33 



CHAPTER VI. 



W'EEDINGS AND OTHER LABOR NECESSARY FOR THE PROPER CULTIVA- 

 TION OF THE BEET. 



Weeding is generally performed in France by wo- 

 men or children ; they follow the rows, and with a small 

 light hoe chop out the weeds and collect them in small 

 piles where they are left to rot. 



This operation is indispensably necessary for the beet, 

 and it should be repeated three times during its growth. 

 The first time vA^hen the beet has attained the size of the 

 ••■finger or before ; and second and third, may follow at from 

 three to four weeks apart. In all cases where the beet has 

 attained a sufficient size to shade the ground, weeding is 

 useless ; it will then protect itself sufficiently from all nox- 

 ious plants. It may be proper here to remark, that the 

 importance of weeding, generally speaking, is not adequate- 

 ly appreciated ; and were it only for the purpose of clearly 

 demonstrating its importance to the agricultural interest 

 (no matter to what crop applied) the introduction of the 

 beet culture would confer on that account alone, a benefit 

 on the country which it would be difficult sufficiently to 

 appreciate. 



In the drill culture, the horse hoe may be used with 

 great advantage, and may in a day hoe from three to four 

 acres. This tool, however, (as it will be perceived) can 

 only facilitate the first, but hardly the second weeding. 

 It merely works the soil between the lines in their longitu- 

 dinal direction ; the weeders, therefore, must necessarily 

 follow 'it to complete what is left imperfectly finished in the 

 lines and between the plants. In Flanders where this op- 

 eration is thoroughly understood and done by women and 



