No. 9. 



Culture of the Beet Root— Milk. 



283 



From the Franklin Farmer. 

 Culture of the Beet Root. 



As the time is now come, when those who 

 intend growing and cultivating the sugar- 

 beet, should he ready for it; and believing it 

 the duty of every one to contribute what ho 

 can to the general stock of information, upon 

 a subject which so vitally concerns the in- 

 terest of our country, I have obtained the 

 following facts from my friend, Mr. Francis 

 Taylor, who resides a couple of miles above 

 this city. Althougli I made an experiment 

 with the beet culture, the same season, which 

 I was entirely pleased with, yet I did not note 

 down the particulars as my friend did. I 

 now send you, for the benefit of your readers, 

 the result of his experiment, 



Mr. Taylor had a blue-grass calf lot, con- 

 taining one-third of an acre, which he deter- 

 mined to plant with the sugar-beet. Ac- 

 cordingly he broke up the sod about the first 

 of February, with a large plough, to the depth 

 of ten inches. 



On the first of March he cross-ploughed it 

 with a small plough, and on the fifth day of 

 April he ploughed it again, and harrowed 

 over twice : he then, with a small plough, 

 threw up two furrows together, so as to form 

 ridges about two and a half feet apart, which 

 he afterwards opened with a hoe; and for 

 want of a drill, the seed were dropped by 

 hand, about three inches apart, and as the 

 beets came up, they were thinned out, and 

 sold in our market to the amount of consider- 

 ably upwards o? fifty dollars, for table use. 



The crop was ploughed twice, and weeded 

 out twice with the hoe, which is all the cul- 

 tivation they received ; and in the fall, when 

 they were harvested, he gathered twenty 

 thousand and three hundred pounds off the 

 third of an acre, being upwards of thirty 

 tons to the acre. The largest beet weighed 

 twenty-one and a half pounds, and was ex- 

 hibited at oiu' annual fair. Many others 

 weighed nineteen to twenty pounds. Mr. 

 Taylor thinks that it is not as troublesome a 

 crop to raise, as corn ; and he is of the opin- 

 ion also, that his third of an acre of beets 

 went as far as three acres of corn would have 

 done towards feeding his cows. From my 

 own experience, I believe that the sugar- 

 beet mixed up with a little chop, is the finest 

 food for cows, that can possibly be given 

 them, as it increases the quantity and rich- 

 ness of the milk, and gives the butter a beau- 

 tiful rich colour. I am also informed that it 

 makes the finest kind of mutton. 



Having grown a few of tiie beets on a 

 small spot in my garden, by way of experi- 

 ment, I am inclined to think the best distance 

 for the plants to stand in the ground, is from 

 four to ten inches. I 



The farmers in old Mason arc preparing to 

 grow the beet very largely this seascjn ; and 

 if the particulars I have here given you, 

 should induce any of your readers to try the 

 experiment, I siiall be amply compensated 

 for the trouble I have taken in the matter. 

 Respectfully, 



II. P. Peers. 



Maysville, Ky., March 5, 1840. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Milk. 



From careful experiments and observations 

 made by Dr. Schubler, professor of cliemistry, 

 applied to agriculture, in the celebrated in- 

 stitution of Follenburg, at Hofwyl, in Swit- 

 zerland, he says, he found the morning's milk 

 commonly to yield some hundredths more 

 cream than the evening's, at the same tem- 

 perature ; and that in milking cows, this sin- 

 gular phenomenon is observed, that the milk 

 obtained from one and the same milking, 

 differs considerably in quality : that, contrary 

 to what might be expected, the milk first ex- 

 tracted, is not the best — but that wiiich is 

 obtained the last, contains invariably the 

 largest proportion of cream. To satisfy him- 

 self thoroughly on this point, he caused a 

 meal's milk of one cow to be milked into five 

 vessels of the same size, and then separately 

 examined the milk in each, in the order in 

 which it was taken. 



No. 1, or that drawn first, gave 5 per cent, of cream. 



" 2, gave 8 do 



" 3, gave 11.5 do 



" 4, gave 13.5 do 



" 5, gave 17.5 do 



Making an average of the whole of 11.05 per cent. 



He extended his experiments so as to test 

 the quantity of caseous or cheesy matter ob- 

 tained from different drauings of milk, which 

 displayed a similar result — proving, in the 

 most satisflictory manner, that the last draw- 

 ings of the milk were constantly much richer, 

 botii in butter and cheese, than the first ; and 

 demonstrating in the most conclusive manner 

 the vast importance to the farmer, of having 

 trusty milkmaids, wiio will tug away as long 

 as a drop of the precious fluid remains in the 

 udder. 



Lac. 



Newark, N. J. 



Home. — The only fountain in the wilder- 

 ness of life, where man drinks of waters total- 

 ly unmixed with bitterness, is that which 

 gushes for him in the calm and shady recess 

 of domestic life. Pleasure may heat the heart 

 into artificial e.xcitement, ambition may de- 

 lude it with its golden dreams, war may 

 eradicate its fine fibres, and diminish its sen- 

 sitiveness, but it is only domestic love that 

 can render it truly happy. 



