Leases for Sugar Beets.
I have land in Yolo county that has made an average yield yearly of from 12 to 18 sacks of wheat and barley. A beet sugar company proposes renting this land and plant it to sugar beets and I would prefer not to consider any agreement of less than five years' duration. The particular point that I would like to have you advise me on is the effect sugar beet has upon the soil.
You certainly have good soil, and it is not strange that a sugar company should desire to rent it for its purposes. There is, however, a great question as to whether it would be desirable to run to beets continually for five years. Beets make a strong draft on some components of the soil, and it is a common experience that they should not be grown year after year for a long period, but should take their place in a rotation, in the course of which one or two crops of beets should be followed by a crop of grain, and that if possible by a leguminous plant like alfalfa or an annual legume like burr clover used for pasturage, and then to beets again. Beets improve soil for grain, because of the deep running of the root, and because beet culture is not profitable without deep plowing and continuous summer cultivation. This deepens and cleans the land to the manifest advantage of the grain crop, but still the beet reduces the plant food in the soil and some change of crop should be made with reference to its restoration. We would much prefer to lease it for two years than for five years of beet growing.
Topping Mangel Wurzels.
Does it harm the mangel wurzels if their tops ore cut off once a month?
Removing leaves will decrease the size and harden the tissues of the beet root. If you wish to grow the plant for the top, the root will continue to put out leaves for you for a time; if you grow it for the size and quality of the root, you need all the leaf-action you can get, therefore do not reduce the foliage.
Blooming Brussels Sprouts.
Are Brussels sprouts male and female? Some of my plants are flowering and show no signs of sprouts, while those that are not, show some small eyes at stem that look like young sprouts.
Brussels sprouts ought to form the sprouts without flowering, just as a cabbage heads without flowering. Those plants which show flowers have been stopped by drought or otherwise, and have taken on prematurely the second stage of growth which is productive of seed and is undesirable from the point of view of growing heads.
Blanching Celery.