Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1899-09-01
LETTER FROM LOTHIAN ALLEN.
ITHACA, Mich. Aug. IN

ITHACA, MICH, aug. ~, 1893.
Mr.. EDIToR-Dear Sir:
Have been visiting few of the farm.
ers of Pine River township and also
other parts Of the county who are raising
beets. Have been visiting the customers
OF the factory for over two months, out
side OF Gratiot county, and / think that
Gratiot county has better beets and
equally as good if not a little better
farmers than any county that is grow
ing beets for the Alma factory. Does
your paper circulate outside of the county
much, Mr. Editor? II so you had better
leave this out, but it is the fact think.
T. w. Whitney of st. Louis his over
90 acres of very good beets. l thought
they ought to be cultivated again, or
twice more would be better If this dry
weather continues. Otto Mey has 10
acres that are excellent and more
that are little later, but they seem to
be doing we'll. He was just preparing
TO cultivate them all again. J.W. Doane
Las 10 acres of fine beets that seem to be
doing well. | think that cultivating
these again III the center of the row
deep, would give good results. Silas
Moody has over 10 acres of beets that
seem to be doing well regardless of the
severe drouth Mr.. Moody has been
cultivating ! tely and was just prepar-
ing TO do so again L X. Post has 8
acres of fine beets; Daniel Wood also
has that are good and not weed to be
seen in them II. A. Isenhath has a
patch that got little the start of him
in the spring, but he went right at it
and has fine patch now. q. +. Bough-
ton has | b acres Of extra fine beets. G..
lng AT
that seem to be growing in spite of hard
ground and drouth. There are a good
many others that l visited that had very
fine patches of beets, but space forbids
to mention all names. 1t seems to Inc
that all patches where the ground is so
hard between the rows should be Guilt
waited Immediately, and if the dry
weather continues, | should cultivate it
again in the course of week or ten days.
This cultivating should be done in the
center Of the row Go or six inches) and
shallower at the outside The little
spiketooth cultivatOrs are good for this
where you have rot the large beet Guilt
vators. On the little cultivator put the
front teeth dow u as low as possible and
raise the back teeth. This will give the
deeper cultivation in the center Of the
broken, and it also gives the beets a
be tier chance TO expand without raising
out of the ground. Take the wheel off
if necessary and put stone on to make
it 60 into the ground. Where the ground
is very hard and the beets are raising
out of it, should cultivate as above and |
then go through with cultivator with |
the teeth set so as TO brush some dirt |
around the beets.
The beet crop represents too much |
money for to leave anything undone that |
will add to the utility of the crop and |
give us better results. We can afford to |
attend to it just the right way if we
only know what that way is. would
;ay TO those that seem to be afraid TO
cultivate, go and cultivate part of your
patch and in the course of week cult
rate again, and watch results. Now the
bulletins all teach that on early sown
)eets it is about time to lay them by
because they want to stop their growth
or to ripen, but my dear reader do you
rave any idea that in that hard beet
'atch Of yours you can possibly cultivate
nough such weather as this to stimu-
ate any too much growth? In fact, if
ou do not do this | am afraid your beets
will ripen too quickly for best results.
JOTHAM ALLEN.