Co-operative; Test of Sugar Beets. 41 



Chemist Harvey W. Wiley, of the Department of Agriculture, 

 in his report to the Secretary of Agriculture, on experiments with 

 Sugar Beets published in Bulletin No. 33 says : " We are accus- 

 tomed to look with suspicion upon any yield of sugar beets which 

 exceeds 25 tons per acre. While it is not impossible to secure a 

 higher yield than this of good saccharine quality, yet it is so rare 

 as to throw doubt upon miscellaneous data showing an excess of 

 that yield." In studying the yields per acre in the above tables, 

 it must be borne in mind that in many cases the seed was sown in 

 small quantities in gardens, and given wholly hand culture. That 

 this condition of affairs existed was evident from the statement 

 that the seed in some cases was planted in gardens in rows too 

 near together to admit of horse cultivation. 



While the results in these do not give a correct idea of what 

 might be expected on the same kind of soil from a more extended 

 cultivation in a practical way, they may serve a useful purpose in 

 showing what can be accomplished in the way of securing large 

 yields of beets per acre. 



Had the seed been sent out earlier, undoubtedly better results 

 would have been reported, but as the samples were received from 

 Washington at so late a date that the farmers could not be noti- 

 fied that samples would be sent them, the first knowledge they 

 had of the request to co-operate with us was with the receipt of 

 the seed. Many had already planted or sowed to other crops 

 their land, that was at all suitable to the cultivation of beets, and 

 consequently many samples of seed were not sowed at all, and 

 many others that were sowed failed to germinate. 



The fact that so many samples of seed failed to germinate was 

 probably due to their being sowed on poorly fitted land not suited 

 to the cultivation of the beet and to the drought which was quite 

 general throughout the state from May until August. For con- 

 venience of study the foregoing table is re-arranged into three 

 tables according to varieties, and also into three tables according 

 to the kind of soil in which the beets were grown. 



