No. 33.] 193 
varieties of Sugar beet. In the beet, richness in flavor, and in sugar 
accompany small size, hence in choosing a variety for table use, we 
should not necessarily select the most productive one. 
We do not note the comparative earliness of the different varieties, 
owing to the difficulty of securing a fair standard for comparison. 
We note however a rule which seems to apply pretty well with all 
the garden roots, and to the onion also, viz., the more depressed the 
root or bulb, or in other words, the “ flatter” it is, the more rapid 
is its development. 
By planting several samples of seed grown in the station garden 
in the summer of 1883, we learned the important fact that the 
varieties of this vegetable cross-fertilize by natural agencies, and 
hence can only be kept pure when grown separated some distance 
from each other. We made experimental plantings with seven 
varieties, sowing the earliest, and the latest ripening seed of each in 
adjoining rows. The mixed condition of the crop renders deductions 
unsafe. We note however that the earliest ripe seed gave on the 
average considerably larger vegetations than the later, and that the 
largest percentage of vegetation secured from any of the beets was 
from a planting of the Early Blood Turnip variety, the seed of which 
was gathered very green. 
The Use of Salt as a Fertilizer. 
Common salt is often recommended as a fertilizer for the beet. 
In order to test its efficacy, we applied to ten rows of the Half Long 
Blood variety, common salt of the rate of, as nearly as could be cal- 
culated one ton per acre, leaving ten adjoining rows untreated. 
During the growing season, a difference in the foliage was readily 
perceptible, it being decidedly more vigorous on the salted plat. 
The roots, however, failed to show any marked effect from the use 
of the salt. The ten rows receiving no salt, yielded 126 Ibs. 7 1-4 
oz. of roots, while the salted plat yielded 129 lbs. 14 0z., the differ- 
ence being about three per cent in favor of the salted rows. 
CARROT. | 
Test of Varieties. 
_ We tested in the garden the list of Carrots named in the following 
table. The seeds were planted April 25, in rows ten feet long and 
twenty-one inches apart, one hundred seeds in each row. The soil 
was manured as for beets, and the plants were thinned where sufii- 
ciently thick to require it. We note the time required for vegeta 
tion, per cent. of vegetation, and the number and weight of roots 
harvested. 
[Assem. Doc. No. 33.] 25 
