534
EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
condition for the next year’s grain, while there is no danger of injury to the latter, as often occurs in direct manuring.
The beet yield can be increased and rendered more certain by planting the seed in ridges.
The advantages of sowing in drills and on ridges are great and have an important influence on the yield.
They are the following : —
1. The upper layer of superior soil and the manure are all collected in the ridges.
2. The application of artificial manure can be conducted together with the sowing, if the machines are arranged for this purpose, and thus all the manure be concentrated in the drills.
3. The seed is preserved from the injurious effects of moisture by means of deep furrow's on each side.
4. The water is led away from the seed in the furrows, and thus little or no crust can form over it.
5. What little crust may form can be broken up by the cultivating implements as soon as it appears ; since these, if made according to my principles, are prevented from disturbing the seed by adjusting their blades to the required positions.
6. In the same manner weeds can be destroyed as soon as their roots are formed, and even before their appearance above the ground ; and this too without awaiting the sprouting of the seed sown.
7. My method of working the soil with implements which pass over the ridges and break up the earth on both sides of them, gives certainly the most perfect results, since the distance between the knives is always the same. By the old method, which cultivated only between the rows, large clods were left untouched, and the weeds undisturbed.
Amongst the various instruments for extracting the beet- root I find those of my own invention the best, and shall show their excellence at the trials. They draw the root from the soil without injury, and at the same time loosen-the earth to a great depth. This is of especial value when it is impossible to plough over all the beet-fields before winter ; which, unfortunately, often happens.
In such cases I have been obliged to renounce the great advantages of cultivating in ridges, since the necessary labor