318 CHYMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 



which I put in Qultivation each year, the average rate of 

 production is 40,000 lbs. 



The value of beets cannot be calculated by the gross 

 weight ; the large roots, which often weigh from ten to 

 twenty pounds, contain a large proportion of water, and the 

 specific gravity of the juice extracted from such will not be 

 more than 5^or 6° of the hydrometer (= 1.036 to 1.044,) 

 whilst that of beets weighing a pound less will rise as high 

 as 8° or 10° (= 1.060 to 1075,) so that the juice of the last 

 contains in the same volume nearly twice as much sugar 

 as does that of the first, and tha extraction of it is easier 

 and less expensive, because less time and fuel are required 

 for evaporation. I therefore prefer, in my manufactory, 

 beets which weigh one or two pounds, though the soil up- 

 on which I raise them should not yield me more than from 

 25,000 to 30,000 lbs. per hectare. 



ARTICLE III. 



On the Preparation of the Soil. 



Generally speaking, I cultivate beets upon all such 

 lands as are appropriated for sowing grain upon in the fall. 

 The lands I prepare for receiving the seed by three good 

 tillings, two of which are performed in the winter, and one 

 in the spring : by this last ploughing the dung which is 

 thrown upon the ground after the second, is mixed with it : 

 the quantity of manure employed is the same as if the 

 ground was to be immediately sown with wheat. 



When the cultivation of the beet was less known than 

 it is at present, it was thought that the use of dung rendered 

 the root less rich in sugar, and more disposed to produce 

 salt-petre ; my own observations have never verified the 

 truth of this opinion, nor have I ever perceived any other 

 difference than that of size between beets raised in ground 

 dressed with barn-yard manure, and those raised in a soil 

 not so prepared. That which has given rise to the error 

 is the greater quantity of sugar contained in the same vol- 

 ume of small beets, in consequence of the more concen- 

 trated state of their juices. 



