132 PRODUCTIONS AND PREPARATIONS. 



vated now for sugar. The beet requires about 10 pounds of seed 

 to the acre, on the garden plan. 



The quantity raised on an acre is from 3 to 500 bushels in this 

 country, though 1000 and even 1600 have been raised. A bushel 

 weighs about 90 pounds ; and the root yields 7 per cent of sugar, 3 

 of molasses and 25 of cake. If the sugar is worth 7 cts. per pound, 

 the molasses 3 and the cake as much as the beet, the produce of an 

 acre of, say 60,000 pounds will be 4,200 pounds of sugar at 7 cts. $294, 

 1,800 pounds of molasses at 3 cts. $54, 15,000 pounds of cake at 4 

 mills $90 total, $407,00; expense of cultivation and making sugar, 

 $108,00 ; nett profit $300. 



The beet ("the root of scarcity") is sown in drills, 1 or 2 feet apart, 

 or broad cast, and raked in. When up, 2 or three inches, they are 

 thinned to give room for their large leaves which are excellent, 

 when young, boiled served with butter, or as greens ; never disturbing 

 the central leaves. Beets being pulled, the tops taken off and dried 

 under shelter a few hours, are laid for winter on alternate layers of 

 straw and dry sand, covering the top with 3 inches of sand and a coat 

 of straw, in an open place, or in the cellar. The weather nor insects 

 affect them much, and they prepare the soil for other crops. They are 

 cultivated like other beets. They often weigh from 9 to 16 pounds, 

 and 4 or 600 pounds are raised on an acre. Cattle are very fond of 

 them, and cows fed on them give much milk and cream, and others 

 fatten on them quickly when cut and mixed with clover, &c. Oxen 

 fed with 40 pounds and 10 pounds of hay per day one month, and 50 

 pounds alone thereafter, are fattened for sale in 2 months. They are 

 equally good for all domestic animals. The culture of beets cannot 

 be too highly recommended, on account of the occasional failure of 

 grass crops. They furnish cattle with a cheap and nourishing forage 

 summer and winter. 



When eaten warm, the beet has a mawkish flavor, and it is there- 

 fore preferred cold, boiled and cut in slices with vinegar. Sir H. 

 Davy has estimated its nutritive properties to be greater than any 

 other root, the potato excepted, this being 148 in 1000 parts, or about 

 15 per cent. 12 per cent of the whole is saccharine matter, which is 

 greater than in any other esculent ; the amount of this and mucilage 

 is the same in the white and red beet, but the red has nearly three 

 times as much gluten ; that is, 13 parts and 14 of starch in 1000 ; and 

 it is therefore one of the most nutritive of the esculent roots. The 

 larger the roots the more tender they are. It is thought to be less 

 apt to produce heartburn, or flatulency, in weak stomachs than any of 

 the succulent roots. 



The beet from which the French obtain sugar has a red skin, but it is 

 white within. The white beet is chiefly cultivated for domestic ani- 

 mals in this vicinity, for which purpose it is preferred to the carrot or tur- 



