1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



733 



they art watprod with dilnled urine ; and ihoir 

 growth ifs rapid lieyond lieliol. We have peon 

 »urni|is eown in the middle ol July, alter barley 

 harvt'pt, which in the end ol" AuffiiPt already 

 showed very proniipinix hulhs. If it were not (cir 

 this acceleration c<\' the trrowlh, no crop of any 

 wfight could he raised by the end ol" September, 

 when they are usually pulled np. 



Tiie cidlivation of the beet-root had been intro- 

 duced into Plandors under the dominion of Bona- 

 parte, lor the matmnicture of piiiiar ; it was then 

 a Ibrced c uliivatinn. and was abandoned as soon 

 as peace had restored the usual supply of sunrup 

 Irom the colonies; and althoujili the revival ofthis 

 manufiicture in France, where considerable Hir- 

 t'jnes have been lately realized liy it, has induced 

 several speculative individuals, and also a compa- 

 ny with a larpe subscribed capital to re-establish 

 manufactories of beet-root su^ar in diflerent parts 

 of Belirium, the Flemish farmers in general are 

 not much disposed to raise the beet-root for sale. 

 They imagine, whether correctly or not, that the 

 land suffers li-om this crop, when there is no re- 

 turn of manure, as much as it would from pota- 

 toes sold off the farm, while the latter are much 

 more profitable ; and tlie carriage of tiiis heavj' 

 produce to any distance throutrh roads almost im- 

 passable in autumn irreail}^ diminishes the return. 

 The manuficturers of suffar have found, in conse- 

 quence, that they cannot rely on a longer supply 

 from the farmer, and that they must enter into 

 the cultivation of the heel-root to a large extent 

 on their own account, to keep up a proper supply. 

 Tne company established near Waterloo have 

 purchased a large tract ofland, a great part of which 

 is in woods, which they are cutting down and 

 convertuig into arable land for this purpose; on thi^ 

 fresh soil, which is by no means rich, the beet- 

 root appears to thrive well. A large sucar manu- 

 factory is erected at Bruges, another near Ghent, 

 and a smaller near Di.xmude, and various other 

 places, which will require many hundreds of acres 

 Ibr beet-root annually, and thus make this root an 

 important article of cultivation. The mode in 

 which this root is cultivated has nothing peculiar 

 in it. The land is ploughed and well manured ; 

 the seed is dibbled, as in the garden, in rows a 

 loot or eighteen inches wide and a foot asunder in 

 the rows ; when the plants are up they are weeded 

 and hoed by hand; the seed is put into the ground 

 in the beginning of May, and the roots taken up 

 in September and October. A common crop is 

 from fifteen to twenty tons of roots from an acre 

 of land. 



This cultivation has not been adopted for n suf- 

 ficient number of years to ascertain what rotation 

 is most profitable, where beet-root is the principal 

 object. Those who are sanguine think that alter- 

 nate crops of beet-root and corn may be kept up 

 by good lillaae and manuring. The o'd farmers 

 are of opinion that there will soon be a great 

 falling-oir in the crops. Time will show who are 

 right. In the mean time the cultivation of tlie 

 white and yellow beet, which contain most sac- 

 charine matter, is extending rapidly. A small 

 portion only of these useful roots is raised Cnr the 

 cows. They are not supposed to be so good lor 

 the milk as turnips, and they take up the whole 

 season. Should the cultivation be greatly extend- 

 ed, it may have a great efl'ect in causing a varia- 

 tion in the usual rotations of crops, now generally 



adopted. The advantage to agriculture of the 

 beet-root sugar manufactory, where good land is 

 not over-abundant, is still problematical. 



The n//a haga, or Swedish turnip, tvhich is 

 so highly valued by the British firmer, is not irene- 

 rally cultivated in "Flanders. If a linv small paich- 

 es of it are peen, it is only as an experiment made 

 by some rich proprietor. It does not enter into 

 the regular system of cultivation, and is not so 

 well suited to sandy soils as the turnip. 



('arrots ijrow well in liijlit soils, which have 

 been trenched to a good depth, and they conse- 

 quently form a part of the regular rotations in all 

 light poilp ; when they are sown as a principal 

 cro[), it is generally next after potatoes, buck- 

 wheat, or turnips. The land, having been well 

 stirred for these crops, is ploughed before winter, 

 and manured with iialf the usual quantity of cows' 

 dung, or of the sweepings of streets, with which 

 is mixed a third part of pijxp' dung, from the no- 

 tion that the smell of this dung keeps off tlie 

 moles and field mice, who otherwise would injure 

 the crop. This is ploughed in six or seven inches 

 deep, and the land is left so all winter. In the 

 beginning of April, a very deep plontrhing \» 

 given, two or three inches deeper than the last ; 

 twenty hogsheads of liquid manure are then 

 poured over this, and 2^ lbs. of carrot seed are 

 sown. The harrows reversed are drawn over the 

 land ; the intervals between the stitches, are ducr 

 out with the spade, and the earth thrown evenly 

 over the seed. It is slightly rolled. Some put or> 

 no dung, but only liquid manure on the land in- 

 tended for carrots. If the preceding crop was 

 potatoes, the ground is already sufficiently ma- 

 nured, and any additional quantity would have 

 a tendency to produce forked carrots, which is the 

 consequence of over manuring; but if they fol- 

 low buckwheat, which has had no manure, a fresh 

 supply is necessary to ensure a good crop of car- 

 rots. The more the manure is decomposed and 

 intimately mixed with the soil, the better for this 

 crop. When the carrots come up, they require to 

 be most carefully weeded ; this is the principal ex- 

 pense. It is done by women and children, who go 

 on their hands and knees and pull tip every weed. 

 If carrots were sown in drills much of this labor 

 miiiht be spared, by using horse-hoes between 

 the rows, and small hand hoes between the 

 plants in the rows. Should the carrots fail^ 

 turnips or spurry are immediately sown, that no 

 time may be lost. In May the carrots are thinned 

 out where they crow too close, and those which 

 are pulled out are civen to the cows; they are left 

 about pix inches apart. 



There are two sorts of carrots sown in the fields; 

 the one is the large Dutch orange carrot common 

 in li^ngland, the other is a whiie carrot which is 

 very hardy, grows to a great size, and is more 

 productive in liiiht sands than the orange. It has 

 lately been introduced into Eniriand ; some fine 

 specimens of the root were exhibited at the Smith- 

 field show in December 1836. PVom a trial on a 

 small scale, we are inclined to think that it will be 

 a valuable addition to our roots for cattle in winter. 

 The white carrot is that which is generally pre- 

 ferred lor sowing in another crop, as flax or bar- 

 ley, which is a common practice. In this case the 

 carrot seed is sown a week or two after the princi- 

 pal crop. The flax or corn grows fiister than the 

 carrot, which is thus kept down, and only pushes 



