278 ' STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



SUGAR BEETS IN THE UPPER PENINSULA. 



C. D. SMITH DIRECTOR;, AND SUPERINTENDENT L. M. GEISMAR. 



Special Bulletin No. 18. 



The map of the so-called "Sugar Beet Belt," as published in 1896, in- 

 cludes less than the south half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. 

 ''Farmers' Bulletin, No. 52," in wfiich it is contained, states : "Experience 

 has shown that the sugar beet reaches its highest development in north 

 temperate latitudes. So far as the production of beets with high tonnage 

 is concerned, it is found that this can be accomplished far to the south, 

 but beets grown in such localities are, upon the whole, less rich in sugar 

 and less suitable to the manufacture of sugar than those grown farther 

 north." 



The sugar beet belt is determined as a zone of varying width, through 

 the center of which passes the isothermal line of seventy degrees for the 

 months of June, July and August; the city of Lansing being the most 

 northern point in the belt in Michigan and the belt being more fully de- 

 scribed : 



"Extending a distance of one hundred miles on each side of this isother- 

 mal line is a belt which, for the present, may be regarded as the theoretical 

 beet sugar area of the United States. There are doubtless many localities 

 lying outside of this belt, both north and south, in which the sugar beet 

 will be found to thrive, but this will be due to some exceptional qualities 

 of the climate or soil, and not to any favorable influence of a higher or 

 lower temperature." 



Later investigations of the Department of Agriculture at Washington 

 led to material changes in the theoretical map of the sugar beet belt. It 

 was found that areas well adapted to the economical production of beets 

 were found well outside the belt bounded by lines drawn parallel to the 

 isotherm of seventy degrees for the summer months and 100 miles distant 

 from it. It was also found that conditions other than summer tempera- 

 ture nnist be considered in this connection. The revised map of 1897, for 

 instance, extended the northern limit of the beet belt in Michigan north- 

 ward to a line drawn east and west through Iosco and Benzie counties. 



In a bulletin issued by the Nation?il Department of Agriculture in 1899. 

 entitled "Progress of the Beet Sugar Industry in the United States in 

 1898." -page 133. Dr. H. W. Wiley, chemist of the department, says: 

 "North of the limit of the belt, however, the extension of the culture of the 

 beet can be pushed just as far as the climate will permit the ripening of 

 the crop and the harvesting and the care thereof before the freezing of 

 winter sets in. Our experience in this country has shown that the farther 

 north, other things being equal, beet culture is practiced, the better the 

 quality of the beets produced. This is due to the fact that by reason of 

 the longer days which are secured by going farther north, the activity of 

 the chlorophyll cells of the beet leaves, in which, under the influence of 

 light and heat, the sugar is elaborated, is increased and extended, so that 



