246 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
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Grant, in his treatise before quoted, says: ' 
“ Ground that is mellow, warm and fertile, free from saline and alkaline 
constituents, not sour, and of a nature little liable to suffer from drought, 
easy to work late in autumn and early in spring, with a comparatively per* 
meable subsoil, penetrable by the tap-root of the beet, that affords natural 
drainage, so that it may be worked soon after rains, is suitable for the crop 
in question.” 
Count Chaptal, a great cultivator as well as a sugar manu¬ 
facturer, says: 
“ All grain fields are more or less suitable for beets, but especially those 
having a depth of twelve or fifteen inches of rich vegetable mould. F,ne 
sandy alluvial bottom lands, everflowed in winter or early in spring, are 
favorable for the beet, and they need no artificial manure, as they are 
enriched by the inundations. Beets require to be planted on thoroughly 
cultivated land in woi(5h the sods are entirely rotted.” 
The beet is generally cultivated in rotation with other crops, 
the same ground being successively sown with beets the first 
and second years, wheat the third, clover the fourth, and oats 
the fifth. When manure is more sparingly used, a rotation of 
crops every four years is practiced; the, yearly order being 
beets, wheat, clover and oats. 
METHODS OF CULTIVATION. 
Beets are grown in two principal ways, in drills and in hills. 
The latter method has of late years been much practiced in 
Europe, and is attended with highly satisfactory results. In 
drill cultivation the Dombasle plough, drawn by ten oxen on 
heavy and by eight oxen on light soils, is used. The depth 
of the furrow is never less than twenty-eight or thirty centi¬ 
meters, and frequently thirty and thirty-five when the soil is 
of such a character as to permit of it. A furrow of this depth 
allows the root to strike deeply : and though the formation of 
the furrow requires the exercise of considerable power, yet it 
brings to the surface in places where good soil is scarce the 
argillaceous subsoil, which on coming in contact with the air 
is fertilized and improved by mixing with the vegetable soil 
