148 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



hybrid between the red garden and the white 

 sugar beet. 



Beta maritiina, or seed beet, is an herb, 

 growing wild upon oiu' sliores, as at Dover and 

 other places, it is also found in abundance 

 on the west coast of Ireland. The leaves are 

 used as an early sulistitute for spinach, and 

 are considered an excellent dish, and perfectly 

 wholesome. It is called by the people living 

 on the coast C'oliff spinach. According to 

 Benthem, the white and red beet of our gar- 

 deners and the mangel-wurzel of our agricul- 

 turists are the cultivated varieties of this 

 species. But opinions ditfer, as in most things, 

 and other botanists consider that our culti- 

 vated root is a native of the south of Europe. 

 The white garden beet (Beta cicla) is exten- 

 sively cultivated in Switzerland and Ger- 

 many ; the stout midribs and foot stalks, 

 called "chards," are boiled and eaten like 

 asparagus. The' root of the garden beet is ex- 

 ceedingly wholesome and nutritious ; and Dr. 

 Lyon Playfair has recommended that a good 

 bread may be made Ijy rasping down this root 

 with an ecjual (piautity of tiour. Good domes- 

 tic ale has been made from it. ( T'ide Hogg's 

 " Veg. King.") The roots dried and ground 

 are sometimes used as "a supplement to 

 coffee." They have also been candied for 

 sweetmeats. The juice of the red-beet is 

 sometimes employed as an economical rouge 

 by the young lassies in the Highlands when 

 they wis'h to look blooming. The use of this 

 root for salad and for garnishing dishes is well 

 known. There are also several varieties now 

 introduced for the purpose of decorative plant- 

 ing in dower gardens. One kind from Chili 

 is especially adapted for shrubberies, the foli- 

 age presenting a great variety of color. This 

 plant, it is said by some authors, takes its 

 name Beta from the shape of its seed vessels 

 resembling the second letter of the Greek al- 

 phabet. Withering says that the English 

 name Beet is derived from the Celtic word 

 hett, signifying red. The origin of the name 

 mangel-wurzel — '"root of scarcity" — by which 

 it was known when first introduced, arose from 

 a mistake of a Frenchman, Abbe de Com- 

 merell, who wrote a treatise on this plant, and 

 called it mamjel — German for scarcity — in- 

 stead of maiujold, red-beet. The Erench 

 called it Itacine de Disette, but afterwards 

 Racine d' Abondance, and from its pno- 

 perty of growing with a large portion of its 

 root above ground ; it is also known by the 

 name of Betta Rave, Sur terre, etc. — Hajip- 

 DEN G. Glasspole, in Science Gossip, Lon- 

 don, 1875. 



This popular root was no doubt introduced 

 into America by the first settlers of the coun- 

 try, and has become an article of universal 

 culture and use. It is the Beta ruhjaris that 

 is mainly cultivated in this country, but this 

 has nudtiiilied into many varieties, among 

 which are the Early Bassano, l)ark-i-ed Egyp- 

 tian, Early-tiu'iiip blood. Early yellow turnip, 

 Dewing's early turnip. Long smooth blood, 

 Swiss Chard, White sugar, l^ane's improved 

 imperial sugar, Long red mangel-wurzel. 

 Yellow glol)e mangel-wurzel, Norbiten giant 

 mangel-wiu'zel, and others. The white sugar 

 beets and the mangel-wurzels attain, in some 

 instances, an enornious size, are cultivated as 

 food for cattle, and are excellent for that pur- 

 pose. It is not likely that the beet will ever 

 be cultivated for the purpose of manufactur- 

 ing sugar out of it in a country that yields 

 sugar-cane and sorghum so abmidantly as 

 ours. There was a "S(iuinling" in that 

 direction during the war of the Rebellion, not 

 only in regard to sugar, but also in regard to 

 ■ cotton, but it all " blew over " on the return 

 of peace. " Flax-cotton "' and " '^pet-Sugar" 

 were to l)e northern comnensations for the 

 "cotton-fields" and "cane-brakes" of the 

 South, if the war had continued and ended in 

 a divided country. If these productions do 

 not supervene inider more favorable political 

 circinnstances, then it furnishes an additional 

 argument in favor of the union of the whole 

 country under one government. According 

 to the most practical American authority, 

 beets require a deep rich soil, and for a gen- 



eral crop should be planted in drills in the 

 middle of May. These drills should be from 

 two to three feet apart, and when the plants are 

 well up they should be "thinned out" to 

 eight inches apart. 



OLD AND NEW. 



A Method to Improve Seed Corn : " I have 

 been in the habit for a number of years of selecting: 

 the best ear of the two wliieh grew on a single stalk 

 of corn, and have found it annually to improve to a 

 very 'considerable increase. After performing the 

 experiment for three years, and establishing the fact 

 in my own mind, I communicated it to my neighbor. 

 He laughed at me for it. I invited him to a thorough 

 experiment. We took each of our fields, adjoining, 

 and of equal quality of soil, planted and tilled at tlie 

 same time, and as nearly alike as we could. The 

 result was, that his, from ordinary seed, produced 

 about forty bushels : and mine, from selected seed, 

 propuced nearly sixty bushels to the acre." — Mirror, 

 July 9, 1807. 



" Seed Cokn : Very soon corn will be'sufiieient- 

 ly advanced to raise ears for seed, and we would 

 earnestly recommend the practice of picking the ears 

 before cutting the corn, that the very best specimens 

 may be selected from the plants bearing two or more 

 ears. Careful selection after this manner will result 

 in a few years to something worth recording." — 

 Weekly Bevieie, Sept. 9, 187.5. 



The first of the foregoing extracts, as 

 will be seen, we have selected from the 

 columns of a copy of the Mirror, a 

 weekly newspaper published at Russel- 

 ville, Logan county, Kentucky, in its issue of 

 July Itth, 1807, two months more than si.xty- 

 eight years ago. The second one is from the 

 columns of the Weekly Beview, in its issue of 

 September 9, 1875, published at Lancaster, 

 Pa. 



We have placed them in contrast mainly to 

 show how exceedingly slow we are progress- 

 ing in certain directions, for it was only last 

 winter that |,the President of the Lancaster 

 County Agricultural/and Horticultural So- 

 ciety, in a paper on his method of selecting 

 seed corn, submitted sulistantially the same 

 views as our first paragraph contains, and 

 very probably there may have been farmers in 

 Lancaster county, even at this late day, who 

 only "laughed at them." The very fact that 

 that officer had previously been requested to 

 give his views on the subject, evinces that this 

 method of selection was not generally known 

 or practiced — indeed, our second paragraph of 

 the present year, seems to imply tliat this 

 method has not yet been generally adopted, 

 and hence the practice is "earnestly recom- 

 mended," and its results confidently promised. 

 And to illustrate that such promises are not 

 mere vagaries, even though made by one not 

 professionally an agricultiu'ist, we have only 

 to look at the results of corn culture in Lan- 

 caster comity, as it manifested iiself in visible 

 form, at Uie late exhibition of the Pennsyl- 

 vania State Agricultural Society, held in the 

 city of Lancaster, a few days ago. An intel- 

 ligent farmer — a subscriber to The Lancas- 

 ter Farmer — informed us that his com 

 yielded last year eighty bushels to the acre, 

 and it was so much ijetter the present season, 

 that he had no doidit at all in his mind the 

 yield would be ninety-five or even a hundred 

 bushels to the acre. Such results are, of course, 

 in some measure due to a favorable condition 

 of the weather during the develoiiiug season, 

 but through careful selection and thorough 

 and careful after-culture, the maximum is in- 

 creasing in quantity and ([uality. The beau- 

 tiful and thoroughbred hoi'ses, cattle, .sheep, 

 pigs and poultry, at the late exhibition, ex- 

 hibited the same results, and not less so, the 

 fruit, vegetable and fioral display. A practical 

 fruiter and fiorist informed us that he had 

 produced about twenty improved varieties of 

 the Geranium — the fiowers on some being two 

 inches in diameter — through selection, cross- 

 ing and culture. 



The truthfulness of this method has been 

 verified a thousand times throughout the 

 whole earthly lifetime of a Washington (in the 

 nineteenth century too) not only in regard to 

 seed corn, but also in reference to other seeds 

 and tubers, to fruit and to live stock ; and yet, 

 old as the method seems to be, there are, no 



doubt, thousands who still know nothing 

 about it, or who knowing it, have no faith at 

 all in it. This either evinces that there are 

 yet many people who do not read, or who do 

 not heed what they'read. 



We have looked over many a field of 

 corn in tlie planting of which we felt con- 

 vinced this method of selection had not 

 obtained; indeed, / during the five years 

 of our experience on a Farm, in our boy- 

 hood, we have no recollection that any 

 reference was^ever had to special selection in 

 preparing seed corn. 



The general indifference which sometimes 

 prevails on this subject, especially in some 

 places, is aptly illustrated by the following 

 anecdote : 



A gentleman riding past a poor corn- 

 field and seeing the proprietor sitting 

 on the fence, he accosted him with, 

 "Well Joe, your corn looks very small." 

 "Yes," ; laughingly replied Joe, "I 

 planted the .small kind." "But," continued 

 the gentleman, "it looks yellow." "Yes," 

 responded Joe, "I planted the }'ellow kind." 

 "You don't seem to understand," persevered 

 Joe's interlocutor, "I mean you won't have 

 more than half a crop. " Joe, with perfect dis- 

 composure, "wound up " with " I don't expect 

 more than half a crop, I've planted it on the 

 shares. Hawkins gets the other half." This 

 obtuseuess of Joe, of course, may have been 

 only assumed to ward ofl' prying importimity, 

 but it would be safe to infer that he patronized 

 no agricultural paper — was no "book-farmer" 

 — and would probably have discredited his own 

 methods of fanning, if he had ever seen them 

 in a book. 



It is very probable that this method of natural 

 selection, in reference to seed corn, has had to 

 struggle up through the past sixty-eight years 

 without gaining universality, mainly because 

 it had unfortunately gotten into a newspaper 

 or book, so great is the antipathy some people 

 have to book-farming. It is true, many things 

 in reference to farming, as well as on other 

 subjects, get into newspapers and books, that 

 are altogether worthless, but this requires dis- 

 crimination to discover, and it is questionable 

 whether any class can become a discriminating 

 people without being a reading people. Intel- 

 ligently exercised, this is as natural as cause 

 and eft'ect. 



The prejudice against book-farming — the 

 adhesion to things that are old, only because 

 they are old, and the rejection of things that 

 are new, because they are new — manifests 

 itself sometimes in an exceedingly ludicrous, 

 if not in an absolutely stupid manner. Here 

 is Mr. and Mrs. Grimshaw, who have not only 

 the rejiutation but also the cliaracter of rais- 

 ing the liest 91'ops of e(n'n and potatoes and 

 making the liest butter and cheese, that are pro- 

 duced anywhere in the community in which 

 they live. They are not selfish, but freely com- 

 municate to their neighbors all the details of 

 their modes of culture and making, who experi- 

 ence corresponding results. These modes are 

 verbally commtmicated, and are implicitly be- 

 lieved in. But, some editor obtains them and 

 inserts them in his paper, or some author 

 gives them a prominent place in his book. 

 Kow, because they have Votten into print, 

 seems to be a sufficient reason to entirely dis- 

 credit them, by those who are averse to book- 

 farming. Book-farnnng is intended to include 

 that which has been the result of practical ex- 

 perience. It is true, men and women may 

 differ in their experiences. There are unfor- 

 seen climatic and chemical causes which often 

 affect results, even where all the premises are 

 in harmony with what has been regarded as a 

 successful method, but this may be only an 

 incidental failure, and not at all prejudicial to 

 the method itself ; or to our misapplication of 

 it. ^Ve have no prejudices against old things 

 regardless of other considerations — indeed, 

 there are many old things which we fairly 

 revere ; but not because they are old, but be- 

 cause they are good. Neither do we enter- 

 tain any special respect for things that are 

 professedly new, for that cause alone, for well 

 we know that there are many such things that 



