REPORT OF MR. FRANCIS H. APPLETON.
535
of preparation could not be performed, and have had to sow- on an even surface, which sowing can take place in four rows at once with the use of my machines, and be treated afterwards with my cultivator also on all four rows at once. Ridge sowing and cultivating have thus far been carried on only on one or two rows at once, but I have constructed sowing and manuring machines, for ridge-drills, that work on four rows. These will be shown at the Vienna Universal Exhibition, and will render it possible to introduce ridge drill-sowing again.
My cultivator breaks up the soil on each side of the four rows, and, after turning it, throws it back to its first position. Thus all weeds are rooted up and destroyed, while the soil is thoroughly loosened. This operation can take place both before and immediately after the sprouting of the seed if the soil happens to be crusted over or hardened. It does not cover the seed and sprouts with earth, clods, stones, or manure, nor does it tear them up with the crust, as all this is prevented by movable screens.
The implements for sowing and cultivating the beet which I send to the Vienna Exhibition, are the results of my efforts constantly directed from the commencement of my agricultural labors to working the soil as thoroughly as possible. I I have paid most especial attention to cultivation in drills during the whole of this period, and consider my own implements the most effective of all.
In this manner alone can the greatest yield of beets be secured on a given area, while this is by no means to be accomplished by extending the amount of space devoted to them, say to half the whole cultivated surface of the farm.
It is to be regretted that on the farm Franzenshof, in order to reach a four years’ average of fifty-five and one-half bushels in rye equivalents, per acre for the whole cultivated area, and a net return of $22.49, it was necessary to expend the sum of $47.28 per acre. Those who are unable or unwilling to employ so much working capital will find no profit in the ordinary yield of 18.4 to 27.75 bushels in rye equivalents, but meet with actual loss, since the high rate of taxation, labor, and artisans’ pay, as well as the farmer’s own wants, call for a far greater yield.
These average results of the various harvests show what a