5 o5 



Ripening. The sugar-beets begin to mature in the autumn, and 

 this is shown by the leaves turning yellow and drooping. The roots 

 are then fit for pulling, which is done either by hand, after the root 

 has been loosened by the assistance of the pick or the plough, or by 

 machines which have been devised for the purpose. At all events 

 care should be taken not to bruise or cut the root, which would 

 then decay when stored or heaped up in silos. The leaves are 

 removed from the roots in the held by means of a sharpened bill- 

 hook, the earth shaken off, and the roots heaped up and covered 

 with their leaves till carted away to the stack or silo. 



Stacking: The beet-roots are either delivered at once to the 

 sugar factory or stored for some time. For this purpose, they 

 should be stacked or heaped up in trenches or cellars which should 

 not be too dry, or the roots will wither, nor too damp, or they will 

 rot. The roots should, morever, be protected against frost, but a 

 high temperature is highly undesirable, as favouring the sprouting 

 of the roots and their fermentation ; good ventilation, and means 

 of carrying away of foul air and the carbonic acid gas disengaged 

 from the mass of heaped up roots, should also be provided. 



THE USES AND CULTIVATION OF RAPE. 



BY J. L. THOMPSON, PRINCIPAL HAWKESBURY AGRICULTURAL COLL. 

 (Xew South Wales Agricultural Gazette.} 



The following brief paragraph, under the above heading, ap- 

 peared in the Adelaide Observer, under date 5th December, 1885 : 

 " We have inspected a splendid crop of wheat on the Beefacres 

 estate, in respect to which the tanning community in South 

 Australia ought to be especially interested. Two years ago the 

 field of 150 acres was sown for wheat, but the yield was so poor 

 that the crop was not worth reaping, this result being attributed to 

 long cropping with cereals, which had made the land wheat-sick. 

 Mr. J. L. Thompson, the manager, then determined to try the effect 

 of a rape or colza crop, and this was sown at the rate of 6 Ib. of 

 seed to the acre, without manuring. The rape turned out well, 

 and travellers by coach on Tee-tree Gully Road used to talk about 

 the splendid crop that was to be seen on that journey. The rape 

 served to feed many hundreds of sheep for some months, and then 

 the land was deeply ploughed up, and, in due season, again sown 

 with purple straw wheat at the rate of 45 Ib. per acre, without any 

 man ure whatever. The crop is being reaped with three ' Hornsby's ' 

 and one ' Walter and Woods" string binders, and stands closely 

 at about live feet lii^h. There arc close upon two tons of straw 

 and probably thirty bushels of wheat per acre. This extraordinary 

 result of rotation of crops without manure and with no extra culti- 

 vation except ploughing a little deeper than usual, and especially 

 considering the dry season experienced at Beeiacres, only u inches 

 of rain having fallen during the growing season, ought to be instruc- 

 tive to all tanners in this colony." 



