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some artificial manure may be lightly ploughed in, sulphate of 
ammonia being considered one of the best fertilizers. All the 
leaves cut off at the time of digging up the roots, if not used for 
feeding cattle or sheep, as well as the refuse or waste substances 
made in the manufacturing, should be returned to the soil. 
The selection of seed saved from roots rich in sugar is very im- 
portant, and large European manufacturers frequently provide the 
seed themselves, so as to insure the best quality being grown. 
Neither very large nor very smal] roots are best adapted for sugar 
purposes, those averaging between 2 Ibs. and 3 lbs. are reckoned 
the best. They should have small tops, not necky, and those 
which grow almost entirely in the ground are the best. The 
harvesting and the manufacturing of the-root into sugar are 
matters somewhat foreign to the object of my paper, and at 
present unnecessary for me to speak upon. I need hardly add 
that until the factories and machinery necessary to transform the 
beet root into sugar are ready, it would be madness for our farmers 
to rush off into beet-growing. 
_At the period I have already mentioned, when this industry 
was first started and failed, the necessity for extracting all we 
can from the soil did not exist to the same extent as at present. 
Now we are faced with the fact that thousands of our fellow men 
are wanting work, that numbers are leaving our shores for New 
Zealand, South Africa, West Australia, and other places; short- 
sighted persons may say, well, let them go, the better for those 
who remain. I say no, most emphatically ; these men are the 
very life-blood of the colony, and it is disastrous that we should 
lose them. Let us take steps to attract population rather than 
repel it. The growing of sugar beet or of any other crop will 
not afford instant relief, but I feel convinced that this industry 
would be of great benefit, and be a large factor -in our national 
wealth. We consume between 50,000 and 60,000 tons of sugar 
annually. IZf this were to be grown here, it would mean the 
occupation of, say, 30,000 to 40,000 acres of land, and give em- 
ployment to a large number of men, irrespective of those required 
in the factories. Our railway receipts would be largely increased 
by the conveyance of the roots to the factories, the transport of 
manures, and in other directions. Just now all the talk is about 
placing men on the land, but what are they to grow? Our local 
markets for vegetables can easily be swamped. Several years 
must elapse before fruit trees come into full profit. Beet is an 
annual crop. <A living no doubt could be made by combining 
several rural industries, such as poultry, pigs, bees, and other 
things, but it seems to me that in this beet industry we have the 
very thing which smail holders could cultivate profitably. The 
proposal to place men on allotments of 10 acres each should be 
inereased to say 15, @ man could then grow a crop of beet of 
