



These unfavorable opinions will in a mea- 

 ure contijiue, till root culture is more in 

 iractice ; for though cases are stated of crops 

 aised at a small expense, they will be re- 

 garded as extraordinary cases, and estimates 

 nade on paper, in which no error can be 

 winted out, will be looked upon as something ' 

 mcertain; yet these favorable accounts will' 

 ead the enterprising and intelligent to try 

 ind see whether these things are so, and al- 

 Jiough their expectations may not always be 

 •ealized, yet they will find a great advantage 

 n attending to root culture, and be led to in- 

 juire into the most frugal method of pursuing 

 ;t. Farmers who dig up a small patch and 

 =ow it in beets, and do not weed it till there 

 are five hundred weeds to one plant, may find 

 that the cost of raising a bushel of beets is 

 one dollar, when with prudential management 

 in raising on a large scale, ten or twelve bush- 

 els could be raised with this expense. 



In rait-ing beets and some other crops in a 

 garden, we have managed to do the weeding 

 before sowing, and find that it is a ofreat sav- 

 ing of labor; that is, pursue that manner of 

 culture that will destroy the weeds before the 

 seed is sown ; and the same plan may be fol- 

 lowed in field culture, and even to greater 

 advantage, as most of the labor can be done 

 by animal labor, which is much cheaper than 

 manual labor in this country, and this, as has 

 been observed in the articles lately published 

 on the subject, will enable us to raise beets as 

 cheap as they are raised in France. 



Our method has been to put on the manure 

 and stir up the ground in the fall or e irly in 

 the spring — the former is preferable, as the 

 frost will loosen the soil and make it mellow, 

 and the weeds will start in the spring before 

 the soil is dry enough to work; when the 

 weeds were well started, we worked the 

 ground over again. About the 20th of May 

 the ground was well worked over, and the 

 seed sown, after being soaked, so that it would 

 come up in a short time ; the plants were up 



and large enough to hoe when scarcely any 

 weeds appeared, the hoeing was done in a 

 short time, the soil being very light and mel- 

 low, and there was but little trouble on ac- 

 count of weeds through the season, they hav- 

 ing been mostly destroyed before sowing. If 

 this plan should be pursued in field culture, it 

 would save nearly one-half of the expense. — 

 One hour's work with a horse and cultivator 

 in stirring the ground and destroying weeds 

 before sowing, would save several days in 

 hoeing. 



The following method of culture for a field 

 crop, would be very economical as to weeding, 

 which seems to be the most expensive part of 

 cultivation. A piece of land, a deep mellow 

 soil, that has been well manured and planted 

 one year in corn or potatoes, would be in good 

 condition for a beet crop. If it has been 

 ploughed more than one year, there would be 

 danger from the grub worm, which we believe 

 is the principal injury from insects to which 

 the sugar beet is liable. 



A piece should be selected that can be 

 ploughed deep, and tlie stones, if any, re- 

 moved. If there has not been sufficient ma- 

 nure applied to the previous crop, apply the 

 manure and plough the ground very deep 

 in the fall ; if it cannot be done at this season, 

 then as early as possible in the spring. When 

 the weeds have started, go over it with a cul- 

 tivator, and in a few weeks go over it again 

 in the same way; this will loosen and pulver- 

 ize the soil and destroy the weeds. From 

 the 20th of May to the 1st of June, let the 

 earth be thoroughly stirred with a cultivator, 

 or, if the soil be not very loose it may be well 

 to plough it again, then go over it with a 

 light harrow to make the surface levid and 

 smooth, and the soil fine : be ready to sow as 

 soon as the ground is prepared, while the 

 surface is moist, and that the plants may get 

 the start of the weeds. Pour water as hot as 

 can be borne by the hand on the seed, and 

 let it soak a day and a half or two days, then 

 it will vegetate and be up, and the plants will 

 be large enough to hoe before the few weeds 

 that are liable to grow, get up so as. to be 

 much trouble. 



Sow the seed with a machine and the ex- 

 pense will be light. Let the rows be from 

 two to two and a half feet apart, then a light 

 cultivator may be used between the rows ; in 

 thinning the plants lot them stand about one 

 foot apart. If any places are vacant from the 

 seed not growing or the grub worms eating 

 them, the deficiency may be supplied by trans- 

 planting ; though transplanted beets do not 

 form so handsome a root, yet they yield about 

 as much as the other. The expense fo 

 weeding and loosening the soil will not 'e 

 great. In harvesting, if the beets cannot tie 

 pulled easily, a furrow may be ploughed rieai* 



