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On the Chemistry of Silesian Sugar-Beets. 
especially if frosty nights should set in, and if delayed too long, 
the crop may not get fully ripe before it has to be taken up. On 
the whole, the middle of April is the best time for sowing beet- 
root. 
Under ordinary circumstances the steeping of the seed in water 
can be dispensed with, but occasionally the steeping of the seed 
for 12 hours in water may be practised with advantage in ad- 
vancing the growth of the plant. 
As regards the quantity of seed used, it may be stated that in 
the north of Germany beet growers sow not less than 15 lbs. to 
the English acre, which is fully double the quantity of ordinary 
mangold-seed usually sown in England. 
A much larger quantity of seed is required, because beet-roots 
have to be grown more closely than mangolds. 
Of course the distances between the drills and between each 
plant have to be regulated according to the various agricultural 
conditions in which the land may be, upon which it is purposed 
to grow this crop. The better the soil the closer the roots may 
be grown. If grown too wide apart on good land, the beet-roots 
grow larger, but remain poor in sugar ; and, on the other hand, 
planted too near each other, the roots get rich in sugar, but 
remain small, and the value of the produce in either case is less 
than when both extremes are avoided. Speaking generally, 
the distance between the rows and from plant to plant should not 
be less than 12 inches, nor greater than 18 inches. 
After-culture. — The after-culture of the beet, like that of the 
mangold and root-crops generally, consists in timely and careful 
thinning, weeding, and keeping the soil in a loose and friable 
state, by means of the drill-harrow and the horse or hand hoe. 
As long as the young plants are not injured by hand-hoeing, the 
repeated application of the hoe from time to time will be attended 
with the greatest benefit to the crop, care being taken that the 
last hoeing is done so as to gather up the soil round each plant, 
in order that the head of the root may be completely covered. 
Character of the Soils best adapted, or unsuitable, for the Growth 
of Beet-roots. — Like other green crops, the sugar-beet, though not 
equally well adapted for every kind of soil, is nevertheless grown 
on land varying greatly as regards depth, texture, and general 
physical and chemical properties. It may, however, be observed 
at once, that all soils incapable of being cultivated to a depth of 
at least 16 inches, are unsuited for the growth of sugar-beet, 
which, unlike the ordinary yellow globe-mangold, grows almost 
entirely under ground, and therefore cannot be cultivated with 
advantage on very shallow soils. Peaty soils are not suited for 
beets, nor stiff clay soils, and, more or less, all soils in a bad state 
of cultivation are unsuitable for its cultivation. 
