192 WORCESTER SOCIETY. 



leaves only; the other, the Beta vulgaris, distinguished by its 

 large roots." I think there can be no doubt about my crop 

 this year belonging originally to the Beta cicla family, as it 

 was nearly all leaves, and but small roots ; at any rate, they were 

 not more than one half as large as my crop has averaged for the 

 last ten years. It was not because my land was in a poor 

 condition, neither because the crop was neglected. The seed 

 was bought for sugar beet, but I think we should be very short 

 of sweetening, if we depended on such materials as my beets 

 were this season, for the article. The beet crop has been very 

 important to me ; the root for early feeding, especially to cows 

 in milk. At the different thinnings, the leaves will pay for the 

 labor, for swine. The beet has long been cultivated in most of 

 the countries of Europe, especially in France, Germany and 

 Switzerland, and shall we not find our account, in renewing 

 our seed by a fresh importation from its native land ? I think 

 we should. It is high time this subject was inquired into, and 

 I have no doubt about the question, and do not intend using 

 any other seed of the root kind than imported, another season. 

 Will any one give his experience in this matter ? 



The field on which my carrots were grown, the present sea- 

 son, contains three acres and thirty-four rods of land. It is 

 what we term hill land, naturally wet, with a clayey, compact 

 subsoil, with a gradual descent to the north. The condition 

 of 139 rods of this field in the spring of 1849 was what would 

 be termed good, it having been cultivated as a carrot field for 

 the three previous years. The other 93 rods is in the same 

 field ; its condition in the spring of 1849 was poor, it having 

 been to grass for eight years without manure ; in May, 1849, 

 sixty-five loads of manure to the acre were carted from the 

 hog pen, equal in strength to green or long manure from the 

 stable, spread on the grass and turned under full eight and one- 

 half inches. Corn was harvested in the fall of 1849, at the 

 rate of sixty-five bushels per acre. 



The first lot, of 139 rods, described above, was planted to 

 corn in 1849, without manure of any kind, and sixty-six bush- 

 els of corn to the acre were harvested. In using the land in 

 this way, it may be presumed that it was exhausted after this 



