Sugar Beet Investigations for 1899. 401 



July 5tli thinned to a stand the beets on the east one-half of plat 

 21, and on the east one-half of plat 22, and on plats 23, 24, 25, 26 

 and 27. The west one-half of plat 21 was permitted to remain with- 

 out any thinning while the west one-half of plat 22 was bunched. 

 On the west one-half of plat 21 the beets were allowed to remain 

 thickly in the row until July 19 when they were thinned to a stand, 

 there being left a space of about nine inches between beets in the 

 row. On the west one-half of plat 22, the beets which had been 

 bunched were permitted to remain in bunches until July 19, when 

 they were thinned to a stand of one beet in a place. Tillage was 

 given on all plats on July 7, July 19 and July 25. 



The thorough working of the land before the beets were planted 

 tended to hasten their growth. The weed seeds which were present 

 in the soil germinated before the second planting of the beets and were 

 thus destroyed by the late plowing. The soil was thoroughly warm 

 owing to an abundant rainfall during July, 3.46 inches, the seeds 

 germinated quickly and the plants grew rapidly. 



The beets were not seriously injured by insects or disease. The 

 growth of top was relatively small compared with the growth of 

 root. To a casual observer the field never presented the appear- 

 ance of having more than half a crop of beets. 



Harvesting and yield. — The sugar beet harvest began November 

 3. A Syracuse chilled sub-soil plow was used to loosen the beets 

 in the ground, after which they were trimmed by hand. The yield 

 of trimmed beets from the various plats, also the per cent of sugar 

 and the per cent purity are shown in the following table, 



26 



