CARROTS, MANGOLDS AND SUGAR BEETS. 47 



ual quantity, the higher figures evidently allowing for a con- 

 siderable waste, while with hand planting even the small- 

 er amount may be decreased. As to the proper distance 

 between the rows, practical growers will give various re- 

 plies ; — 18, 20, 22, 24, 30 inches. The thirty inch men 

 are those who expect to depend on the cultivator to do 

 about all their weeding, and are willing to prepare and spare 

 more ground, with the object of having less weeding. ,That 

 the crop does not require so much room to yield the great- 

 est bulk, is shown by the experience of other cultivators, 

 who have raised from forty to over sixty tons to the acre, 

 with their rows from eighteen to twenty-two inches apart, 

 while the greatest crop on record, viz. : — of over eighty tons 

 to the acre, was raised with the rows twenty-four inches apart. 

 Planting on ridges is often advised, but as far as I have 

 observed, those who begin this way generally change to the 

 system of level culture as they advance in experience. The 

 only advantages I have found in the system of ridge cultiva- 

 tion have been that the Mangolds appear to grow with fewer 

 roots, and are rather more easily weeded. These advantages 

 in practice are more than off-set by the extra labor of mak- 

 ing the ridges and preparing them for planting. '> Mangold 

 seed is apt to come up badly. In France, where land is cut 

 up into small areas and labor is cheap, one would expect to 

 find as little waste as possible, but while traveling there I 

 noted in their fields that the Mangolds were quite scattering. 

 Mangold seed, like those of beets, are enclosed in a porous 

 shell which itself is usually called the seed. By cracking 

 these "seeds" the real seed will be found within, at the an- 

 gles, from one to four in number, and when broken, if fresh, 

 appear as white as flour. One reason why a portion of the 

 seed fails to vegetate, is, I infer, from the quantity of mois- 

 ture necessary to reach and swell the encased seed. For this 

 reason, if planted during dry srpells, care should be taken to 



