The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-11-08
A PROFITABLE CROP.
How Beet Culture Can BE Made q Sour
of Cen <ic cradle Income.

How Beet Culture Can BE Made Source
of Cen sieerabIe Income.
Although considered hard crop to
raise. l do not find, beets so wher.
properly managed. as nearly all the
work can be done with horses, except
perhaps once hoeing. We find here
that they succeed best on rich. loamy
soil and we like to have it MANFRED in
the winter if possible. as the spring
rains 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 a chance to start.
Then we take a spring-tooth harraw
or a 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 smoothing har-
row over the lot in the opposite direc-
ton from that which we wish to SOW it.
/ 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
right to run the wheel in the wheel
mark coming back, setting the hoes so
as to SOW them about one inch and a
half deep. BY raising up the wheel
and turning it one can adjust the
speed of the feed-cups so as to drop
one seed about every two or 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 and causes it
to terminate quicker. When the
plants are up so as to see
the rows plainly, cultivate. We use
the narrowest teeth, and with a good
steady horse one can do good work
even when the plants are quite small.
After they are up two or three inches
high we take sharp hoes and chop out
the extra plants so as to have them
eight to ten inches apart in the row,
which can be done rapidly and well
after little experience. We keep the
ground we'll stirred, as they need a
warm mellow soil to do their best
We aim to cultivate them as often as
once week through the season and
seldom are obliged to hoe them more
than once; sometimes not at all
We leave them in the ground as long
as we can. in the fall, without danger
OF freezing. then take a one-horse pillow
land throw a furrOw away from both
sides of each row, running as close to
the row as convenient without touch
ing the beets. Then we pull them out
and throw them into wagon which
can be driven alongside so as to be
kept close at hand. drawing them d.
rectly to the pit or 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
ductive as the large. long kinds. A
barn cellar. or 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 a coat of horse manure
on. which is good covering for them.
/ lost one pit of about three hundred
bushels last winter from covering too
deep in the fall before winter set in
Cor Ohio Farmer