The Springdale news., 1889-11-08
A PROFITABLE CROP.
How Beet Culture Can Be Made a Source
 of Considerable Income.

of Considerable Income.
 Although considered hard crop to raise, 1 do not find heets SC when properly managed, as nearly all the work can be done with horses, except perhaps once hoeing. We find here that they succeed best on a rich, loamy soil and we like to have it nanured in the winter if possible. as the spring rairs dissolve it and leave it in good condition for spring blowing, which should be done as early as possible. We drag it down and then let it lie until after corn planting, which gives the weeds and grass chance to start. Then We take a spring-tooth harraw or cultivator and thoroughly work it up Three horses and a good tool in this way will kill more weeds than six will after the beets are planted. and it will give the beets the start of the weeds. We run a smoothing har- row over the lot in the opposite direc- ton from that which we wish to SOW it.
 I use a grain drill to SOW mine, al- though any good drill could be used. ! Horse power is much cheaper here than manual labor. We SOW in rows twenty-eight inches apart. by using the middle and next to outside hoes on an eleven hoe drill. which brings it 1 right to run the wheel in the wheel mark coming back, setting the hoes SC as to sow them about one inch and 6 i half deep. By raising up the wheel and turning it one can adjust the speed of the fced-cups so as to drop one seed about every two OF three inches. In this way it takes five or six pounds of seed per acre, which IS about two pounds more than Is used in drilling by hand, but we find it cheaper to cut out two plants than to transplant one. Next we roll the ground, which packs the earth around the seed ard causes it to germiaate quicker When tie plants are np 90 as to see the rows plainly, cultivate. #.e=use the narrowest teeth, and with a good steady horse one can do good work even when the plants are G4itesm small. After they are up two or thrce inches high we take sharp hoes and chop out the extra plants so as to haze thom eight to tcn inches apart in the row, which can be done rapidly and well after little experience. Ne lseepthe ground well stirred, as they need q warm mellow soil to do their best. Ne aim to cultivate them as often as once week through the season and seldom are obliged 10 hoe tboa moro than once; sometimes not at=alI
 Ne leave them in the ground as long as We can. in the fall. without danger of freezing then take oae-horse blow Ind throw t farrow away from both sides of each rew, running as close to the rew as convenient without touch ing the beets. Then we pull them out and throw them into q wagon which can be driven alongside SO as to be kept close at hand, drawing them di- reetly to the pit OF cellar. We top them off with large knife as they are unloaded. They can be handled very fast in this way. We plant some of the Globe kinds, as they are much easier to harvest and nearly as pro- ductiye as the large, long kinds \ barn cellar, or a pit, is the best place to store, being careful not to cover too warm and giving ventilation by plac- ing punches of straw in the top of the ] heap, projecting through the earth until cold weather. If warm, they sweat and rot. When cold weather comes We put coat of horse manure on, which is good covering for them. I lost one pit Of about three hundred bushels last winter from covering too deep in the fall before winter set in 1 Cor. Ohio Farmer