Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-11-20
Reported for the vERHoST FARMER.
BEET CULTURE.

BEET CULTURE.
part OF a paper read before the Georgia
Grange, ON the question, "Does Il pay TO
raise roots for stocki n so what kind shall
we raise ."
The adaptation of the soil and climate,
and especially the high state of cultivation
gland, France, and Germany, to grow very
large crops of bests. The quality, too, is
very much superior to those grown in any
part Of eur country, and there the most fa.
vored varieties yield an average of only 8
per cent of sugar, S5 per cent being water,
according to the best chemical authority.
Beots possess very little value aside from the
sugar they contain, so little, indeed, that at
the sugar factories in England the pulp
(aside from the sugar. from ton Of beets is
sold to the farmers for Is sd for feed aud
manure. The experience Of the best beet
sugar manufacturers in this country proves
that while beets acquire most Of their sac
charine matter at the approach of winter in
the cid countries they loso half aud not
unfrequently ali their sweetness here, if al
lowed to stand two or three weeks too long.
Who Of us ignorant Of this fact would not be
likely to ruin his entire crop?
1t is no small job to raise, harvest, and
house 20 or 80 tons of beets then to cut
them with ordinary convOniences aud feed
them is winters work for one man.
Most farmers have no root cellars under
their barns, neither can one be built for
triAiug sum, or for a sum equal to all the
profit can see in root culture. The troub-
le and labor does not end here suppose
these roots are carried by the farmer to the
barn 10 rods distant, pecks at time, he
would carry that load in all 80 to 54 miles,
usually in an uneven snow path. When
this farmer comes to rest and reflect that he
has thus carried 10 tons, or about Ill bar
rels of water to the barn in basket, he will
undoubtedly be inclined to discontinue this
new aqueduct business. Then if beets are
fed literally to dairies they make such a
filth and horrid miasma in the warm stable
that the dairyman may be recognized in a
crowd without looking for hay seed, but by
the smell.
Would any brother like to know how to
raise 20 or so tons to the acre as they do in
England ? We must first thoroughly under.
drain, then spade or subsol our fields to the
depth of l5 or 20 inches, and 6ll it with
manure, both solid and liquid, from the
kitchen, the stable, and the city gutter.
This should all have been done last year.
This season cover the surface with manure,
plow deep, aud apply from $50 to $50 worth
Of commercial fertilizers, commencing with
about 400 pounds of bone dust, also salt, su-
perphosphHte, guano, &c. All this. being
done, If fortune favors We may get 80 or 40
tons but probably much less. Some brother
is ready to say that this is cxtravagant.
True it would seem 50 to US, but the best OF
authority states that the crops Of England
remove $4,000 tons of phosphoric acid
alone from the soil annually. To supply
this she imports large proportion Of her
grain, saves and manufactures all the ma
nure possible, aud then uses $4,000 tons OF
superphosphates. The entire crops Of Yer
mont are said to take only 957 tons from
the soil, which is nearly 12,l43 tons less
in proportion to tho size of our state, COM
pared with England. The amount of super
phosphates purchased in Vermont is still
smaller in proportion, according to stats
tics. Now it one Of the first steps towards
competing with England is for Vermont tc
buy $4,000 or 10000 tons, costing s900,-
600, and really worth only one half the
money, to feed our extra root crops princi'
paly, l repeat if this is only first step
towards accomplishing an object which we
can never attain for want Of capital an(
cheap labor, Gf no other reason,) then yo'
will agree with me that we have gone quite
far enough in this direction.
In reply to the suggestion that almost any
farmer can raise one or two acres Of beet
without impoverishing the soil, we would re
fer them to the abandoned cotton and to
bacco plantations of the South, and still
nearer, to the Connecticut Valley, where thu
farmers say that "fve years of tobacco grow
ing is ten years too much" for five year
more of extra care will not restore the fer
tility of their soil. Our light grain crops
and our meadows averaging hardly one toI
Of hay to the acre through the state, arC
positive evidence that our soil lacks at leas
some Of the elements Of fertility. The bes
chemists attribute this principally to de
: 6ciency of phosphOric acid and potash. II
show the absurdity Of trying to grow sucl
crops here, let US see what we must add Il
the soil annually If we would raise them an
not ruin our land. The best EGglish au
r thsrities decide that 10 tons Of beets TAX,
! from the acre Of land l75 pounds of phos
phOric acid, worth S2S, which would be sui
ficient to grow 20 crops Ofwheat Ofl7 bush
els each. Also that the same crop of beet
would take away $40 pounds Of potash
I worth S45,lO, aud sufficient to grow cro
0 of seventeen bushels Of wheat ll6 years an