THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



47 



There is a difference also in breeds of animalp, 

 in regiirti to tiie quantity ol" food necessary lo 

 fatten them. We want small bones, small headc;, 

 and break backs, for e wine. Do we not see that 

 some men eat more than twice as much as others. 

 and yet are more lean than they I 



In improving the breeds ol" animals we are 

 liable to one general error, — we make pets of the 

 selected slock and the animals are soon overgrown. 

 We gain nothing by rearing very large horses, 

 oxen, cows, or hogs. Our main object should be 

 lo improve their proportions. Ed. B. C. 



FIRST EXPERIMENT IN BEET CULTURE — MA- 

 NAGEMENT OF HOGS. 



For tlie Farmers' Register. 



About the middle oCApril last, I was presented, 

 by the editor ofthe Farmers' Register, with about 

 two pounds of sugar beet seed, which had been 

 sent him with a number of other seed, for gratui- 

 tous distribution, by that public-spirited and enter- 

 prising individual, Mr. James Konaldson, of Phi- 

 ladelphia. Being anxious, though unprepared, to 

 make a small experiment in root culture, I accept- 

 ed the seed, and bought at the same time two 

 pounds of mangel wurtzel seed, which I determin- 

 ed also lo plant. The season being well advanced, 

 and all the land which had been prepared during 

 the winter having been either planted in corn or 

 sown in oats, 1 deemed it entirely too late to 

 plough any grass or sward land for roots, and was 

 at some loss to know what to do with the seed. 

 I at last determined to take a piece of ground 

 which was planted in multicaulis the preceding 

 year, and which was left in a very clean state. 

 Previously to the multicaulis crop, this land, a light 

 sandy loam, would have produced not more than 

 25 bushels of corn to the acre, and after that crop 

 1 think nmch less, as I conceive the multicaulis to 

 be a great exhauster. Under these circuaistances, 

 some of my friends prophesied that my land was 

 entirely too thin lor roots, and that planted in beets 

 it would bring nothing. I was, however, not deter- 

 red from the trial, as I conceived it the best 1 

 could do. 



I first ploughed the land seven or eight inches 

 deep. Spread over it a heavy dressing of unfer- 

 mented farm pen manure, mixed with some stable 

 and also some hog pen manure. The manure, 

 though 1 picked for the finest the pen would yield, 

 was still very coarse ; and would have been pro- 

 nounced entirely too much so lor root culture. I 

 again ploughed to cover the manure and laid off 

 my rows with a marker three leel apart. The 

 land was well pulverized by the second plough- 

 ing, and the manure well incorporated with the 

 soil. Some of the rows were ridged before mark- 

 ing off; but in the result [ cannot perceive that the 

 ridging was at all beneficial. On the 14th of April 

 I planted the seed, after soaking them (i-om twelve 

 to Ibriy-eight hours. Those soaked longest came 

 up quickest and best. I am inclined to think they 

 would not be injured by soaking seventy-two 

 hours, and would prefer that time to any less than 

 forty-eight. The seeds after soaking were rolled 

 in a little dry slaked lime, merely to enable the 

 planters to handle them more readily. They were 

 then dropped by hand, for I had ao drilling ma- 



chine, two to four eeedri in the row, at intervals 

 from six lo eight inches. 



On the lOih of May the beeis began to show 

 very prettily throughout ihe whole row. On the 

 21st of same month thinned to six or eight inches 

 apart, and set out in missing [)laccp, the day being 

 rainy. A lew days afierwurds the fiisl hoe weed- 

 ing given. First day of June the first ploughing 

 was given, and I thought the beets promised 

 badly. A second weeding was given on the 23d 

 June, and by the middle of July they looked very 

 promising. This was all the work given them, 

 viz., one ploughing with the common trowel hoe 

 plough, and two hoe weedings. 1 did intend 

 giving another ploughing, and the land was foul 

 enough to demand it, but on attempting it the 

 tops of the b'^ets were so flourishing, and at the 

 same time so brittle, that the horse did more da- 

 mage by breaking them off than I conceived he 

 did good. On ihe lOih of August the beets seem- 

 ed to mc to have reached their prime, and I com- 

 menced boiling them lor my hogs. On the above 

 land, and with the above labor, (land and labor 

 both insufficient for a first rate crop of corn) I have 

 made a very pretty crop of beets, the stand being 

 pretty good, and many of the roots weighing 

 twelve pounds, 1 do not wish, in giving the de- 

 tails of my own trial, to be understood as advo- 

 cating poor land and little work lor beet culture j 

 but only to show how easy and sure the culture isj 

 and how very successful it would be in good land 

 and with good culture. On no account would f 

 hereafter be without my patch of beets. 



I also sowed a pound or two of carrot seed, un- 

 der exactly the same circumstances, and in the 

 same land, but the return was very far inferior lo 

 the beets. I have no hesitation in saying that the 

 beets yielded more food lor my hogs llian any 

 thing else I could have put on the same land. 



I also for the first lime tried the ruia haga. One 

 patch, sowed July 10, previously cow-penned, 

 deeply ploughed and heavily dressed with ashes 

 and scrapings from the negro quarters, did well. 

 The stand was good and roots large. I am satis- 

 fied they would have done belter had I sown ear- 

 lier, say June 28th. Another patch sown a very few 

 days alter the first produced nothing. A dry" spell 

 happened to come on and Ihe seed were a long 

 time vegetating , and, when they did come up^ 

 the young plants were all destroyed by the fly. 



In common with many of my neighbors 1 am 

 trying to throw off the heavy burthen of annual 

 tax which we have been so long paying lo our 

 western farmers for pork and beefj and am now 

 attempting to raise my hogs by grazing and sty- 

 Iceding. I have an undoubted grazingl)reed, and 

 the only difficulty I have had is the frequent inju- 

 ries done to the hogs by the little negroes attend- 

 ing them. My plan, or rather the plan 1 aim at, 

 is to have my pigs born twice a year, viz., ihe 

 first litter about the first of March, and the second 

 about the first of September. In the latter case my 

 object is for such growth to be attained by the pigs 

 before winter as will enable them to stand the cold. 

 Pigs of both litters are killed the following De- 

 cember 12 months, being respectively 15 and 20 

 months old. The pigs of ihe fall litters I find do 

 not stand being kept in sties during the following 

 winter. I have constructed a email wood range 

 for them, inclosing a running stream of water. 

 In Ihia lot they pass the winter, being confined 



