Nelson Association. 487 
tons an acre, while about Magdeburg, in Prussian Saxony, they do not exceed 
ten or twelve tons. But the latter are richer in sugar and poorer in salts in 
proportion. 
These facts show how much practical agriculture, as well as climate, have 
to do with the success of this important manufacture. 
Having regard, therefore, to the use and application of suitable manures, 
and the proper rotation of crops, the mechanical cultivation of the sugar-beet 
should be pursued as follows :— 
The ground is to be prepared for it in the same manner as for mangold- 
wurzel, turnips, or carrots. The best seed is to be got from Magdeburg, in 
Prussia, or from M. Vilmorin, the celebrated seedsman in Paris. It should be 
sown in this country in October. Ten pounds to twelve pounds of seed is the 
-quantity required per English acre. Sugar-beets are planted more closely than 
mangolds. The distance between the rows, and from plant to plant, should 
not be less than twelve inches nor greater than eighteen inches. If the young 
plants are caught in spring by a night’s frost they should be ploughed up and 
fresh seed sown. They should be horse and hand-hoed. The earth should be 
well gathered up round each plant, in order that the head of each root may be 
completely covered with soil. When the roots begin to show the commence- 
ment of decay in the leaves, they are ripe, and should be dug out, the mould 
gently shaken off, and the heads cut off together with as much of the roots as 
shows the presence of leaf-buds. They should then be piled in heaps on the 
ground to hinder the evaporation of their moisture, and covered with a layer 
of earth to protect them from light and frost. A beet-root of good quality 
should not exceed three pounds in weight, and should be firm, brittle, emitting 
a creaking noise not unlike a pine-apple when cut, and perfectly sound within ; 
the degree of sweetness is also a good indication. 
Tt will be seen by these directions what conditions are necessary to ensure 
a good root for sugar purposes. Until, however, the experiment which is now 
being tried of cultivating it in the neighbourhood of Nelson has been tested 
by chemical analysis, it would be premature to enter into the details of its 
further treatment in reference to its manufacture into sugar; if the result 
is satisfactory, there will be read to you at a future time a continuation of 
this paper, dealing with the several aspects of the question in a manufacturing 
point of view. 
An interesting discussion ensued on the mare a re different kinds of 
sugar-beet, as well as on their cultivation and gar at a profit 
in New Zealand, and a vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. ‘Mickey, for his 
useful and practical paper. 
