CULTIVATION OF THE SUGAR-BEET. 
35 
beets, for if left longer than this in the ground, the 
roots grow hard and strong, and do not yield so 
great a per cent, of saccharine matter. This of 
course will take place earlier or later in different 
climates, and is undoubtedly as good a rule as can 
be given, it being adopted after a strict chemical 
analysis of the beet in its various stages of growth. 
If the soil be light, as the roots generally grow so 
much out of the ground, they can be pulled up by 
taking hold of the tops with the hand—but if more 
tenacious, the dung-fork is the best instrument that 
we know of for digging them. Let part of the 
hands be at this operation, and the other part fol¬ 
low with large knives or bill-hooks; taking up the 
root with one hand, top off the leaves with the 
other, and toss the roots into small heaps to dry 
through the day, and if left out over night and 
there be danger of frost, let them be lightly covered 
over with leaves or straw; a hard frost injures the 
roots, and makes them more liable to decay. They 
may then be taken to a well-ventilated cellar, or be 
pitted in heaps of 100 to 200 bushels. The beet is 
rather apt to heat and commence sprouting if 
thrown into large heaps, or packed away in the 
cellar. If put in the latter place, any other roots 
except the tumep may be placed at the bottom, 
and the beets on top, and if in pits the same roots 
or straw in the centre. All the beets then have a 
good ventilation, and an opportunity of throwing 
off the impure air; and to facilitate this, after cover¬ 
ing the heaps with dirt, holes should be made every 
few feet on the top of them, and wisps of straw be 
placed in such holes. In this way we have expe¬ 
rienced no loss or deterioration in the value of the 
root, but have preserved them till May, as fresh, 
sound, and sweet, as when first taken from the 
ground the preceding fall. In a climate as far as 
39 degrees south, they might be preserved all 
winter in tolerable tight sheds and barns. 
Feeding.— Throw them on to the ground or floor, 
and take a hay knife or spade, and a man will slice 
up a bushel a minute sufficiently fine to prevent 
cattle choking on them. The best way to cook 
them for stock is by steaming, but they can not be 
kept so over two days in warm weather, and a 
week in cold, without undergoing a fermentation, 
and losing the saccharine matter so grateful to the 
taste and so essential to nutriment. Either raw or 
cooked, stock frequently prefer them to meal or 
corn. Raw, we think them as nutritious as any 
root whatever, and as far as our experience extends, 
three bushels of beets with neat stock, is equal to 
one of Indian meal. Hogs demand less bulk to fill 
themselves than cattle, and perhaps their value 
to them would not be in as great a pr<'por¬ 
tion. 
Product. —Four hundred bushels is a fair y -,*i 1 
in field culture, but six or eight hundred per * 
is about as common. We have grown at the ~ e 
of 1,300 bushels to the acre on a hard clay soil - 1 
our average field product is usually 600 bushes. 
We have heard of 3,000 bushels being produced to 
the acre on rich loams. The roots will frequently 
weigh from 17 to 20 pounds each, and 10 pounds 
is not unfrequent; now admitting this last weight 
to each root, and that seven rows stood in the 
width of a rod, which would make them about two 
feet apart, and the roots one foot apart in the rows, 
and allow 60 pounds to the bushel, we should have 
the enormous product of 3,080 bushels to the acre, 
but roots so large are coarse, stringy, and not unfre- 
quently hollow, and have much less saccharine mat¬ 
ter in proportion to their bulk, than smaller ones. 
Those of about 5 pounds weight are far superior; 
and these standing one foot apart in the rows, and 
five rows in the width of a rod, making them about 
three feet apart, give the large yield of 1,100 
bushels per acre, which is quite as great a product 
as it is desirable to strive for, and upon the whole, 
perhaps the most profitable. 
Raising the Seed.— There is as much in choos¬ 
ing proper roots for this purpose, as in selecting 
animals to breed from, and the same general rule 
holds good in both cases—a medium size and fine 
true form. Roots weighing four to six pounds, and 
of four to six inches diameter at the top, and nine 
to thirteen inches long, and smoothly and evenly 
tapering to a point, without straggling branches, 
and of a creamy white color and smooth grain, are 
the most desirable. “Like produces like,” and 
with such selections followed up, the crop will soon 
run evenly of the same shape and size as the roots 
from which was grown the seed. Plant out the 
seed-roots about the 1st of May, three feet apart; 
and as the stalks grow, set small stakes round them 
in a circle, and tie a cord from stake to stake for 
their support. When the seed shells easily, which 
if planted in May, will be in September, is the prop¬ 
er time to gather it. It ought to be spread out a 
few days on the floor of some high, dry room, or 
on boards in the sun till well dried; it may then 
be packed away in boxes or barrels, or be put up 
in bags. We have generally found this essential 
to a proper preservation of all seeds. If not well 
dried before packing, they are apt to heat and 
mould, and lose their germinating powers. Two 
or three dozen roots will grow seed enough for 
acres, and at one tenth the cost usually asked for 
