226 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I'HKPAUATION 01' SEED BED. 



The sugar beet is a deep-rooted plant, and it necessarily follows that deep cultivation 

 in tlio preparation of the seed bed is an absolute necessity. Wliere the subsoil is a 

 hard clay, it is essential to use Ihe sub-soil plmv. Sub-soiling has generally been 

 looked upon as an expensive and laborious operation. A lifteen-year-old boy with a 

 light team operated the sub-soiler on the College farm last spring, doing good work 

 with comparative ease. The surface plowing and sub-soiling were each seven inches 

 deep, thus giving fourteen inches of mellow soil for the beets. The spring sub-soiling, 

 however, jiroved disastrous, as the ground did not regain a suihcient supply of moisture 

 to support the crop. 



In soils with a loose, sandy sub-soil, the use of the sub-soil plow is unnecessary, 

 as the roots easily find room for deep growth, while rain water and available plant 

 food are readily carried down to any depth. 



Preparation of the soil approaches perfection as we increase, to a normal supply, 

 the amount of organic matter, provided it is in a well rotted condition and is thor- 

 oughly incorporated with the soil. It therefore follows that stable manure and green 

 manures are advantageous when applied some time before the beets are sown. It will 

 be seen by a study of some of the tables which follow that stable manure has increased 

 the yield without materially lowering the per cent of svigar. In fact, the average from 

 several co-operative soil test experiments shows an increased per cent of sugar on the 

 plots which received coarse manure over the unfertilized plots, while the highest per 

 cent of sugar was generally obtained from the soil receiving potash and phosphoric acid 

 only. 



Where coarse manure was applied, on sandy loam soil, two months or more before 

 the ground was plowed, no serious injury to the formation of the beets was noticed, 

 and where well rotted manure was applied on the plowed ground and harrowed in, 

 well formed beets of a high per cent of sugar were produced. 



Where coarse manure was applied just prior to plowing the ground and sowing the 

 seed, many ill-formed beets were found with Tiumerous branching horizontal roots. 

 Upon pulling these beets coarse manure was found clinging to the roots. 



Aside from thorough deep plowing and supplying organic matter the lower soil 

 should be well firmed and united with the sub-soil to avoid any check to the capillary 

 flow. 



The surface preparation should be as complete as required in the best prepared gar- 

 den and should continue thoroughly imtil the day the seed is planted, thereby giving 

 the beet seed at least an equal chance with the weeds. 



RELATIVE AMOUNTS OF FERTILIZING ELEMENTS TO APPLY. 



The question how much nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash shall be applied, and 

 what relation shall these elements bear to each other, is one that can only be answered 

 by consulting several individual soils and conditions. The following experiments, many 

 of which we hope to continue on the same soil for a number of years, were designed to 

 answer these questions. 



EXPERIMENT A. 



A piece of light sandy soil in very good tilth was divided into ten uniform plots, 

 1-20 acre each, and treated according to the table below. Two plots were devoted to 

 normal applications of all three elements, nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash; a plot 

 for each of these elements on which double applications were made in connection with 

 normal amounts of the remaining two. a plot each with normal amounts of two 

 elements^ leaving out one, and a plot receiving no fertilizer. 



