Nitrate of without delay. It is, as 1 have said, the most important 

 Soda for Q f a jj agricultural questions. For beets not only need 

 Sugar-Beets . .. >.. r - L u c 



- ample quantities or lime for their nourishment, for the 



10 direct satisfying of their lime requirements, but the indirect 

 effects of the lime are more important still. 

 c * ll *f A so ^ which, when it is saturated with 

 Q ?. the moisture of winter, forms heavy clods, 



and is, therefore, in the spring, only capable 

 of tillage late and with difficulty, loses at once this tendency 

 to form clods if the necessary quantities of lime are applied 

 to it. A soil naturally cold can be rendered warm, at least 

 on the surface, if sufficient quantities of lime are added to 

 it. A soil which has an adequate store of lime brings into 

 activity all the constituents of the manures applied to it, 

 not only those of dung, but also those of artificial manures, 

 much more rapidly than soils in which such store of lime is 

 not present. The plant foods introduced into the soil in 

 manures are gradually, in the course of absorption by the 

 soil, in great part converted into an insoluble form, and in 

 that insoluble form they cannot at once be dissolved by the 

 water of the rainfall. To render them soluble it is first 

 necessary that carbonic acid should be developed in the soil, 

 and that this carbonic acid should be dissolved by the 

 moisture in the soil. Only then this soil moisture, con- 

 taining carbonic acid, capable of quickly and readily dis- 

 solving phosphoric acid, potash and other food stuffs and 

 of supplying them to the plants, thereby rendering possible 

 the production of a heavy crop of beets rich in sugar. 

 P. 'The fifth requisite for growing the sugar-beet 



P . . is deep cultivation. Without a soil deeply 



loosened and exposed in winter to the 

 atmosphere, beet cultivation cannot be successfully carried 

 on. The beet requires a deeper tilth than other plants, 

 because it can only with great difficulty overcome resistance 

 in the soil. It goes very deep with its tap-root, and if it 

 meets with strong resistance in the soil it does not form its 

 tap-root, on which it is greatly dependent, in a sufficient 

 manner, and the natural consequence is that the produce is 

 small. Therefore, deep cultivation is an indispensable 

 requisite for growing sugar-beet. But for carrying out this 

 deep cultivation many things are necessary. We must have 

 the requisite team power, the necessary ploughing apparatus 



