Of this excellent root there are quite a number of varieties.
Mangel-Wurtzel yields most for field-culture, and is the great beet for
feeding to domestic animals; not generally used for the table. French
Sugar or Amber Beet is good for field-culture, both in quality and
yield; but it is not equal to the Wurtzel. Yellow-Turnip-rooted, Early
Blood-Turnip-rooted, Early Dwarf Blood, Early White Scarcity, and Long
Blood, are among the leading garden varieties. Of all the beets, three
only need be cultivated in this country--the Wurtzel for feeding, and
the Early Blood Turnip-rooted and Long Blood for the table. The Early
Blood is the best through the whole season, comes early, and can be
easily kept so as to be good for the table in the spring. The Long Blood
is later, and very much esteemed. Beets may be easily forwarded in
hotbeds. Sow seed early, and transplant in garden as soon as the soil is
warm enough to promote their growth. When well done, the removal retards
their growth but little.
Young beets are universally esteemed. To have them of excellent quality
during all the winter, it is only necessary to plant on the last days of
July. If the weather be dry, water well, so as to get them up, and they
will attain the size and age at which they are most valued. Keep them in
the cellar for use, as other beets. They will keep as well as old ones.
_Field-Culture._--Make the soil very mellow, fifteen to eighteen inches
deep. Soil having a little sand in its composition is always best. Even
very sandy land is good if it be sufficiently enriched. Choose land on
which water will not stand in a wet season. Beets endure drought better
than extreme wet. Having made the surface perfectly mellow, and free
from clods, weeds, and stones, sow in drills, with a machine for the
purpose, two feet apart. This is wide enough for a small cultivator to
pass between them. After planting, roll the surface smooth and level;
this will greatly facilitate early cultivation. On a rough surface you
can not cultivate small plants without destroying many of them; hence
the necessity of straight rows and thorough rolling. The English books
recommend planting this and other roots on ridges: for their climate it
is good, but for ours it is bad. They have to guard against too much
moisture, and we against drought; hence, they should plant on ridges,
and we on an even surface. To get the largest crop, plow a deep furrow
for each row, put in plenty of good manure, cover it with the plow and
level the surface, and plant over the manure. When well growing, they
should be thinned to six or eight inches in the row. Often stirring the
earth while they are young is of great benefit. The quality and quantity
of a root-crop depend much upon the rapidity of its growth. Slow growth
gives harder roots of worse flavor, as well as a stinted crop.
_Harvesting_ should be done just before severe frosts. They will grow
until frost comes, however early they were planted, or whatever size
they may have attained. They grow as rapidly after light frosts as at
any time in the season; but very severe frosts expose them to rot during
winter.
_Preserving_ for table use is usually done by putting in boxes with
moist sand, or the mould in which they grew. This excludes air, and, if
kept a little moist, will preserve them perfectly. Roots are always
better buried below frost out-door on a dry knoll, where water will not
stand in the pits. But in cold climates it is necessary to have some in
the cellar for winter use. The common method of burying beets, and
turnips, and all other roots out-door, is well understood. The only
requisites are, a dry location secured from frost, straw next the roots,
a covering of earth, not too deep while the weather is yet mild; as it
grows cold, put on another covering of straw, and over it a foot of
earth; as it becomes very cold, put on a load or two of barnyard manure:
this will save them beyond the power of the coldest winter. Vast
quantities of roots buried outdoor are destroyed annually by frost, and
there is no need of ever losing a bushel. You "_thought_ they would not
freeze," is not half as good as spending two hours' time in covering, so
that you _know_ they can not freeze. There is hardly a more provoking
piece of carelessness, in the whole range of domestic economy, than the
needless loss of so many edible roots by frost.
_The table use_ of beets is everywhere known; their value for feeding
animals is not duly appreciated in this country. No one who keeps
domestic animals or fowls should fail to raise a beet-crop; it is one of
the surest crops grown; it is never destroyed by insects, and drought
affects it but very little. On good soil, beets produce an enormous
weight to the acre. The lower leaves may be stripped off twice during
the season, to feed to cows or other stock, without injury to the crop.
Cows will give more milk for fifteen days, fed on this root alone, than
on any other feed; they then begin to get too fat, and decline in milk:
hence, they should be fed beets and hay or other food in about equal
parts, on which they will do better than in any other way. Horses do
better on equal parts of beet and hay than on ordinary hay and grain.
Horses fed thus will fatten, needing only the addition of a little
ground grain, when working hard. Plenty of beets, with a little other
food, makes cows give milk as well as in summer. Raw beets cut fine,
with a little milk, will fatten hogs as fast as boiled potatoes. All
fowls are fond of them, chopped fine and mixed with other food. Sheep,
also, are fond of them. They are very valuable to ewes in the spring
when lambs come, when they especially need succulent food. The free use
of this root by English farmers is an important reason of their great
success in raising fine sheep and lambs. They promote the health of
animals, and none ever tire of them. As it needs no cooking, it is the
cheapest food of the root kind. Beets will keep longer, and in better
condition, than any other root. They never give any disagreeable flavor
to milk. It is considered established, now, that four pounds of beet
equal in nourishment five pounds of carrot. Every large feeder should
have a cellar beyond the reach of frosts, and of large dimensions,
accessible at all times, in which to keep his roots. These beets should
be piled up there as cord-wood, to give a free circulation of the air.
In Germany, the beet-crop takes the place of much of their meadows, at
a great saving of expense, producing remarkably fine horses, and
fattening immense herds of cattle, which they export to France. We
insist upon the importance of a beet-crop to every man who owns an acre
of land and a few domestic animals, or only a cow and a few fowls.