PRACTICAL PAPERS—SUGAR-BEET AND BEET SUGAR. 249 
a second and even a third time, each of the operations being 
followed by rolling, so that all the hills may have an equal 
height, and that the summits of the hills in which the beet is 
to take root may be firm and not so liable to be dried up by 
the wind which prevails at that season of the year. During 
preparation of the hills from two. hundred to five hundred kilo¬ 
grams of Peruvian guano is sprinkled over them, according to 
the quality of the soil. 
The distance between the hills is important, as it affects in 
more than one way the growth and culture of the beet. The 
inclination of the sides of the hills being about forty-five de¬ 
grees, the greater the distance between the hills the higher their 
summits will be, and the greater will be the length of the beet. 
The soil also with high hills is better drained, better permeated 
by the air, and easier influenced by the first heats, a circum¬ 
stance which will facilitate early sowing and prolong the time 
of vegetation for the beet, increasing also the amount of sugar. 
The distance between the hills contributes also to the facility 
of cultivation. The leaves readily develop in the space allowed 
them, and are at a sufficient distance from the ground so as 
not to be affected by the radiation of heat, which always 
destroys some of the leaves in flat cultivation. 
The practice now is to make the hills fifteen centimeters 
high and eighty centimeters from the top of one to the top of 
the other. The hills are made flat on the top in order that the 
beet in its first stages may develop freely and penetrate the 
whole depth of the soil. A thorough rolling always precedes 
sowing. 
Sowing .—Sowing is done either by machines or by hand. 
In the first method an ordinary sowing machine is used, whose 
• wheels have been exchanged for movable gorged rollers, which 
round off the edge of the hill, and are< 3 apable of being adjusted 
at the same time so as to correspond to the irregularities in size 
of the different hills. Sowing by hand is, however, more easy , 
more economical, and insures a better crop. 
In hand-sowing two or three seeds are planted in holes two or 
three centimeters deep and fifteen centimeters apart, when the 
