191 1.] The Cultivation of the Sugar-beet. 



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broadcast, and with the exception of nitrate of soda, may be 

 ploughed in or drilled. In experiments conducted in Ger- 

 many between 1890 and 1899 on over 1,700 acres, Kiehl found 

 that nitrate of soda gave the best results as a top-dressing 

 applied in three lots', viz., when the seedlings first appear, 

 and after the first and second hoeings. It may, however, be 

 applied at two operations, half before sowing, and half after 

 singling. On sandy and moorland soils basic slag may be 

 used, being distributed in the autumn previous to sowing the 

 seed. 



In general, manuring for sugar-beets may be on the basis 

 of manuring mangolds, but it should be remembered that 

 only about half the weight of roots can be grown, and that 

 large quantities of forcing manures like rotted dung or nitrate 

 of soda may injure the quality. For medium loams in the 

 South of England the following manuring would probably 

 be found to be satisfactory :— 10-12 tons of dung ploughed in 

 after harvest, with 1 cwt. sulphate of ammonia, 4 cwt. super- 

 phosphate, artd § cwt. sulphate of potash applied before 

 sowing, and \ cwt. nitrate of soda applied as a top-dressing 

 after singling. It is, however, advisable that trials with 

 various quantities of manures should be made on every farm 

 and each type of land w/hen the first crop is grown, so that 

 information suitable to local conditions may be obtained. 



In. describing a visit to Germany to study the methods of 

 sugar-beet cultivation in that country (1898) Lawes and 

 Gilbert state: — "It is strictly in accordance with the results 

 of our own experiments which have been given, that roots 

 of the desired character could only be produced by restricting 

 the manuring, and by other methods of preventing over 

 luxuriance, and favouring perfect ripening or maturity; in 

 fact, by growing comparatively small roots and small craps 

 per acre. Accordingly, strict rules were issued by the manu- 

 facturers to the growers, for the manuring, and for other con- 

 ditions of growth. One of these was, that if farmyard 

 manure were employed, some other crop, of feeding roots for 

 example, should be taken before a crop was grown for sugar. 

 Then the use of nitrate of soda was practically prohibited, 

 though a small dressing of sulphate of ammonia might be 

 used. The roots were to be grown at a limited distance 



