186 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



SUGAR BEET EXPERIMENTS, 1901. 



J. D. TOWAE. 



Bulletin No. 197. — Agricultural Department. 

 CONTENTS. 



The experiments recorded in this bulletin tire as follows: 



I. A test of eight varieties. 



II. Trials of different dates of planting and averages of results for three years' 



experiments. 



III. The average results of three years' experiments with different spaeings of rows. 



IV. An experiment with maximum, minimum and normal amounts of the several 



fertilizing elements with averages for three years. 

 V. An experiment to determine the effect of an excessive amount of each fertilizing 

 element when used with normal quantities of the ether two. 

 VI. A soil test experiment with fertilizers and averages for three years. 

 VII. A comparison with stable manures with other fertilizers with averages for three 



years. 

 VIII. An experiment on the influence of lime on the sugar beet. 

 IX. A comparison of nitrate and ammonia nitrogen. 

 X. The exhaustive effect of the sugar beet crop. 



XL Tables showing the variation in the sugar content of beets between September Id 

 and November 16, from plantings made on various dates in April. May and June. 

 XII. Table showing temperature, amount of rainfall and per cent of clouds from April 

 1 to December 1, 1901. 



XIII. Shrinkage of beets in storage. 



XIV. Miscellaneous experiments. 



XV. Notes and analyses on diseased beets. 

 XVI. Illustrations showing the effect of size on the sugar content of beets. 



VARIETY TESTS. 



The variety test this year was conducted with seeds from eight different sources 

 as shown in the tables below. The ground was a sandy loam which had been used for 

 variety tests of clovers for three years previous. It received during the winter a 

 moderate coating of stable manure in which there was a liberal amount of straw. The 

 ground was plowed and sub-soiled, each to the depth of seven inches, April 19, followed 

 promptly with the roller, and harrowed four times, twice with spring tooth harrow, 

 and twice with the Acme. On May 13 the seed was sown. Two hundred pounds of 

 fertilizer composed of one part of nitrate soda, two parts dissolved phosphate of rock, 

 and one part muriate of potash was applied and harrowed in one week before sowing 

 the seed. The field was divided into three sections, and six rows of each of the eight 

 varieties were sown on each section; the order of arrangement being the same in each 

 section. This method of seeding was simply to insure as near as -possible uniform condi- 

 tions for each variety. In one section a hill dropping attachment was employed by 

 means of which the seeds were dropped at eight inch spaces. Observations at the time 

 of thinning, however, proved that this method of seeding was of no advantage. In 

 fact, it was concluded, that were the thinning to be delayed beyond the early part of 

 the period for this operation, the bunchy growth would be injurious rather than benefi- 

 cial, by reason of the fact that where so many beets are required to grow in a small 

 space, none of them will do as well as they would were they grown singly. The hill 

 dropping device did not seem to lessen the work of thinning. The beets were thinned 

 on June 15. The other work of caring for the crop was performed in the usual way. 



