CULTIVATION OF THE BEET ROOT. 323 



The first care of the farmer must be, to have his beets 

 thoroughly dry before being housed. The best way is to 

 leave them in the fields till all their dampness has evapo- 

 rated. When, however, a large harvest is to be gathered 

 in autumn, a sufficient number of fine days to effect this 

 can hardly be hoped for, and the roots must therefore be 

 stored for the winter in such a manner as will be most likely 

 to prevent decomposition. 



I have an immense barn, where I pile up my beets to the 

 height of seven or eight feet, as fast as they are carried 

 from the fields. I make use of no other precaution than 

 that of forming against the surrounding walls a layer of 

 straw or broom, which rises as high as the pile of roots ; 

 when the frosts set in, I cover the pile over with straw ; and 

 in this way I have for ten years preserved my crops of beets 

 uninjured by them. It has, however, happened two or three 

 times, that the roots began to germinate with so much 

 energy, that I was fearful they would become decomposed. 

 In these cases, I unstacked and spread the beets, and thus 

 arrested the process of vegetation. 



Some farmers leave their beets in the field. In order to 

 preserve them, they dig a trench in a dry soil, giving the 

 bottom a gentle slope, that water may flow off easily. This 

 trench they fill with the roots, and cover it over with a bed 

 of earth a foot thick ; upon this they throw heath or broom, 

 to prevent the rain from penetrating. Some line the bottom 

 and sides of the trench with straw or heath. 



Instead of being put into trenches, the digging of which 

 is always expensive, the beets may be preserved in the 

 fields by forming heaps of them upon a dry soil, and covering 

 the tops and sides with layers of earth ; or they may be 

 covered over with a roof like the one I have heretofore 

 described. This method of preserving roots may be em- 

 ployed when there is no suitable storehouse for them ; or 

 when the means of conveying them to one in autumn are 

 wanting. 



