Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-04-17
Home Grown Feeds. Talk on Raising
6Oets

'In the first place we grow beets
to feed our cows and heifers dur
ing Official test work." says Leslie
E. McIntire Of East Waterford. I'VE
have found that while We were feed
ing an increased amount Of grain
the adding of beets to the ration
made it practically safe to feed this
larger amount of grain. am not
advocating the growing OF beets be-
cause l think they are a cheap crop
to grow, compared with silage, but
you must remember there are many
places in Maine where you can not
grow silage corn to good advantage,
hut could grow beets..
I'VE find the reason for the high
cost OF growing beets. is the large
amount of hand labor that has to be
used in hoeing, thinning and har-
yesting the crop.
TT is only fair for me to say that
what knowledge ! may have in
growing beets l got many years ago
at the College Of Agriculture and
Farmers Week from Mr.. Osgood
who knew how to grow beets for
market.
Right here let me say that many
farmers all over Maine, If they could
come to Orono, Farmers Week with
their problems, would get help in
solving them, and would also be able
to help others, the same as l was
helped by Mr.. Osgood.
I'VE select a piece OF land that
was cultivated the year before, corn
is a good crop to follow with beets,
enc of the main things Is to have
your land as free from weeds as
possible.
This land We dress with a good
coat of barn manure and pillow under
in the fall. In the spring we put on
another fair coat and pulverize as
soon as the ground is right to work,
and continue to pulverize as needed
until time to plant. We have had
the best success with early planted
crops, so We plan to get our beets
planted some two weeks before our
corn.
when the time and land is right
10 plant we broadcast about 1900
pounds 5-S-7 or 4-8-4 to the acre,
and thoroughly work this into the
soil. We must remember the beet
Is q tiny plant when 1t first comes up
out Of the ground and must have a
fine seed bed. Now comes one of
the secrets of beet growing, per-
haps you have already learned, If
not it Is this. We take our two
horse potato hoe that we hill our
potatoes with. and ridge our piece
of land as you would hill your pota-
toes. about thirty inches apart, if
there were any loose stones we re-
moved them. Then we take our
land roller and roll the piece length
wise Of the rows. Now II we have
done our work thoroughly we have
got an ideal seed bed, all ready for
the hand seed drill, which we set
at work as soon as possible, for the
reason we want to get the seed into
the moist soil at once, for the nature
of the beet seed calls for moisture
as well as heat to make 1t terminate
and come up quickly. l have said
nothing about quality Of seed, for /
assume we all realize we must have
the best. In due time IL we have
done our work we'll and the seed
was good, weather favorable, we
will have n stand of beets. If we
should have a light frost after they
are up they will not mind it.
las soon as you can see the
plants you can go through with
enc horse cultivator set narrow and
follow with the hoe and cut any
weeds on the side of the ridge, and
follow this method as often as nee
essary until time to thin, that is
when 1t takes a lot OF time and care
to do 1t right, you have to look out
and not thin when 1t is too hot and
dry.
When It comes to thinning our
method would be a little different
than the man growing beets for
market. You can readily see that
when you have got to pull and re-
move the top from every beet, the
larger they are the less in number
the less cost in harvesting and
handling, and we think more weight
per acre, so we thin for that object"