216 



Cultivation of Beet. 



soil ; the ridges are well pulled down by the hoe ; women and 

 children carefully look over the plants, singling all those left 

 double, taking care to remove the weakest. 



The horse-hoeing is repeated, and, when necessary, deep hand- 

 hoeing is given, cutting up all the weeds, and pulling the soil 

 away from the roots. The latter is particularly necessary on 

 strong soils, as it prevents the beet growing with too many fangs 

 or roots, to which beet is very liable on this description of land, 

 particularly if cultivated on the flat. Another hand-hoeing is 

 sometimes necessary, and horse-hoeing may go on till the mangold 

 becomes too large for the passage of the horse-implement ; for in 

 proportion to the pulverization of the soil will the growth of the 

 crop be increased, and as much benefit be derived Irom the pro- 

 duction of a valuable crop as though the land lay entirely fallow. 



The following was the management for beet on a piece of 

 freshly broken up pasture. This was a very poor rushy pasture, 

 of little value, on a subsoil of sand, gravel, and clay : land broken 

 up in 1843, pared and burnt, the ashes spread, and land ploughed 

 for oats; 1844, land ploughed and peas planted ; after this crop 

 had been harvested the land was ploughed up, and sown with 

 mustard and rape fed off; 1845, about 5/. spent in draining, and 

 land ploughed for oats; 1846, land clayed during winter, 40 cubic 

 yards per acre, at Sjt?. — 17. Ss. 4d. During dry weather the clay 

 was harrowed and clod-rolled, in order to pulverize it before 

 ploughing in. May 6th to 9th, ploughing the land very fleet, so 

 that the clay was not covered in much. May 13th, clod-rolled 

 and harrowed, and then began ploughing the furrows back, the 

 ploughs going deeper than before, thus mixing the pulverized 

 clay with the surface soil; land harrowed and light rolled after 

 the ploughs. May 20th to 22nd, ridging and drilling yellow 

 globe-beet, manured with 12 two-horse loads of unfermented 

 dung per acre, and If cwt. per acre of Peruvian guano, sown 

 in the ridges before splitting. June 2nd, mangold coming up, 

 though, from the dry weather, they made their appearance very 

 irregularly. June 20th, hoeing up weeds on the ridges ; 22nd 

 to 30th, horse-hoeing; 25th, showery weather, transplanting man- 

 gold to fill up vacancies. July 10th to 24th, horse-hoeing se- 

 cond time. July 28th to August 4th, hand-hoeing second time. 

 November 2nd to 12th, pulling and stripping leaves, carting off 

 with one-horse carts, and storing in adjoining field, the beet being 

 laid in a triangular heap, 6 feet wide at bottom and 4 feet high, 

 thatched with straw (4 J waggon-loads), and then covered with 

 earth. Produce of 7 acres 1 rood, 252 cart-loads (about | of a 

 t(m each). The whole crop was 189 tons, or about 26 tons per 

 acre. 



The follo>ving is the cost of taking up and storing : — 



