BEET AND WHEAT.
The response of the engineer (often the best farmer) to changes in cultural practice is astonishingly quick, especially, I think, in Britain. What most surprises in touring the grain districts of England, and especially in East Anglia, is the immense area—much the biggest in our annals—of sugar beet ; and new machines or tools for extracting it from its depths, which are great, and singling it and hoeing it are legion. Sportsmen (whose point of view in this regard is not worth consideration) do not like the crop. It has none of the virtues of the mangold which provides the partridge with ideally cool cover and at the same time sufficient freedom of movement. The beet grows flush with the ground and the production of leaf—that sugar manufacturing alchemist—converts a field into a jungle. A big field seems to scatter the partridges.
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