SPURRY. Spergula arvensis, Linn. Cargophyllacew. Fig. 816.
Sperry is used for forage and as a green-manure. In the genus are three to eight species, widely distributed throughout the temperate regions of the Old World. Only two species have been culti vated, one of which is the common or sand spurry (Spergula arrensis) and the other the giant spurry (S. maxima). The latter differs principally in its larger size and by some botanists is considered a mere variety of the former. Because of its large size it is a more valuable species under cultivation.
S. arrensis is an annual, growing twelve to fifteen inches tall, and producing a mass of stems bearing numer ous whorls of narrow, linear leaves. The spurrys are closely related to chickweed.
Spurry is cultivated con siderably by dairy farmers, especially on sandy soils, in Holland and to a less extent in Great Britain and Ger many. The common spurry occurs throughout this coun try and is sometimes trouble some as a weed in grain, espe cially on sandy lands. About Sitka and other places on the Alaskan coast it is the most troublesome weed yet intro duced. The seed yield is eight to twelve bushels or more per acre, and it is largely owing to its enormous seed produc tion that it becomes trouble some.
Sperry has been largely tested in this country in an experimental way and great hopes were enter tained that it would become an exceedingly valu able crop on the sandy jack-pine lands of Michigan, which, however, has not proved to be the case. In the light of our present knowledge it can not be recommended as a farm crop in any part of the United States.
The value of spurry depends largely on its rapid growth, the crop maturing in six to ten weeks from seeding. It is mostly fed green and is considered an especially good feed for dairy cattle and sheep. It is not infrequently refused by live stock at first, but animals soon become used to it and eat it readily either as hay or as pasture. It has also been used as a green-manure crop on sandy soils, and in exceptional cases has yielded as much as twenty tons of green substance per acre.
It is hardly worth while to experiment with spurry, except as a catch-crop, on other than loose sandy soils. The seed should be sown at the rate of six to eight quarts per acre and lightly covered with a harrow when grown for hay or pasture or for green-manure. About half this quantity of seed is required when the crop is raised for seed. It is most commonly planted in early spring, but in Germany it is also planted in early fall on grain stubble. It is somewhat drought-resistant. A good seed-bed should he prepared, as for clover. Germi nation takes place quickly, and in two months the crop will have ripened seed. It may be cut for hay at the end of six weeks from sowing, and may be pastured as early as one month from sowing. If
the crop is allowed to stand until the seed is fully ripe, enough seed will shatter to ensure a succeed ing crop.
Literature.
Bulletin No. 91, Michigan Agricultural Experi ment Station ; Bulletin No. 2, Division of Agros tology, United States Department of Agriculture ; Handbook of Experiment Station Work ; Schmidlen Schuler, Futter and Wiesen Krauter. (Illustrations are given in the first and last mentioned citations.) Beta vulgaris, Moq. Chenopodi (weir. Figs. 817-825.
By C. 0. Townsend.
The sugar-beet is a root crop," grown chiefly for the manufacture of sugar from the roots, and for stock-feeding. It is one of the small-growing varie ties of Beta vulgaris, with medium tops. The roots are small to medium, usually fusiform, smooth and nearly always yellowish or whitish. Other forms of beet-root are mangels [see article on Root Crops], garden beets, chard and ornamental-leaved beets. All of them, probably, are developed from the wild Beta maritima of the coasts in Europe.
History.
Both the red and the white beet were known at least three centuries before the Christian era, but it is only within comparatively recent times that any variety of beet has been recognized as a sugar producing plant. About the middle of the eight eenth century, Marggraff, a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, succeeded in separating sugar from a large number of plants, including beets. He found more sugar in the beet than in any other plant which he investigated, and at once advocated the manufacture of sugar from the beet root on a commercial scale. Nothing was done, however, until a half-century later, when Achard, a former pupil of Marggraff, took up the investigation and modified and cheapened the process of extracting the sugar. As a result of Achard's investigations, much interest in producing sugar from beets was awakened throughout the civilized world, so that, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, we find a large number of investigators endeavoring not only to improve the methods of extraction and purification of sugar from beets but also by selec tion and cultivation to improve the beet itself both in size and in quality. This interest was further stimulated and encouraged by governmental aid, especially in France, and by prizes offered by nu merous scientific and industrial societies in vari ous countries, with the result that as early as 1812 beet-root sugar was offered for sale in commercial quantities, about thirteen tons being placed on the market at that time. From this small beginning the beet-sugar industry has advanced in spite of many difficulties, until the beet-sugar factories now in operation throughout the civilized world number more than 1,300, and the total quantity of sugar produced from beet roots aggregates upward of 7,000,000 tons annually.