BEET. 51 



a bushel of beets can be grown quite as cheaply as a 

 bushel of potatoes, and will yield fourfold, averaging 

 one year with another, and they always command a fair 

 price during the fall and winter and early spring months. 

 Sometimes the prices rule very high, and in case of low 

 prices they can be fed out or sold for that purpose to ad- 

 vantage. It is astonishing how little attention is paid to 

 the cultivation of beets for feeding by the farmers of this 

 country when they can be rnised with so little trouble, 

 and the larger varieties yield so enormously. They are 

 very nutritious and healthful for stock, coming in use as 

 they do in the absence of all green or laxative food, 

 which is quite as essential for stock, especially cattle, as 

 for mankind. 



Soil and Preparation. The soil best adapted to beets 

 is a deep, rich, sandy loam. The land should be plowed 

 in the fall if possible, and in the spring have a dressing 

 of at least twenty two-horse loads of stable-manure to 

 the acre, which should be plowed in, or one thousand 

 pounds of bone-flour, or five hundred pounds of guano, 

 harrowed in. The ground should be deeply plowed, 

 finely harrowed and back-harrowed, and if not then free 

 from lumps, be raked by hand. 



Sowing and Cultivating, The land being prepared, 

 stretch the line, and mark with the fifteen-inch marker 

 rows about an inch and a half deep. Sow the seed at the 

 rate of four pounds to the acre for main crop, or six 

 pounds when sown very early, as the spring frosts may 

 destroy a part of the first sown, and cover by raking 

 lengthwise with the rows. For early, sow almost as soon 

 as the ground can be worked, and from then until the 

 first of June. I have known them to do well sown as 

 late as July, but consider the first part of May the best 

 time to put in the main crop. 



When the plants are fairly up, use the push-hoe close 



