To raise roots the second year, after a liberal application of coarse 

 barnyard manure, or the turning over of grass lands, with the assis- 

 tance of some commercial phosphatic fertilizer in the interest of a 

 timely maturity, is highly recommended by practical cultivators of 

 sugar beets. To stimulate in the roots the production of the largest 

 l)ossible amount of sugar and starch must be the object of the cul- 

 tivator, for these two constituents of roots control, more than any 

 other one, their increase in solids. 



The importance quite generally conceded to the introduction of a 

 liberal cultivation of root crops in a mixed farm management, where- 

 ever a deep soil and the general character of the climate favors their 

 normal development, rests mainly on the following consideration : 

 they furnish, if properly manured and cultivated, an exceptionally 

 large quantity of valuable vegetable matter fit for fodder for various 

 kinds of farm live stock, competing in this direction favorably with 

 our best green fodder crops ; and they pay well, on account of large 

 returns for the necessary care bestowed upon them by a thorough 

 deep cultivation to meet success. 



The physical conditions of the soil, however favorable they may 

 have been for the production of crops of a similar character, will 

 suffer, if year after year the same system of cultivation is car- 

 ried out. Diversity in the mechanical treatment of the soil, and 

 change of season for such treatment, cannot otherwise but affect 

 advantageously its mechanical condition and the degree of its chemi- 

 cal disintegration, promoting thereby its fitness for development inhe- 

 rent plant food, as well as its power of turning to account atmos- 

 pheric resources of plant growth. The roots of the same plants ab- 

 stract their food, year after year, from the same layer of soil, while 

 a change of crops with reference to a different root system renders 

 it possible to make all parts of the agricultural soil contribute in a 

 desirable succession towards an economical production of the crops 

 to be raised. Deep-rooting plants, like our prominent root crops, 

 for this reason, deserve a particular consideration in the planning of 

 a rational system of rotation of crops. To raise improved varieties 

 of roots should be the rule. 



Root crops, although somewhat peculiar in their composition when 

 compared with many of our prominent fodder articles, have proved 

 a very valuable constituent in the diet of various kinds of farm live 

 stock, when properly supplemented by hay, grains, oil-cake, bran, 

 etc., as circumstances may advise. Our experience at the Experi- 

 ment Station confirms fully the valuable services of roots as an inore- 



