50 FERTILISERS AS AN AID TO 



country recently as to the possibility of farmers 

 and others increasing their profits 

 by growing sugar beet for the manu- 

 facture of sugar. A difficulty arises 

 in that this would necessitate the reduction of 

 other crops which are considered to be of greater 

 value. A solution of this difficulty may be found 

 by adopting suitable manurial methods on the 

 lines indicated. An average increase to 35 tons 

 per acre of mangels means that for the same ton- 

 nage of roots, on the basis of the ten years average 

 shown above, instead of 20 acres being required 

 only ii \ acres would be needed, thus setting 

 free 8 acres for the cultivation of sugar beet, 

 if desired. Thus there would be no interference 

 at all with the quantity of roots at present 

 obtained. 



Potatoes 



Though the weight per acre of Potatoes is 

 inferior to that of either mangels or swedes, the 

 greater value per ton renders it a very important 

 crop, as well as a most profitable one, if judicious- 

 ly manured. The agricultural authorities in the 

 most important potato-growing centres have 

 made very careful investigation into the most 

 profitable methods of manuring this crop, and a 

 review of these will be instructive. 



Though Lancashire is not the largest potato- 

 growing county, it stands pre-eminent from 



L . . having produced the greatest average 



crop per acre for the last ten years in 



England, and the value of its crop is worth 



