316 CHYMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 



raination, and to facilitate the growth of the young plant : 

 the last days of April and the first fifteen days of May 

 generally unite these advantages. 



ARTICLE I. 



On the Choice of Seed. 



A GOOD agriculturist should always raise his own seeds : 

 for this purpose he will plant his beet roots in the spring 

 in a good soil, and gather the seed in September as fast as 

 it ripens, selecting only the besfc, and leaving upon the 

 stalks such as are not thoroughly ripe ; each beet root will 

 furnish from five to ten ounces of seeds. 



When no care is taken in selecting the seeds, and they 

 are sown indiscriminately, not only are many of" the beets 

 small, and ill grown, but half of the seeds sown do not 

 yield any thing. 



Beets vary in color, some being white, others yellow, 

 red, or marbled ; there are even some of which the skins 

 are red and the substance white : it is generally known,' 

 that seed from a beet of one color does not always produce 

 the like : a field which is sown with the seeds of yellow 

 beets alone, will invariably yield some roots of the other 

 colors. 



Too much importance has hitherto been affixed to the 

 color ; I have never myself observed any considerable dif- 

 ference in the products of the diiferent kinds ; however, I 

 cultivate from preference the yellow and the white, be- 

 cause the process of refining the sugar made from red beets 

 requires a little more time ; for although the lime which is 

 employed in the first operation instantly deprives the juice 

 of color, yet it acquires, during concentration in the boiler, 

 a brownish tinge, which the sirup from white and that from 

 yellow beets does not receive. 



