92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The beet-root, as a biennial plant, enters readily into rotation 

 with annual plants, and with those plants known to exhaust the 

 soil. It precedes barley, wheat, rye, and oats, and prepares the 

 soil in a marvelous manner for cereals, the subsequent fertiliza- 

 tion of which prepares the soil for the beet. The land must not 

 receive fertilizing treatment during the season of the growth of 

 the beet-root, but must be well prepared — not too light, not too 

 moist; it should be warm, rich in humus, deep and free from 

 stones, like a garden. The form of the beet desired for greater 

 sugar extraction would, with this physical condition, be long and 

 tapering. 



In this collection of data, derived from the best authorities in 

 Europe, where the cultivation of the beet is best managed, it will 

 not be possible to speak of the meteorological conditions necessary 

 to the perfect growth of the root for sugar-producing purposes, 

 except to say that the principal conditions to be studied in this 

 connection are those of the temperature and moisture with which 

 the plant may be surrounded. The amount of moisture at the 

 disposition of the plant, at all seasons of its growth, is the most 

 important factor in its normal development. Temperature has an 

 influence : if it be too low or too high, it has the same power of 

 evil as a deficiency of moisture. Various sections of the United 

 States north of Mason and Dixon's line, where the rainfall is 

 regular, like New England, with its long Indian summer, present 

 all the conditions to produce the sugar-beet to perfection. 



The cultivation of the root, and the latest approved processes 

 for extracting the sugar, will be considered hereafter. 



■»»» 



EGGS IN CHEMISTRY AND COMMERCE. 



By P. L. SIMMONDS, F. L. S. 



WHAT a subject scientific research has found in eggs as a 

 study, witness the works of Moquin-Tandon and O. des 

 Murs.* These publications serve to show how the oologic char- 

 acteristics may assist in the methodical classification of birds, 

 what relation there is between the egg and the organic conforma- 

 tion of the bird, and what particular habits of birds may be gath- 

 ered from a study of their eggs and nests. 



Some birds only lay a single egg, others many. The largest 

 ordinary number, on the average, is five or seven. The species 

 laying less are more rare than the species laying a larger number. 

 Those in a state of liberty produce, on the average, twelve to 

 fifteen. But in domestic poultry the number is larger. Farm- 



* •' Traite G6n6ral d'Oologie Ornithologique," par P. 0. dcs Murs. 



