S8 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



ROOT CULTURE. 



From the Lexigton Gazette. 



3fr. Baldwin : — In answer to your (jaestion on 

 thft subject of cultivalinjr the mangel wurt- 

 zel beets, I would say, in the first place, that 1 

 plough my land aa early in the sprinij as it can be 

 done, say from the first to the tcmh of March ; it 

 remains in this siiuation until the middle of* April, 

 or iflhe season is backward, until tiie tvventy-filih. 

 I then manure the land, putting on from fifteen 

 to twenty-five wagon loads of manure to the acre. 

 After spreading the manure carefully over the land, 

 I again plough it very deep, say ten or eleven in- 

 ches ; the land is then well harrowed and rolled, 

 with a heavy roller, so that the soil may be entirely 

 pulverized. After this is done, I lay it offin rows, 

 Avith a very small mattock plough, twenty eight 

 or thirty inches wide. The seed is then dropped 

 in the drill about five inches a part, on the suppo- 

 sition that only one half of the seed will vegetate. 

 After they come up and are grown large enough 

 to be transplanted, they are then thinned, so a.'? to 

 leave one every ten inches; and with the sur|)lus 

 plants I supply any that are missing. When 

 email, it is necessary that they should be kept very 

 clean. The beet is very easily destroyed when 

 email by weeds or grass ofany kind. While small, 

 they are cultivated with a hoe; after they have 

 grown larger, so that they can bear some mould, 

 they are worked like corn with a shovel plough. I 

 usually raise them about the tenth of November. 

 A good hand can jiull up twenty tons in a day, and 

 two hands can gather and bury them, as we do 

 Irish potatoes. Having giving you all the infor- 

 mation [ can do on the subject of raising the beet, 

 I will now answer your question as to its product, 

 and also its value as winter Ibod lor stock. I do 

 honestly believe that twenty five tons may be 

 raised on one acre, with a first-rate soil and a fa- 

 vorable season. Last summer, I planted two 

 small lots, say one lourlh of an acre in each lot. 

 From one of the lots, I had nine thousand seven 

 hundred and twenty pounds ; many of the beets 

 weighing fourteen pounds, and some more. The 

 latter part of the season was very dry, and cut my 

 crop short at least one third. I believe, that if the 

 eeason had been good, the quarter of an acre 

 would have produced six tons. As far as my ex- 

 perience goes in feeding the beet to stock, I con- 

 eider one ton of the beet worth ten or twenty hush- 

 els of the corn, so that the product of one acre of 

 good soil, in a liivorable season, is worth two hun- 

 dred and fifty bushels of corn. I have generally 

 fed the beet to my milch cows, and I have^as much 

 milk in December as in June, and of the finest 

 quality, very rich and of a pleasant flavor. I be- 

 lieve one acre of beets will feed ten beeves liom 

 the first of November to the first of March, and 

 by adding a small quantity of corn meal, the beet 

 will make as fine beef as any thing they can be 

 fed with ; one quart of meal per day mixed with 

 the beets would probably be enough. I found a lew 

 sugar beet among the mangef wurtzel. I am 

 inclined to believe that equally as many sugar 

 beets can hr* raised to the acre, and they contain 

 more nourishment. I also planted some of the 

 rutabaga turnip. The season was so very dry, 

 that they did very little good, but I am inclined "to 

 believe that if the season suits them, they are as 

 pro(Jactive as the beet. They are, however, in 



this climate, much more uncertain. If every farmer 

 would plant five acres of beets, he could winter a 

 common stock of sheep, say one hundred head, a 

 large slock of hogs, some ten or twenty milch 

 cov/s, and fiilten twenty beeves. All kinds of 

 slock are very Ibnd of liiem. From my little ex- 

 perience, I am convinced that one hand can raise 

 more food lor stock in the shape of beets, than lour 

 hands can raise in the usual way of farming, say 

 by producing corn, rye, v/heat, &c. 

 I am yours resnectfully, 



B. Welch. 

 P. S. The beets are fed to stock simply by chop- 

 ing them up. To ajd corn bran or some meal, 

 helps very much. B. W. 



GOVEUNMKNTAL OBSTACLES TO THE PROPA- 

 GATION OF TROPICAL PLANTS IN SOUTH 

 FX^ORIDA. 



[In the following communication we again pre- 

 sent to the notice of the public a subject of griev- 

 ance, the existence of which is as strange as it ia 

 impolitic, and injurious to national and especially to 

 southern agricultural interests. We earnestly 

 wish that, in so doing, we could command for it 

 the consideration of the Secretaries of the Trea- 

 sury, Navy, and War Departments, and of the 

 representatives in Congress of the southern states. 

 Putting aside the high importance to southern ag- 

 riculture of the object which Dr. Perrine has de- 

 voted his life and all his energies to promote, we 

 confess we should fee! a deep interest in his suc- 

 cess, even if having regard solely to himself We 

 have no acquaintance with Dr. Perrine, except so 

 far as learned from his persevering labors for this, 

 the great object of his life, and from subsequent 

 correspondence in writing. But of this, we feel 

 perfectly assured— that no man can be less actu- 

 ated by selfish motives than he has been in thia 

 matter, or more by a pure love of his country and 

 of mankind. This belief alone would induce our 

 best wishes for the removal of all obstructions to 

 his success, even if the object itself were not, as 

 we fully believe it to be, of great importance. 

 The ultimate effects, if permitted to be produced, 

 will not be merely the introducing into Tropical 

 Florida some valuable exotics from other tropical 

 regions; but the still greater benefit of gradually 

 naturalizing such plants to colder than their native 

 localities, and thus, in time, introducing them far 

 into the temperate zone. And when it is considered 

 that the most important of our crops have been 

 thus drawn from their former sole position in the tor- 

 rid zone, and that there are still numerous plants, 

 of great value, the growth of which has not been 

 thus moved, there is every reason to believe that 

 there remains an abundant harvest yet to be 

 reaped. It would be a very important national 

 object, if some of the valuable plants of the tro-^ 



