1870. 



^^:w England far^mer. 



887 



house wbo speculates in wool. The tempta- 

 tion to buy the customer''s wool before a rise, 

 and pocket the advance, is greater than a 

 speculator should undergo. When once your 

 property is in the hands of a commission man, 

 make up your mind to be satisfied with the re- 

 sult. There may be obstacles in the way of 

 good sales, that no business tact or ingenuity 

 can surmount. If he does well for you, and 

 you are satisfied, say so. If, on the other hand, 

 you are convinced that your interests have 

 been made subservient to some other man's, 

 let him alone in the future, and see that your 

 friends adopt the same course. 



The rapidity with which wool commission 

 houses have sprung up in all our large cities, 

 very clearly indicates that there is money in 

 the business, and may well warrant growers in 

 asking themselves if it is not costing them more 

 to sell their wool than it ought to. Eastern 

 houses charge two and a half to three cents 

 per pound for selling wool, and Western, we 

 believe, invariably charge two cents per pound. 

 Let us work and wait for "the good time com- 

 ing'' when a woolen mill in every county, will 

 furnish the grower of wool a reliable and 

 profitable market at his own door, free from 

 the drawback of six to ten per cent, as com- 

 mission for effecting sales. — A. M. Garland, 

 in Western Rural. 



THB AMERICAN" IMPEOVED SUGAR 

 BEET, 



It will be remembered that some weeks 

 since, the Hon. Henry Lane of Orwell, Vt., 

 in reply to inquiries for further information in 

 relation to this variety of the sugar beet, re- 

 ferred to his address to be published in the 

 "Transactions of the Vermont Dairymen's 

 Association," for a full statement of its origin 

 in his neighborhood, and of his opinion of its 

 qualities. We, therefore, make the following 

 extracts from his address : — 



When Merino sheep were considered more 

 valuable than they are at present, sheep breed- 

 ers in Addison county very generally adopted 

 the practice of having their lambs dropped in 

 March, thus requiring, besides hay for the 

 ewes, extra feed for two months before com- 

 ing to grass. By actual experience we found 

 that no food would produce as great a flow of 

 rich milk, or milk that would grow a lamb as 

 fast as the sugar beet. We first raised the 

 Silesian and the white French sugar beet. 

 These varieties grow almost entirely in the 

 ground, and of medium size. In order to 

 produce a good yield the drills and the plants 

 in the drill must be at about the same distance 

 apart, requiring nearly the same labor in their 

 culture as the carrot, and their weight and 

 food-pi-oducf per acre was far below an ordin- 

 ary crop of the variety now raised. The two 



beets I have placed on the table, weighing 10 

 and six pounds respectively, are specimens of 

 the variety now raised in Addison county, this 

 having almost entirely superseded the old va- 

 rieties. 



In 1858, I received from the Agricultural 

 Department at Washington seeds of three va- 

 rieties of the sugar beet, and two of mangolds. 

 These seeds I sowed separately, gave them 

 good culture, and watched their growth with 

 much interest. At harvesting the crop, the 

 variety sent to me with the name, '■^ The Ameri- 

 can Improved Imperial Sugar Beet,''"' filled 

 my idea of a good beet to raise for stock feed- 

 ing. The shape of the root, size, yield and 

 quality, I thought was all that could be desired 

 in this root. All that I raised that season of 

 this variety were carefully saved for seed, and 

 set out the following spring. From the seed 

 thus raised I sowed, and furnished my neigh- 

 bors seed, to sow side by side with the Silesian 

 and white French varieties. After various 

 trials the old varieties were discarded, and 

 this has come into general cultivation. ThI.s 

 is the only variety now raised in Cornwall and 

 vicinity. It is such a deciJed favorite that I 

 have often heard farmers say, that they would 

 rather pay five dollars per pound for seed of 

 this variety to sow, than to raise the common 

 varieties, even if the seed were given them. 



The cheapness with which they can be 

 raised, and the large amount of healthy, nutri- 

 tious food raised to the acre, have brought 

 this beet into g<?neral use, almost every far- 

 mer raising his cellar full of sugar beets to 

 feed, and hundreds of bushels are sold yearly 

 in Middlebury village. Every man keeping a 

 cow wants a load or more of beets to feed 

 during the fall, winter and spring. By great 

 care in selecting for seed, beets that were of uni- 

 form shape, fair size, well developed, without 

 forks or lateral roots, and good culture, this 

 beet has been very much improved since its 

 first introduction into Addison county. Yield- 

 ing, as the root does, with great certainty, a 

 greater amount of food per acre than any 

 other, at less cost, of better quality than the 

 turnip, nearly as good as the carrot for young 

 •Stock, and better for milk, ready to feed by 

 the first or middle of October, keeping sound 

 through the winter until late in the spring, 

 this root is growing rapidly Into favor and 

 general use. Cattle, sheep and swine feed 

 greedily upon it with favorable results In their 

 health and condition. Thus far its cultivation 

 has been attended with very satisfactory re- 

 sults. 



— A writer from Brazil says that you will sec no 

 potatoes, no corn, no fields of grain or grass about 

 Rio. The butter used nearly all comes from Eng- 

 land, as well as cheese, the flour from the United 

 States, the potatoes mostly from England. Meats, 

 rather than vegetables are the table staples. Rico 

 is used in the place of potatoes. 



