252 



F A R M E R S ' REGISTER. 



[No. 4 



pulp loft after tlie saccharine mutter has been expressed. 

 This is the introduction in our farming of what is so 

 greatly needed, an increased extent of culture of roots, 

 or green and meliorating crops, to take the place of our 

 too extensive grain culture. The culture of beets for 

 sugar, and the use of the pulp as food for cattle, must 

 necessarily make the rotation of crops more mild, and 

 add greatly to tlie improvement of the soil — and by 

 this means, would ultimately add very far more to the 

 fertility and wealth of a country, than as much grain 

 culture, even though the pecuniaiy profits to the far- 

 mer, at first, might be no more. The same important 

 consideration applies also, though in a different manner, 

 to silk culture. Thus it may well happen, that the 

 introduction of these two new kinds of culture, even 

 though not attended with greater pecuniary profits, (or 

 not much greater,) at first, would be productive ulti- 

 mately of far greater to each individual farmer, as well 

 as of greater moral and political benefits to the nation. 



This important consideration of the advantage of 

 beet culture to a rotation of crops, is properly appre- 

 ciated in France. The latest French article on the 

 subject that we have seen is from the pen of M. Sou- 

 lange Bodin, and appeared in the Annales de V./lgncul- 

 ture Francaise for April, 1836. We ofler a transla- 

 tion ot a passage on this head. 



"The Viscount Morel de Vinde, in these Memoirs, 

 has then presented the sugar beet as being the best, or 

 rather the only kind of tilled plants which, in the four- 

 shift rotation can usefully be substituted for the year of 

 naked fallow [to prepare for wheat;] and he thus con- 

 siders as connected the universal perfection of our agri- 

 culture, loith the manufacture itself of sugar from beets: 

 a manufacture which, by its indefinite extension, and 

 demand continually renewed, ought to give greater 

 encouragement to the culture of this plant, which is 

 susceptible of having, from this moment, a general use, 

 and a certain sale. Indeed, he says, the [making per- 

 fect the] four-shift rotation, consists in finding a plant 

 that is not exhausting to the soil — of which the tillage 

 is confined to one year, and serves well to cleanse and 

 to pulverize the soil — and of which the products, not 

 yielding a kind of food for men before indigenous, or 

 belonging to the country, shall however be in general 

 use, and command a certain and ready sale. The beet, 

 applied to the making of sugar, fulfils perfectly the 

 conditions of this problem." * * * "H may also 

 be observed, that the plant which by the production of 

 this sugar, renders possible the universal improvement 

 of agriculture, furnishes besides, by its remains, [as 

 food] the best of all manures from cattle. This plant 

 fulfils so completely all the conditions required from 

 tillage crops, that it would be necessary to substitute it 

 for the naked fallows, even though it should not yield 

 otherwise [and at firsf] such rich or important pro- 

 ducts." 



In a report of the Council of Agriculture, Manufac- 

 tures and Commerce, which was also published in the 

 Jlnnales, it is stated by the Minister of Commerce 

 (presiding at the meeting) that the manufiictoiies of 

 France in 1835, yielded 25 millions of kilogrammes 

 of beet sugar, of the value of 35 francs the quintal, 

 which is equal to one-third of the annual consumption 



of the kingdom; that 50,000 hectares of land were 

 then subjected to the culture of the plant; and that in 

 those parts of France where the culture was estab- 

 lished on a large scale, the value of the lands had been 

 increased, and in many cases even had been doubled. 



According to the present imperfect lights on this 

 subject, we fear that the beet culture will not suit a re- 

 gion so warm in Eastern Virginia. But its introduc- 

 tion will be a benefit sufficiently important, even if 

 confined to the regions lying more north and west. It 

 is probable that the fanaticism of the "abolitionists" 

 may be mingled with the motives to spread this culture 

 in the north — and tha^ one of the results may be an ef- 

 fort to lessen the consumption of sugar from the cane, 

 as being a product of slave-labor. Be it so. This fa- 

 naticism cannot exert any part of its tremendous force 

 more harmlessly to the south, or more beneficially to the 

 north, than in promoting the extension of this new 

 culture. 



From the Northampton Courier. 

 SOIL AND CLIMATK FOR THE SUGAR BEKT. 



A friend who is conversant Avith the cultivation 

 of the beet root in France, has flirnished us with 

 the following interesting outlines. 



Of the seven varieties of the beet root usually 

 cultivated, the white (beta alba) is preferred by 

 the experienced manulacturer, as it is found to 

 contain a larger proportion of the saccharine mat- 

 ter to a given weight of the root, than any of the 

 others. Though this plant will grow in almost any 

 soil, it prefers a deep loose loam, in which its 

 long and tender fibres may penetrate and the root 

 devolope itself without obstacle. It follows that 

 a stiff compact soil should be avoided, and still 

 more a low damp situation, where the root be- 

 comes so impregnated with aqueous parts, that the 

 difficulty and expense of separating these would 

 in most cases be far from remunerated by the pro- 

 duce. In high ground the beet succeeds well, if 

 the season is not too dry, and in these situations 

 (ceteris paribus) is more productive in sugar than 

 elsewhere. 



As to climate, a northern latitude is found to suit 

 this plant best: the north of Germany, Prussia and 

 Silesia, the countries where this new application 

 of it was first made, are more favorable to it than 

 even the northern departments of" France, as ex- 

 periment has amply established, and the trial of 

 it in the south of France has constantly failed, 

 though it was at first supposed that this root, fa- 

 vored by the genial sun of that climate, would, as 

 vvell as its other productions, contain a larger pro- 

 portion of the saccharine principle than those of 

 ctjlder countries. This hypothesis, founded on a 

 mistaken analogy supposed to exist between plants 

 growing above and below the soil, proved, as might 

 have been expected, completely fallacious, and 

 the culture there is now given up. 



THE MARLY, OU GYPSEOUS EARTH OF GENE- 



SEO, N. Y. 



The July No. of Silliman's Journal of Science, con- 

 tains the article which was before published in our last 

 No., (at page 187) describing a bed which the writer 

 considered as simply an impure limestone, or a kind of 



