31 



best manner, and occupying about one 1 0th of the surface 

 which the plants are intended to cover when transplanted, 

 when at the end of a month or six weeks, the plants have 

 reached the size of the finger, they are pulled up made in 

 bundles and carried into the field, here the laborer provided 

 with a dibble makes his holes to the depth and at the dis- 

 tance required, children usually follow, place the plants 

 in the holes, and with their feet press the earth up to the 

 roots. This operation is done pretty quickly, some agri- 

 culturists think it necessary to cut off the end of the root, but 

 this opinion is considered by others to be unfounded and 

 injurious as it prevents the plant from penetrating by one 

 principal taproot into the soil, and engenders a number of 

 small roots and fibres, that are not only unproductive of 

 sugar, but increase the difficulty and consequently the ex- 

 pense of cleaning the plant; besides the root itself is less 

 bulky and the crop therefore diminished. It seems then on 

 the whole decidedly objectionable to cut off" the taproot 

 when transplanting beets, and the whole system indeed of 

 transfla^nting when applied to entire crops would seem to be 

 equally bad, and probably the worst of the three employ- 

 ed, for — 



1. If the land cultivated is extensive, it follows of course 

 that the pulling up and planting many acres must require 

 prodigious labor and very great expense, again. — 



2. The transplantation taking place at least a month or 

 six weeks after the sowing, carries us forward to a period 

 when the weather may not be favorable to the young plants 

 taking root, which would necessarily delay the vegetation 

 and throw the crop back to a time when the season for re- 

 sowing may have gone by. 



3. The chances, difficulties, and expense of this method 

 do not seem to be compensated by any countervailing ad- 

 vantages, unless (which cannot be admitted) we may con- 



