98 



While on this subject I would farther suggest the following ad- 

 dition to the regulations :— "no competitor for premiums to ex' 

 hibit either more or less number of specimens of any vegetable 

 than the premiums are offered for." At present some exhibit 

 three times the number for which the premium is offered, others 

 just the number, as a consequence the tables are unnecessarily 

 burdened, while the exhibitor of the larger numbers has a pro- 

 portionate larger number of chances for the premium in his fa- 

 vor which, as the Committee in such cases naturally select the 

 very best of each lot, when considering the matter. It is very 

 obvious that there must be some limit to the number of speci- 

 mens on exhibition, and as experience has decided that the num- 

 ber selected by the Trustees is sufficient to enable the public to 

 determine the standard, why not have that number the limit ? 

 This plan of ours of limiting the size of premium specimens to 

 what experience has proved to be the correct standard, is working 

 admirably, as any one must perceive who has in mind the med- 

 ley variety in size of the same vegetables which were to be 

 found at our exhibitions of a dozen years ago. 



What is a Sugar Beet ? By the agricultural public, and even 

 by the agricultural papers which profess to be teachers of the 

 public, the term Sugar Beet is almost always misapplied. One 

 of our agricultural papers recenly in a long editorial, written 

 with the avowed object of making clear to the uninstructed 

 mind the difference between a beet and a mangold wurtzel, as- 

 ed that the sugar beet grew to the length of about fifteen inch- 

 es ! The term Sugar Beet is an unfortunate one, as the word 

 Sugar had already been appropriated to express the sweet flavor 

 of the varieties of beets raised for table use, while the word 

 Beet is strictly a misnomer, the vegetable sugar beet being in re- 

 ality a mangold wurtzel. A generation ago our fathers used the 

 term Sugar as a familiar designation for any sweet variety of 

 beet raised for table use, and at the present time by the great 



