16 - 



abundant harvest and roots of sometimes large di- 

 mensions, still the beet would furnish only poor 

 juice, not rich in sugar and having a great deal of 

 water and foreign substances, which would make it 

 unfit for manufacturing purposes and very difficult 

 to preserve. With such soils, drainage is absolutely 

 necessary to render the soil fit for beet culture. 



Argillaceous soils are also very well fitted for the 

 culture of the sugar beet, if they are not too com- 

 pact and the sub soil permeable. These soils are in 

 good condition when with the clay they have a suf- 

 ficient quantity of sand 



For rich lands about 50 per cent. 



For sandy soils with clay basis Of) 



For clay soils with sandy basis 75 



When these soils drain easily, whilst retaining a 

 certain amount of humidity, have a vegetable coat- 

 ing sufficiently friable, are easily worked and do 

 not get a solid hard crust in dry weather after rain, 

 they generally give an abundant crop of good quality. 

 This is not the case with soils in which clay predo- 

 minates ; these soils are heavy, compact and dried 

 up and get into cakes which are very difficult to 

 break. The drills are not easily made and the seed 

 often fails. When properly cultivated and in a fa- 

 vorable season these lands, however, give larger 

 crops than argilacious sandy soils ; but altno' they 

 need not be rejected -for manufacturing purposes, 

 still the beets are often of inferior quality. Land of 



