154 



CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



judicious and careful tillage, will yield an immense crop. The 

 mode of culture throughout, of the mangold-wurtzel and the 

 sugar-beet, is precisely similar. The former is now very ex- 

 tensively cultivated in some sections of England, as a field 

 crop, where they are in high repute for the fattening of cattle 

 and the feeding of milch cows. In the United States they are 

 both in high favour with many farmers, especially the sugar- 

 beet, which contains a large proportion of saccharine matter, 

 and has been found, for all the purposes of its culture, decidedly 

 superior to any of the other root crops. 



CHAPTAL,* the best authority perhaps extant, authorized by 

 ten or twelve successive years of experiments and observations 

 on the culture of the beet, recommends it strongly to the 

 notice of his countrymen, not only as a means of supplying 

 the immense empire of France with sugar extracted from the 

 root, but as preparing the way for an improved state of hus- 

 bandry; not merely by leaving the lands on which the roots 

 are grown, in a most excellent state for succeeding grain crops, 

 but also by enabling the farmer to keep a large amount of cat- 

 tle in the best order which in all cases give him a good re- 

 turn and leaves him in possession of an abundance of manure. 



Choice of soils. Distinction in the choice of soils for the 

 culture of this root is exceedingly important. Its nature is to 

 penetrate low into the ground, and, therefore, prefers a deep 

 loose mould in which it can vegetate without obstacle. Its 

 radicles easily collect the nourishment necessary for its sup- 

 port, and it thrives luxuriantly, f All grain lands are more or 

 less adapted to the cultivation of beets, but the best soils for 

 the purpose are those that have the greatest depth of vegetable 

 mould. 



They may be cultivated with good success upon natural or 

 artificial grass lands, but they come up badly when sown in the 

 spring upon such lands as are broken up in the preceding 

 autumn, the turf and roots do not in so short a time become 

 sufficiently decomposed, and in order to have good beet-roots 

 it is necessary to raise a crop of oats between the time of break- 

 ing up a meadow and sowing it with beet-seed, after this two 

 successive crops of the finest beets may be grown. Dry, cal- 

 careous and light soils are but little suited to the culture of this 

 root, nor will it flourish well in strong clayey soils. $ 



* JOHN ANTONY CHAPTAL, Count and Peer of the realm of France, who 

 died, July 29, 1833, in the 76th year of his age full of years and honours- 

 was the father of the beet culture in France, and the able and enlightened ad- 

 vocate of the extraction of sugar from the roots. He was, in the fullest sense 

 of the word, a practical and scientific agriculturist. 



t Notice of the Sngar-Beet, page 20. 



* CHAPTAL'S Agricultural Chemistry, page 317. 



