SUGAR BEET

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 258, 26 July 1920, Page 5

SUGAR BEET

Sir.'-Roferring If your -article in The Dominion of July 19 and previous article on the cultivation o£ tho sugar beet. Ouo expert says it is horticulture, as the work has to be done by hand, not agriculture. ' The writer lias crown acres of sugar beet in Canterbury, and found it «s easily grown as. turnips, and hand labour is not necessary in crowing sugar boot except uu taking toe plant up when fully m'atured.' l'irat, rich friable soil worked down as lino as an onion bed with a horse cultivator (no hand labour),, then, the ordinary riding plough. I used 2cwt. of fertiliser to the acre, sown in drills. When the plant is ready for '■ thinning out the thinning is done by an ordinary hoe, leaving the plants about 6m. apart. Then uso the horso hoe,-or scufller, below tho rows. No band" work necessary till the time of pulling up the mature plant for storing. I know nothing about tho mode or machinery requireu for extracting tho sugar.. I used it. for feeding stud sheep-had a machine for slicing iHad a splendid feeding plant I found it to be. I found no dim culty in cultivating this plant.-I am, etc.,

E." MACKAY.

35 Rangitikei Street, Palmerston North, July 21, 1920.