THE CULTIVATOR. 
1S5 
well manured and limed—the result will prove it abso¬ 
lutely worthless, and more like a rush than a tree.’ 
I have read also in your paper an article from that ex- t 
cellent paper, “ The Yankee Farmer,” whose editor at i 
firms, that “ the China Corn is a complete deception i 
practised upon the credulous and confiding public, i and i 
adds with great severity,—and if the Chinese Tree Corn ] 
was the worthless thing represented, with equal justice, ] 
—that the author of the deception would be entitled to i 
the severest reprehension. The same article contains •, 
the declaration of Mr. Howard, the able conductor of the ( 
Zanesville Gazette, that it was not an early corn, and ] 
that some farmers “observe that it will require two i 
years to mature this corn.” 1 
I have no doubt that each of those gentlemen have < 
spoken conscientiously upon this subject, and I am 
equally certain, from the result of my own experiment, i 
that they have been deceived in the variety of corn they : 
have purchased as the Chinese Tree Corn; for it is im- , 
possible that results so different to my own, could, un- , 
der any other circumstances have occurred. 
As I promised you in my former note that m the tall - 
I would measure my little patch, and give you a faith¬ 
ful account of its yield,” I now proceed to redeem that 
pledge, and I do it with the more cheerfulness, as I con¬ 
ceive it but an act of justice due to Mr. Thorburn, that 
those at least with whom his corn has succeeded well, 1 
should speak of it as it deserves, in order that so fai as 
their moral influence may go, his name may be lescued 
from the fate of those who practise “ deception eithei 
upon private individuals, or the public. . 
With these explanatory remarks, I will state its yield, 
and such other characteristic traits as it strikes me to 
possess. . 
My patch was planted on a plot of ground in my gar¬ 
den, 32 by 23 feet in dimensions, making 736 square feet. 
The soil was a deep rich loam, which as I described to 
you, I highly manured. It had the benefit ot good cul¬ 
ture, and its working was always done at the right time. 
On the 15th of September, I gathered and housed my 
little crop, consisting of 254 good ears, rejecting all the 
nubbins. While the corn was in the roasting ear state, 
as I observed in my former note, I pulled 24 good ears. 
If then, I add these to those I pulled on the 15th of Sep¬ 
tember, it gives the product of 268 ears on 736 suqare 
feet of ground, and as there are 43,564 square feet in an 
acre, the yield calculating that each ear will shell half a 
pint of corn* was at the rate of 123 33-64 bushels per 
acre. But this is far short of the actual yield, as one 
of my cows found her way into my garden on the night 
of the 25th of August, and destroyed a considerable 
quantity. Besides this, my chickens depredated largely 
upon it. Having spoken of its yield, I will proceed to 
state its peculiar traits of character. 
Its suckers branch out from the root, and after arriv¬ 
ing at maturity, it is difficult to distinguish them from 
the main stalks, being so nearly equal in size, and so 
alike in appearance. 
The stalks and suckers were from 9 to 11 feet high: 
not so thick as may be supposed from the number of 
suckers which were thrown out and permitted to grow, 
as the larger varieties of field corn, which are generally 
carefully suckered. From actual measurement, howev¬ 
er I can state that the suckers and stalks in my patch 
were from 3 3-10 to 4 1-10 inches in circumference, mea¬ 
sured four inches from the ground. I planted but two 
grains of corn in each hill, and yet these hills had on 
them 10, 14, and in one instance 19good sized ears each. 
The ears have 10 rows of grain on them, are from 8 
to 11 inches long, of medium thickness; the grain a 
beautiful pearly white flint, of great specific gravity, 
and from the sweetness of the roasting ears which we 
cooked, I have no doubt will prove an excellent meal 
corn, and be found to possess a very large quantity of 
saccharine matter. It makes, as may be presumed, a 
very large quantity of fodder; and on that account is 
desirable to a very great portion of corn planters, most 
of whom rely in a measure upon their cornfields to fur¬ 
nish winter provender for their stock. 
So far from its being a late corn, and requiring two 
seasons to mature it, I consider it an early corn, which 
opinion is borne out by the fact of my having gathered 
and housed mine on the 15th of September, a period 
when much other corn is scarcely out of the milky state. 
I have given the result of my own experience above, 
and will add, that two of my friends who made experi¬ 
ments with it also, speak in high terms of its productive¬ 
ness. Besides these gentlemen, I observe in your paper 
that Dr. Muse and Mr. Sangston, of the Eastern shore of 
this state, are well pleased with their experiments. 
I have thus discharged a duty which I owe to Mr. 
Thorburn, and will remark, that in doing so I have no 
possible interest, either of a pecuniary nature, or of feel¬ 
ing, to subserve. He is a gentlemen that I know not ex¬ 
cept by reputation. I have never had the slightest cor¬ 
respondence with him ; and in all human probability 
never will. But it is sufficient for me to know that he 
is a distinguished Seedsman, and that he is the original of 
Laurie Todd, to make me feel solicitous about his fame, 
and willing, whenever that fame may be assailed with 
unmerited obloquy, to take up the gauntlet, couch a 
lance, and run the hazards of a tourney in his defence. 
I will conclude this, perhaps uninteresting letter by 
stating, that I am so well pleased with the Chinese Tree 
Corn, that I have determined to plant no other kind next 
season as a crop corn. ED. P. ROBERTS. 
Mulberry Grove, Oct. 1, 1839. 
* I measured an 8 inch ear, the yield of which was half 
a pint. 
Sugar. 
The population of all the sugar growing countries in 
the world is about 408,000,000—it is estimated that each 
inhabitant consumes ten pounds per annum—amounting 
in all to 4,680,000,000 lbs. nearly four times as much as 
is consumed in Europe, and in the United States. Great 
Britain consumes 400,000,000 lbs. or 24 lbs. to each in¬ 
habitant—the United States 200,000,000 lbs. or 16 lbs. 
to each inhabitant—our domestic production being esti- 
at 50,000,000 lbs. In Ireland the consumption is 40,000,- 
000 lbs. or 6 lbs. to each inhabitant. In Russia it is still 
less, being 60,000,000 lbs. or only about a pound to an 
inhabitant. Of the quantity consumed in Russia, it is 
supposed that 8.000,000 lbs. are beet sugar. Belgium 
consumes 30,000,000 lbs. or 7 lbs. to an inhabitant, of 
which 5,000,000 lbs. are beet-—and Prussia, Austria and 
the east of Germany, 200,000,000 lbs. or four pounds to 
an inhabitant, of which 20,000,000 lbs. are beet. Hol¬ 
land consumes 50,000,000 lbs. or 16 lbs. to an inhabitant. 
Spain the same quantity, or almost 4 lbs. to an inhabi¬ 
tant. France, 230,304,549 lbs. or 7 lbs to an inhabitant, 
—of this, 107,905,785 lbs. were, in 1836, manufactured 
from beet roots. Thus we have, for the total consump¬ 
tion of sugar in Europe, 1,267,000,000 lbs.—of which 
140,000,000 lbs. or 62,500 tons are beet sugar—and for 
the annual consumption throughout the world, 6,267,000, 
000 lbs.—worth, at 6 cents a pound $376,620,000. 
Margraff, a Persian chemist of Berlin, made the dis¬ 
covery nearly a hundred years ago, that the beet root 
contained a good crystalizable sugar. After this he en¬ 
larged and varied his experiments, but did not invent 
means of making sugar from the raw material, on a 
scale sufficiently large to render it an object of interest 
to capitalists. He died in 1782. It was Archad, also a 
chemist of Berlin, who discovered the method of ex¬ 
tracting sugar from the beet on a large scale, and at a 
moderate expense. He first announced this result in 
1797. The [National Institute of France, appointed a 
commissioner to examine into the subject. Manufacto¬ 
ries were established, but were not successful—and the 
high hopes which had arisen, of this new branch of in¬ 
dustry in France, seemed destined to disappointment.— 
Political events, however, afterwards favored the at¬ 
tempt to find an indigenous source for the supply of su¬ 
gar, and after many experiments, the preference was 
given to the beet. In January 1812, Napoleon issued a 
decree establishing five chemical schools for teaching 
the process of beet sugar making—detaching one hun¬ 
dred students from schools of medicine, pharmacy and 
chemistry, to be instructed in those establishments, and 
creating four imperial manufactories, capable of making 
4,408,000 lbs. of raw sugar annually. Premiums were 
also awarded to persons who had already distinguished 
themselves by a successful application to this new branch 
of industry—and an impulse was thus given to the ma¬ 
nufacture of beet sugar throughout France. The bat¬ 
tle of Waterloo gave a great shock to this branch of in¬ 
dustry, but some of the sugar establishments continued 
to thrive after this action; and in 1818, after the allied 
troops had left Paris, the government began to turn its 
attention towards the encouragement of an industry, 
which had struggled meritoriously and successfully, to 
preserve a boon to the French nation. It has already 
been stated, that in 1836, 107,905,785 pounds of sugar 
were made from beet roots.— North American Review. 
Cost of Raising Sugar Beets and other Roots. 
In examining an estimate of the expenses of making 
beet sugar in this country, many farmers will consider 
that the expense of raising the roots is reckoned too 
low; this is owing to the little attention that has been 
paid to root crops, and to farmers in general not being 
acquainted with the best and most economical method 
of culture, and not having machines and implements to 
enable them to manage the growing of root crops to ad¬ 
vantage. 
These unfavorable opinions will in a measure conti¬ 
nue, till root culture is more in practice, for though ca¬ 
ses are stated of crops raised at a small expense, they 
will be regarded as extraordinary cases, and estimates 
made on paper, in which no error can be pointed out, 
will be looked upon as something uncertain ; yet these 
favorable accounts will lead the enterprising and intelli¬ 
gent to try and see whether these things are so, and al¬ 
though their expectations may not always be realized, 
yet they will find a great advantage in attending to root 
culture and be led to inquire into the most frugal me¬ 
thod of pursuing it. Farmers who dig up a small patch 
- and sow it in beets, and do not weed it til! there are five 
hundred weeds to one plant, may find that the cost of 
raising a bushel of beets is one dollar, when with pru¬ 
dential management in raising on a large scale, ten to 
twelve bushels may be raised with this expense. 
In raising beets and some other crops m a garden we 
have managed to do the weeding before sowing, and find 
that it is a great saving of labor: that is, pursue that 
manner of culture that will destroy the weeds before 
■ the seed is sown; and the same plan may be followed 
in field culture, and even to greater advantage, as most 
of the labor can be done by animal labor, which is much 
cheaper than manual labor in this country, and this, as 
has been observed in the articles lately published on the 
subject, will enable us to raise beets as cheap as they are 
raised in France. 
Our method has been to put on the manure and stir 
up the ground in the fall or early in the spring, the for¬ 
mer is preferable, as a frost will loosen the soil and 
make it mellow, and the weeds will start in the spring 
■ before the soil is dry enough to work. When the 
weeds were well started, we worked the ground over 
again. About the 20th of May the ground was well 
worked over, and the seed sown, after being soaked, so 
that it would come up in a short time; the plants were 
up and large enough to hoe when scarcely any weeds 
appeared, the hoeing was done in a short time, the soil 
being very light and mellow, and there was but little 
trouble on account of weeds through the season, they 
having been mostly destroyed before sowing. If this 
plan should be pursued in field culture it would save 
nearly one-half of the expense. One hour’s work with 
a horse and cultivator in stirring the earth and destroy¬ 
ing weeds before sowing, would save several days in 
hoeing. 
The following method of culture for a field crop would 
be very economical as to weeding, which seems to be 
the most expensive part of the cultivation. A piece of 
land, a deep mellow soil that has been well manured 
and planted one year in corn or potatoes, would be in 
good condition for a beet crop. If it has been ploughed 
more than one year there would be danger from the 
grub worm, which, we believe is the principal injury 
from insects to which the sugar beet is liable. 
A piece should be selected that can be ploughed deep, 
and the stones, if any, removed. If there has not been 
sufficient manure applied to the previous crop, apply the 
manure and plough the ground very deep in the fall; if 
it cannot be done at this season, then as early as possi¬ 
ble in the spring. When the weeds have started, go 
over it with a cultivator, and in a few weeks go over it 
again in the same way, this will loosen and pulverize 
the soil and destroy the weeds. From the 20th of .May 
to the 1st of June, let the earth be thoroughly stirred 
with a cultivator, or if the soil be not very loose it may 
be well to plough it again, then go over it with a light 
harrow to make the surface level and smooth, and the 
soil fine; be ready to sow as soon as the ground is pre¬ 
pared while the surface is moist and that the plants may 
get the start of the weeds. Pour water as hot as can be 
borne by the hand, on the seed and let it soak a day and 
a half or two days, then it will vegetate and up, and the 
plants will be large enough to hoe before the few weeds 
are liable to grow up, so as to be much trouble. 
Sow the seed with a machine and the expense will be 
light. Let the rows be from two to two and a half feet 
apart, then a light cultivator may be used between the 
rows ; in thinning the plants let them stand about one 
foot apart. If any places are vacant from the seed not 
growing or the grub worms eating them, the deficiency 
may be supplied by transplanting ; though transplanted 
beets do not form so handsome a root, yet they yield 
about as much as the other. The expense for weeding 
and loosening the soil will not be great. In harvesting 
if the beets cannot be pulled easily, a furrow may be 
ploughed near each row with a horse plough, then they 
may be pulled with little labor. By this, or some better 
way if it can be devised, beets maybe raised at a small 
expense, and as lands and animal labor are cheaper 
here than in France, and as much labor can be done 
here by animals which is performed there by the hands, 
we think our advantages are equal to that of France in 
the cheapness of manual labor. But supposing our ad¬ 
vantages in raising the beets are not equal as to a cheap 
production, we have reckoned the expense higher in the 
calculations we have published so as to conform to a 
fair estimate on all expenses. Instead of $3.50 per ton 
as in France, we have reckoned at $5 per ton. No cal¬ 
culation on the expense of raising beets or other crops 
can be made exactly suited to all parts of the country, 
as the prices of labor and land are different. Near ci- 
ties and large towns, and near the seaboard owing to good 
advantages for markets and communication, lands are 
higher, and the rent of them more of course than in the 
interior; in such cases labor too is usually somewhat 
higher. 
Estimated expense of an acre of Sugar Beets. 
Use of an acre of land well prepared for beets and 
manured, or managed in the previous crop,.... $12 00 
Ploughing,. 4 00 
Cultivating, horse, cultivator, and hand 2 hours, 50 
Twice more before sowing,. 1 00 
Seed $2.25, sowing with a machine, 75,........ 3 00 
First hoeing,. 4 00 
Second hoeing, thinning, and transplanting to 
supply deficiencies,. 4 00 
Hoeing again and loosening the ground with ma¬ 
chines,... 2 00 
Harvesting,. 9 00 
$40 00 
Make the rows 2 feet four inches apart, and then a cul¬ 
tivator can be used in hoeing. If the beets stand one 
foot apart in the rows, and weigh 2$ lbs. each, the yield 
will be 20 tons. In rich ground, at that distance, a great 
number will weigh 4 or 5 lbs. each; twenty tons is a 
good crop, probably a large crop, but not extremely 
large for in some cases 25 or 30 tons to the acre have 
been raised in this country. At the above expense of 
$40 to the acre with a yield of 20 tons the cost would be 
two dollars per ton. We make this estimate to show 
how cheap beets may be raised under favorable circum¬ 
stances, such as good land at a fair price, convenient 
machinery and implements, and the most prudential ma¬ 
nagement in the culture, with labor at a moderate price, 
and a favorable season. We have no doubt that in some 
parts of New England beets could be produced in great 
abundance at the above price ; but we must not always 
expect a combination of favorable circumstances. 
Supposing we reckon the produce only two-thirds as 
much as above, say 13$ tons and the cost 33t per cent 
