it also is being hoed. If the necessary labor be available, Nitrate of 

 then the barley, the peas, the oats, etc., should also be hoed, So ' 

 and those crops also, like the sugar-beet, will thrive under ! 

 the use of the hoe, although hoe cultivation is not so indis- l3 



pensably requisite for them as for the latter. To attempt 

 to carry on sugar-beet cultivation without the use of the hoe 

 whether the machine or the hand implement is a perfect 

 chimera. Without a thorough use of the hoe no heavy 

 yields, and, still less, beets rich in sugar, can be obtained. 

 The use of the hoe is a fundamental D . , TT 



... . r J ,i r ) J j. , r Right USC Ot 



condition for the successful cultivation of TT 

 the sugar-beet, because it is not only neces- 

 sary for the extirpation of weeds which is, of course, 

 also a very important result of a thorough use of the 

 hoe but it is, above all, requisite for the complete and 

 repeated breaking up of the hard crust which forms to 

 an exceptional extent in the intensive cultivation of the 

 beet, in consequence of the application of dressings of 

 salts, such as Nitrate of Soda and potash salts^ in order 

 that air and warmth, the indispensable and vivifying 

 elements of the soil, may be able to penetrate into it. 



The extirpation of weeds is, be it re- T c 



, , i i r L Importance of 



marked by the way, also or the greatest ^ .. 



importance in the growth of the sugar-beet, 

 and moreover all the labor at the disposal of the sugar-beet 

 farmer will likewise be profitably employed in the destruction 

 of weeds in the wheat fields. It is extremely difficult for a 

 farmer who can grow no very great breadth of crops requir- 

 ing the use of the hoe to thoroughly keep down weeds. I 

 do not know how it is with you here, whether weeds are 

 common in your fields, whether wild mustard and other fine 

 plants thrive here (laughter), but I expect from your 

 climatic conditions that you are not very differently situated 

 from what we were when as yet we did not carry on the 

 intensive cultivation of the sugar-beet. To be frank, we 

 must admit that we are not better than our neighbors, and 

 that we have not by reason of our greater foresight brought 

 our land into better condition than that of others elsewhere ; 

 the fact is, rather, that the means of doing so have been 

 afforded us by the cultivation of the sugar-beet ; and if you 

 secure the same means by growing sugar-beet, you also, 

 will, in a short time, enjoy the same freedom from weeds 



