PREPARATION OF THE SOIL, OK TILLAGE. Ill 



with difficulty understand why it should be, as the 

 second has many advantages which do not exist in the 

 cultivation in drills. 



1. Cultivation in Drills. 



The first operation is with a small light plough 

 shortly after the crop, wheat or rye, which precedes 

 the beet, has been harvested. This should be done as 

 soon as possible, as the soil is then comparatively 

 damp. If several weeks have elapsed, evaporation 

 would have taken place, and it would not be so easily 

 worked. The roots of the small weeds are thus ex- 

 posed to the sun, they then dry, and are no longer to 

 be dreaded. Shortly after this a harrow is passed over 

 the land thus worked, and destroys the remaining para- 

 sitic plants, and is in most cases very efiectual. An 

 ordinary plough is now made use of, penetrating the 

 soil as deeply as possible, then this is again harrowed. 

 The land is now in a condition to be exposed to the 

 variations of the weather, snow, ice, and rain. The effect 

 produced is the pulverization of the entire mass, which 

 is at the same time left in a state of humidity most satis- 

 factory. The airing is complete, this being partly aided 

 by the decomposition of the organic vegetable matter, 

 the resulting gases which make their escape into the 

 atmosphere leaving behind openings through which the 

 air can freely pass, and which are in the spring at the 



