No. 8. 



Sugar Beets — Degenera.ry in Plants and Animals. 



249 



increased supply, for our thrifty agriculturists 

 are unwilling to permit the dcniand to out- 

 strip their industry and ingenuity in keeping 

 the supply equal to it. We wish success to 

 the Pea Line in all future time, and trust 

 that the sons and daughters of Gotham will 

 welcome its daily arrival as heretofore. 



Peter. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Sugar Beets and Preserving tlie Seed* 



Friend Libby : — I am sorry to find that 

 "J. K." in his pamphlet, on the cultivation of 

 the beet, has let slip the opportunity of urging 

 upon his readers, the extreme care which 

 should be exercised in preparing and plant- 

 ing out the roots designed for the production 

 of seed. In describing the other stages of 

 the cultivation, he has been unnecessarily 

 minute, but in tliis operation — by far the most 

 important — his remissness has been remark- 

 able, not to say culpable. In his instructions 

 for harvesting the crop, he says, " The person 

 who pulls the roots should cut otF the tops 

 with a knife," without being particularly care- 

 ful to say, " Those, intended for plantmg for 

 seed, should have tiie Ipaves only removed, 

 for if the top is cut off, the root is totally in- 

 capacitated from producing seed, as it is the 

 leading shoot, which is destined to perform 

 that office." And I could point out those, who 

 committed the error which he recommends, 

 the last year, and could obtain no seed from 

 the finest selected roots. 



But this is not all — he omits the necessary 

 caution, to plant the roots intended for seed, 

 in some isolated, distant, and open spot on the 

 ferm, as far removed as possible from the 

 contagion which is sure to fiUow, if they are 

 planted in the neighbourhood of the garden 

 beet, or that vile trash the Mangel Wurtzel, 

 or even the other varieties of the sugar beet, 

 which might be in blossom at the same time ; 

 and if " J. K." has been accustomed to raise 

 seed without regard to this caution, it is no 

 wonder that he finds "The seed of the white 

 plant producing yellow and red roots." Nor 

 would the plan which he proposes to adopt, 

 for checking this propensity — namely, to 

 change the seed from sand to clay, be of any 

 avail, without this caution; and that he has 

 admitted, by notifying the pei-son who has 

 sown beets with success, on the same spot, 

 fifteen years in succession ; for if this man, 

 had by this means mingled his crop, he could 

 not be said to have cultivated it for that time 

 with success. And I have strong reason to 

 doubt, that t!iis success was owing to the 

 change in the nature of the manure, for if it 

 were according to his own showing, the 

 change of manure, is as efficient as the 

 chancre of seed. But all this goes to show, 



tliat " J. K." has obtained his information from 

 books and hearsay, and by these means, has 

 been enabled to draw up a pamphlet, unneces- 

 sarily minute in many particulars, for the use 

 of practical agriculturists, while, in the two 

 grand essentia»j above pointed out, he is 

 totally silent. 



He observes " when the object is to make 

 sugar, care should be taken to have seed that 

 will produce white root," but he ought to have 

 added, " And the white or true Silesian is 

 found to contain the saccharine matter, in 

 proportion as ten or twelve to two, in favor 

 of that particular species." Now as the value 

 of the root in stock-feeding is in exact propor- 

 tion to the quantity of saccharine matter which 

 it contains — and of this " J. K." ought to be 

 aware — that particular variety, for every pur- 

 pose, should alone be cultivated. 



Thy Subscriber. 



2l)th 2iid mo. 1840. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Causes of Degeneracy in Plants and 

 Animals* 



" And God said, let the earth bring forth the living 

 creatures after his Iiind, cattle and creeping thing, and 

 beast of the earth after his kind ; and it was so." 



The instinct of all animals prompts them 

 to select the sweetest, the most nutritious 

 and the best pasturage, leaving that which is 

 coarse and sour, and particularly avoiding 

 every thing which comes under the denomi- 

 nation of weeds. A constant repetition of 

 this procedure prevents the best description 

 of grasses from spreading and extending 

 themselves by means of their seeds which are 

 prevented from ripening, while the weeds and 

 inferior kinds of plants not offering a sufficient 

 temptation to prompt their destruction, grow, 

 flourish and ripen their seeds, which are an- 

 nually dispersed, and give rise to new gene- 

 rations of their progeny. This is the cause 

 of the running out of the finer and better 

 kinds of herbage, and of their places being se 

 copiously supplied by pernicious and worth- 

 less intruders. Many people entertain a very 

 erroneous opinion on this subject, and suppose 

 that naturally, tliere is a constant tendency 

 to deterioration, from good to bad^ and from 

 bad to that which is worse ; wfien the fact is, 

 that the good is carefully selected and con- 

 sumed, and the bad suffered to remain un- 

 molested to propagate their kind. One of the 

 best remedies for this state of things is to sow 

 grass seed thick and of various kinds on the 

 same field, so as not to leave any unnecessary 

 room for unwelcome guests; keep your table 

 full of bidden guests, and fewer intruders will 

 thrust themselves in amongst them. If the 

 weeds were cut off or extirpated as they grow 

 up and not permitted to seed, and the valua- 

 ble grass protected so that it could propagate 

 its kind, it would be found to maintain the 



