1875.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



i47 



two of $20.00, and one of $50.00. In aildition ] 

 to tliese there were two special pieiniiiiiis, 

 amounting to seventeen dollars, makiiit; 

 the ai;<;reKate amount paid out to citizens 

 of Lancaster city and * county, i?l,4.V2.(H). 

 Lancaster city and c(umty also received 

 forty-nine diplomas and two si)ecial diplo- 

 mas. Citizens of Lancaster city and county 

 were also awarded three -silver medals, 

 twenty-one bronze medals, sixteen honorable 

 mentions, and t'drly-live favorable notices. 

 And yet with all these, it is possible siime 

 have been omitted that ou^lit to have received 

 premiums, medals, or diplomas, and others 

 may have received thi'm who were, perhaiis, 

 not" fairly entitled to them. The examininj; 

 committees, and the su]iervisinL,' otRcers, of 

 course, always try to do their best ; but in 

 such large •ratherings there is always some 

 confusion ; moreover, these functionaries are 

 generally scattered over the whole State. 

 — mostly strangers to each other— more or less 

 pressed for time; ditliculties in the way of 

 bringing them together in proper time, and 

 their duties often not well detined. throwing 

 them more or less upon a disca-etionary 

 cour.se, involving resiionsibilities that are 

 anything but pleasant in assuming ; and 

 theretbre it must needs be that their awards 

 will not always be satisfactory to all exhibi- 

 tors. In our view, medals and diplomas are 

 the highest awards, tor these are speeilic, per- 

 sonal and perpetual, and should only be 

 awarded to those who are the actual invent- 

 ors, or manufacturets, or the breeders, or 

 cultivators ot the things they exhibit. Pur- 

 chased or borrowed works of merit, however 

 honoralile or complimentary may be the 

 notice of them to the individual who has the 

 means to become the possessors of them, ex- 

 cept in very special cases, cannot be entitled 

 to a personal medal or diploma. Although 

 their money premiums may be as liberal as 

 their enterprise deserves, yet they camiot 

 be entitled to a token so individualized as a 

 medal or a diploma. But there is also some- 

 thing for exhibitors to do in order to facilitate 

 the working machinery of a fair, and render its 

 results successful and satisfactory. Those who 

 intend to place their articles on exhibiticm, and 

 become competitors for honors and premiums, 

 should have them entered at the Secretary's 

 ollice a week or ten days before the exhibition 

 is opened to the public, in order that a proper 

 classilieationof them may be made before they 

 reach the fair ground, and a proper place be 

 assigned them when they are received there. 

 When a dav is once fixed and properly adver- 

 tised, to which the reception of articles is lim- 

 ited, except in very special cases, the time 

 ought not to be extended, for it is through this 

 extension, and the coming in«of "eleventh 

 " hour" exhibitors, that much of the confusion, 

 hurry, and imperfectly executed functions 

 occur. 



When the committees commence their ex- 

 aminations—which ought to bo on the morn- 

 ing of the lirst day— exhil)itors should lie pres- 

 ent, in order to "explain the merits of their 

 articles, and thus assist the committees in 

 making aii intelligent examination and render- 

 ing a just award. 



OUR CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



No. I.— The. Beet. 

 The beet is mentioned both by the Arabic 

 and ancient Greek authors as (>ne oT their 

 dietetic i)lants. The latter held this root in 

 gi-eat esteem, for it was their custom to offer 

 it on silver to Ajiollo, in his temple of l>el- 

 phos. It was only the leaves of this plant that 

 were eaten by the ancients. The (ireeks dis- 

 tinguished two kinds, according to their color, 

 the white and black beet; the last, according 

 to Fee, would answer to one of the purple 

 kinds. It was Theophrastns' opinion that the 

 white is more juicy than the l>lack, aiul it 

 produces less seed. It was generally known 

 as the Sicilian Beet, where it grew in great 

 abundance, and in those days formed a con- 

 siderable portion of the diet of the inhabitants 

 of that island. Beta stands at the head of 



one of Martial's epigrams. He describes it a.s 

 food oidy tit for the artizjvn, as it re(inired 

 Iieiiju'r and wine to make it palalabh- to a re- 

 fined ta.ste. 



" bislpid l)fet may liid a tnulchiiiaii ■liiif, 

 But asks (if tliee al>uiiilaiil spite ami wine." 

 Pliny gives an accm-ate description of this 

 vegetable. He says, "Our people distinguish 

 two varieties, the spring and autuum" kinds, 

 so calle<l from the period of .sowing; but srinie 

 consider the best time to be when the jiome- 

 granale is in llower. Tin: young iilants, when 

 Fhey had thrown out live" leaves, used to be 

 trausjilanted, and they thrive all the better 

 if, like the lettuce, the roots are welt covered 

 with manure, in a moist soil." This author 

 informs us that this vegetable was mostly 

 eaten with lentils, beans, and nmstard, to re- 

 lieve its iiisii)i(lity. Beet is a vegetable with 

 a two-lbld eharaeleristic, partaking of the na- 

 ture of the cabliage in its leaves, and resem- 

 bling a bulb in the root. It was a custom with 

 the Romans to put a light weight niion the 

 plants the moment they began to assume the 

 proper color, in order that they might "cab- 

 bage," and the larger tlie heads the more 

 highly they were esteemed. Those grown in 

 the t"erritory of Cereeir sometimes iiroduecd 

 heads two feet in breadth. Pliny stales that 

 there was also a medicinal dilfereuee between 

 the two varieties, the white lieiug remarkable 

 for its purgative qualities, and the black being 

 astringent. "When wine in the vat," says 

 the same author, "has been deteriorated by 

 assuming a Havor of cabbage, it may be re- 

 stored to its original taste, by plunging beet 

 leaves into it." Beet is said to have been 

 tirst cultivated in England in ir)4S, at the 

 period when many of our culinary vegetables 

 were introduced or imiinn'ed. Our old friend 

 Gerard observes, "that Red-Beet boiled, eaten 

 with vinegar and pepper, is a most delicate and 

 excellent salad, luit what might be made 

 of the red and beautiful root, I refer unto the 

 ciu-ious and cunning cook, who no doubt 

 when he has had the view thereof, and is 

 assm-ed that it is both good and wholesome, 

 will make therefrom many divers dishes, both 

 fair and good." This Red-Beet was cidtivat- 

 ed bv Tradescant yt Land)eth, in 1I>.")C). The 

 white variety appears to have been introduced 

 from Portugal, and Kvelyn, in his "Aretaria. 

 or, a Discoiu'se on Sallets," published in 

 1699, states that the costar or midrib of the 

 leaves of this variety, when boiled, melts and 

 eats like marrow. In 1747, the celebrated 

 Prussian chemist MargralV, discovered the ex- 

 istence of a certain portion of sugar in beet- 

 root. This discovery was eonnuunicated to 

 the Scientific Society "iif Berlin, but no attempt 

 was made to carry the principle of investiga- 

 tion into practice. Forty years after this, 

 Arhard, another Prussian chemist- resumed 

 the experiments of .Margralfs connnencing, 

 and he was so enraptured by the iirosjiect 

 which bis labors opened to him, that he an- 

 nounced the beet-root as one of the most 

 bountiful gifts which the Divine munilieenee 

 has awarded to man upon the earth, allirmiug 

 that not only sugar eoidd be iirodueed from 

 it, but also tobacco, molasses, colfee. rum. ar- 

 rinv-root, vinegar, and'beer. The institute of 

 Paris, however, did not sympathize with 

 Arhard, for in l^^Od a eonunittee of that body 

 having gone through a series of careful ex- 

 periments, reported the results were so un- 

 satisfactory that it woidil be unwise to es- 

 tablish anv manufacture of sugar from beets. 

 In 1800, Bonaparte, endeavoring to destroy 

 the colonial prosperity of (ireat Britain. 

 pas.sed a decree prohibiting the purchase of 

 West Indian produce in France, and sugar 

 Ijeing an article of the lirst necessity to the 

 Freirdi, this law caused much dissatisfaction 

 to the public, and Napoleon h;ul to con- 

 sider how the wants of the ))eoi>le could be 

 snpi)lied without Ibreign conmuTce. M. 

 Deyeux. a member of the committee aiipoint- 

 ed to consider this question, turned Ins atten- 

 tii>n to the l)cet-root. His experiments were 

 more satisfactorv than those of the commit- 

 tee of 1800, probably because the necessity 

 of producing sugar at home was more press- 



ing. An imperial manufactory of sugar was 

 forthwith established at Rambliulet, inqierial 

 schools were instituted for instructing jiupila 

 in the process, etc., and by 1812 the maim- 

 facture of k-et-root sugar was c(jnsidered 

 prosjierouslv set on foot. 



The root from which the sugar is extracted 

 is the white variety, {IxUi vuliiiii~is anii/i cstris 

 atb'i.) Thia-e are n"ow several large manufac- 

 tories of this arlicle, both in France, Belgium, 

 and other parts of the Coidinent, and its pro- 

 duction is increasing in Australia and Tas- 

 mania. Dr. Ure states that he has obtained 

 .j p<'r cent, of good sugar from white beet 

 grown in Miteham. in Surrey, and <iuring the 

 last few years, the experiment of cultivating 

 beet, for the jiurpose of manufacturing sugar 

 and alcohol therefrom, has been successfully 

 carried out in some (larts of Kugland, an<l it 

 is probable that it will become a prolilnble 

 and important business. The relined sugar 

 from the beet-root looks extremely well, but 

 is not so sweet as the less relined article from 

 the sugai cane. One ton of beet-root is reck- 

 oned to produce •').") pounds of relined sugar. 

 As louii since as 18:!7, there was a inanufac- 

 torv for rcliuing beet-root sugar established 

 at Chelsea ; an<l at the present time in France 

 there are more than four hundred manufac- 

 tories for making this article; and such is the 

 perfection, that it can gain a very little higher 

 state. There are three or four joiUMials pub- 

 lished in that country entirely devoted to this 

 subject. A white variety of beet is now 

 ext'ensively cidtivated as "food for domestic 

 animals, under the name of mangolds, for- 

 merly known by the (Jerman name tmnujcl 

 u-erzil. The lirst seeds of this plant were sent 

 to England from Mctz by Thomas B. Parkins 

 to Sir Richard .lebb, in 1780. who jiresented 

 .some of them to the Society of Arts, and by 

 them distril)Uted to several parties; but the 

 tirst cultivators of this root, on a large scale 

 for agricultural purposes, were Sir W. Jern- 

 ingham and Sir Mordaunt Martin, of Bum- 

 ham, in the county of Norfolk, about 17'.HI. A 

 Mi: Newbv introduced its cultivation into 

 Cambridgeshire in 1812. lie published an 

 interesting iiampblet upon the subject. Dr. 

 Lettson also wrote a small work on the in- 

 troduction of this root into this country in 

 1787. 



When the Begent's Park was forming, a 

 jiarl which had lieen trenched was sown very 

 thiik with mangold seed, and such was the 

 produce that it was sold by auction to cow- 

 keepers in the neighborhood at the rate of 

 £8(1 per acre. 



This plant is now very largely cultivated by 

 agricnllurisls. ami may be considered tlie 

 most inqiorlaut cro)) next to the turnip. Of 

 late years there have been several varieties of 

 mangold introduced, fitted for Held cultiva- 

 tion. Year after year are exhibited some 

 euorincnis roots of this plant at the various 

 agricultural shows. At the Agricultural Hall 

 at Islington. ('hristma.s, 1874, might be seen 

 some singli- roots of Messrs. Sutton's " Mani- 

 moth " inaiiiiold, siiowing upon poor dry soil 

 in Suffolk, weiiihiiig 4(1 ))(nmds and upwards. 

 Perhaps one of the largest crops of this plant 

 on record is that which was grown on the 

 sewage farm of the Karl of Warwick, near 

 Warwick. This crop reached the extraordi- 

 nary weight of eiiihtii-lirotiins i>er acre. ( Vide 

 ClKimhcr'.i Ai/r. .'four. Nor. :!0., 1874.) 



There apiiears to be three species of l)eet, 

 from which have sjirung the several varieties 

 now in cidtivation. Matthiolus, in his "Com- 

 nientarii." imblished in 1.'>C>"). has sziven some 

 beautiful wood engravings, considering the 

 earlv iieriod they were jiroduced, of three 

 kinds of beet, which he calls Alba. Xi';ra and 

 liiihra. (;aspard Bauhin. whose " Pinax " 

 was i>ublished in lf.2:i. enumerates nine syte- 

 cies, six of which he calls minors, anil three 

 majnrK. Linnaeus reduced these nine, in 

 ".Species Plantarum." to two, viz., lieta 

 mnritinid and Jl. ndgari-f; but in the four- 

 teenth edition of his " Svslema Vegetabilum " 

 the JSHa (Ohii of Batihin is admitted as a si)e- 

 cies under the name of ]i. cicla. Timer's 

 opinion is that the lield beet, or luangold, is a 



