BEET. 
23 
apart, about an inch and a half deep; drop two or three seeds in each hole, 
but with the intention to leave only one beet plant.” 
Mr. Mahon says, h Make choice of a piece of rich, deep ground, lay it out 
into four feet wide beds, push the loose earth into the alleys, then sow the 
seed tolerably thin, and cover it with the earth out of these alleys to about 
three quarters of an inch deep. Or, let drills be drawn with a hoe, near an 
inch deep, and a foot or a little better asunder; drop the seeds thinly therein 
and cover them over the same depth as above. Or you may sow the seed 
on a piece of ground rough, after being dug, and rake it well in.” 
Subsequent culture.— When the young plants are advanced into leaves, one, 
two, or three inches in growth, they must be thinned and cleared from 
weeds, especially those sown promiscuously, or broad-cast and in drills. If 
there be chasms in the rows, fill them up with the superfluous plants. The 
oftener the ground is stirred during the whole course of the vegetation 
of the plant, the larger will be the product, and the better its quality. 
As soon as vegetation is over, which always occurs after the first hard 
frost, take up the plants, expose them a day or two to the air, to evaporate 
their surplus moisture, and then house them carefully. This may be done 
by putting them in layers in a dry cellar, and interposing between these a 
slight covering of sand. In digging the roots, great care should be taken 
that they be not broken or cut, as they bleed much. For the same reason, 
the leaves should be cut off at least an inch above the solid part of the root. 
To save seed. —Either leave a few strong roots standing in the rows, or 
select a few, and transplant them to a spot where there will be no danger, 
when in flower, of being impregnated with any other variety. They will 
shoot up the second year, when their flower-stocks should be tied to stakes, 
to prevent their breaking over. 
Field culture of the mangel wurtzel beet 1 and the sugar beet.-—Soil and prep¬ 
aration —The soil for these roots should be a loam inclining to clay, in good 
tilth, well manured, and made fine to a good depth. John Hare Powel, 
Esq., corresponding secretary to the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, in 
giving an account of his mode of cultivating this crop, says, u My soil was 
not naturally strong: it has been gradually so much deepened as to enable 
Wood’s plow, No. 2, drawn by four oxen, to plow fourteen inches deep. 
Fresh barn-yard manure was equall} 7 spread upon the surface, and plowed 
under in the early part of April, in quantities not larger than are generally 
used for potato crops in this country. Early in May, trie land was twice 
stirred with Beatson’s scarifier, harrowed, rolled; after stirred, harrowed 
and rolled again in the opposite direction.” The soil on which Messrs. 
Tristram Little and Henry Little of Newbury, Mass, raise 1 their premium 
crop in 1824, is a clay loam. In 1823, about three-fourths of the same was 
sowed with onions, and manured with about eight cords of compost manure 
to the acre. The other quarter was sowed with wheat without manure. In 
