No. 6. 



Cultivation of the Sugar Beet. 



197 



plants are regularly spaced. Four women 

 will plant an acre in a day. By using a drill 

 drawn by a horse, the labour is very much 

 abridgtid and the work will be expedited. 

 This machine is very important to those who 

 plant large fields ; in the large sugar-making 

 districts it is used with great success, it is of 

 various forms and merits, the plans have not 

 yet been brought to this country. Some 

 French farmers place the rows twenty-tour 

 inches apart, perhaps tliirty v/ill be found a 

 more convenient distance for the horse-hoe, 

 cultivator, or harrow. In fi.xing the distance 

 that is to be between the rows, reference 

 should be had to the kind of horse-hoe that 

 is to be used in keeping the crops free from 

 weeds. The distance in the row may be 

 from twelve to eighteen inches. When the 

 plants are far from each other the roots will 

 grow to a large size, and the contrary v/ill 

 result from planting them close. By careful 

 observation farmers have to learn the dis- 

 tance that will produce the largest quantity, 

 and best quality of roots on their respective 

 soils. The seed should be planted at the 

 depth of from one to two inches. Experience 

 has proved, that at a greater depth especially 

 on heavy soils, it is not sufficiently exposed 

 to tiie action of the air, sun, and moisture ; 

 without which it will not germinate well. 



TIME OF SOWING. 



This depends on the position of the place 

 and nature of the soil ; as a general rule, the 

 earlier the better: Provided, the land is dry 

 and in proper order, early sowing is particu- 

 larly important when the object is to make 

 sugar, because the roots arrive sooner at ma- 

 turity and allow the process of crushing to 

 commence early. In France it has been 

 found that in September and October the 

 greatest quantity of sugar can be extracted 

 from the roots. In the United States, the 

 nature of the fall season, is very suitable for 

 making sugar. The season for working here 

 will be longer than it is in France, this will 

 favour the manufacture here when it be- 

 comes a business. In Pennsylvania, beet 

 sown so late as the first ten days of June 

 came to perfection, but late sowing exposes 

 the young plants to be injured by the drought 

 of that season, and the heat of the sun ; we 

 have heard of an instance where by accident 

 some beet seed had been dropped in the fall 

 and remained in the ground all winter, and 

 in spring vegetated well, and yielded a good 

 crop. This accident suggests the trying how 

 jar it would answer to sow a part of the crop 

 ittfall, so as to have an early crop, and what 

 the result would be of having from this early 

 sowing, the ground well covered with leaves 

 before the summer's hot sun comes on. If 

 Wl sowing shall be found to answer, it would 



be of advantage to the former, by allowing 

 him to have a part of the spring work done 

 in a season in which ho is not much hurried. 

 This fall sowing should not be performed 

 until late in the season, when all probability 

 of warm weather has passed away, so that 

 there might not be heat to germinate the 

 seed before tlie cold and frost set in. 



OP HOKING. 



Few plants suffer more than the beet from 

 neglect, and the baneful influence of weeds 

 in the first stages of its vegetation. The 

 ground therefore has to be kept free of weeds, 

 and it should be kept mellow during the first 

 stages of the plants' developement. Beets 

 require one or two hand thinnings, and as 

 many hand hoeings. The first of the hoe- 

 ings should be about when four or five of the 

 leaves have put out, the second in from three 

 to five weeks afterwards. Here it is proper 

 to remark, that each of the burs that are 

 planted is a cluster containing sometimes as 

 many as four seeds ; this is to be perceived 

 by breaking one of these burs, in it will be 

 found several small grains of white flour, and 

 each gives out a separate plant. Mice are 

 fond of this flour and will destroy the seed if 

 they can get at it, all the plants save one 

 must be pulled up at the time of hoeing, if 

 not properly thinned there will be a cluster 

 of loaves but very small roots, where there 

 are blanks, they siiould be filled up with 

 those pulled up from where there are too 

 many. x\ftcr the rows have been carefully 

 freed fi-om weeds and properly thinned, the 

 horse-hoe, cultivator or drill harrow can be 

 advantageously run between the rows. The 

 horse-hoe, &c., has to be some inches nar- 

 rower than the distance from row to row, and 

 after each horse-hoeing, a person should go 

 alcmg the rows with a hand hoe, and remove 

 the earth from such plants as may have had 

 it thrown on them by the harrow, &c. If 

 any of the beets should show a disposition to 

 shoot out into the seed stalk, this must be 

 stopped by cutting off these stalks, because 

 this growth would be at the expense of the 

 root. Some persons pull off" a portion of the 

 leaves to feed their cattle, the leaves also 

 make excellent greens for the table, it is pro- 

 bable that taking these leaves is some detri- 

 ment to the roots. 



HARVESTING. 



The season for taking- up the roots wiD 

 vary with circumstances and localities, early 

 and late sowing, &c. &c. In France, beets 

 ripen and the making of sugar commences 

 about the end of September or beginning of 

 October, and the evidences of the plant being 

 ripe are the falling down of the leaves, and 

 those of a bright green turning yellow and 



