MALIGNED BF.ET.
Farmers in many districts especially in East Anglia have been angered by an onslaught on sugar-beet and the form of its encouragement. The crop has saved a great number of farmers from bankruptcy, multiplied labour on the land and brought the nation as a whole considerable wealth. The extent of its cultivation is in sonic respects amazing. One single farmer in the eastern counties has himself well over 2,000 acres under beet. I should doubt whether there is any record in the history of British far ' g of so large a cultivation of an intensive crop. Of course the subsidy which established the crop, has been immense ; but it is a pity that Lord Olivier and others should exaggerate on this head. Sugar is only one of the valuable attributes of sugar-beet. You minimise by a large percentage the value of the crop by estimating solely the produce of sugar. All the by-products, especially the leaves and pulp are of high value ; and more than this, the deep roots acting as subsoilers permanently enrich the land. The crop is regenerating many English acres as it regenerated European soils when its culti- vation was enforced by Napoleon.
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