New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 



201 



beets covering a definite small area and basing the estimate for 

 an acre on the data so obtained. Another method employed in 

 figuring out large yields is to obtain the average weight of a few 

 beets and then assume that an acre contains forty thousand beets, 

 each having the same weight as the average obtained. Moreover, 

 reports of yields are often based on results secured in growing a 

 fraction of an acre of beets under conditions which are more 

 favorable than those met in working with several acres. 



To oibtain the fairest idea of yield under commercial conditions, 

 we can do no better than to study the results furnished by actual 

 operations where sugar beets have been s;uccessfully grown for a 

 period of years on a commercial scale. Below we present results 

 reported by the sugar-beet factory at Lehi, near Salt Lake City, 

 Utah, and by the Chino Valley Beet Sugar Company, in Southern 

 California, and also some data derived from German sources. 



Yield of Marketable Beets Grown on One Acre. 



There is no reason to believe that the average New York farmer 

 ,will secure results largely in excess of those reported above. If 

 an average yield of 10 tons an acre can be secured at the start, 

 our farmers will realize larger returns than did those of California 

 and Utah during the first years of their experience. The table 

 above is encouraging in that it shows steady progress on the part 

 of the farmers in securing larger yields. The commercial experi- 

 ence of others should impress our farmers that they are not to 

 expect exceptionally large returns the first year, for this is likely, 

 in the very nature of the case, to prove the poorest in yield; but 

 acquired experience should bring with each year an increased 

 yield. During the past season we secured a yield of 15.1 tons of 

 marketable beet roots an acre on the Station farm. 



