EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 199 



The variety tests at Holland, Detroit and Saginaw showed a wide variation in the 

 per cent of sugar in beets of the same variety when grown under varying condi- 

 tions. They did not show the superiority of any one variety on all three types 

 of soil. 



6. The not infrequent abuse of the soil by growing three crops of beets in 

 succession on the same land is shown to be exceedingly injurious, the crops growing 

 on the soil thus abused being less than on adjacent plots where a normal rotation 

 is followed, this decrease In yield being shown for at least two years after the 

 growing of the beets. 



7. Economy demands that the rows of beets shall be no nearer together than is 

 necessary for the maximum yield. As a result of observations for five years it is 

 recommended that the rows be no nearer than twenty inches and that on all 

 ordinary soils not treated with stable manures or commercial fertilizers, the dis- 

 tance may well be twenty-four inches or even twenty-eight inches. 



8. It pays' to use commercial fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosphoric acid 

 and potash, at the usual prices. Most soils need all three* constituents. Taking the 

 experiments of 1903 in connection with those which preceded them, it is safe to 

 conclude that the nitrates are always in demand even on the richest soils. They 

 should of course be applied early. Potash is needed on nearly all Michigan soils. 

 Phosphoric acid increases the yield in every case except on a soil giving nearly 

 fifteen tons to the acre without the addition of commercial fertilizers. On all soils 

 except the last, all three ingredients mentioned are needed and their application 

 is profitable. The amount of seed per acre and the work required is the same 

 except at harvest, with a crop of eight as with a crop of fifteen tons. If, thei-efore. 

 the application of the fertilizers Increases the yield per acre to an amount equal to 

 the cost of the fertilizers, it still pays to use them. In the experiments reported 

 here the increment is greater than the cost of the commercial fertilizers. 



9. Spraying with Bordeaux mixture decreases the amount of blight and when 

 the proper tools for spraying economically are invented it will undoubtedly pay to 

 spray the beet fields to prevent this disease. 



r. PBELIJIINAKY IXVESTIOATIOXS. 



The measure of the value of a crop of sugar beets is the sugar contained and in 

 our calculations heretofore, the unit of value has be-n the estimated amount of 

 sugar produced on an acre. Where, for instance, varieties of beets have been com- 

 pared, they have been sown on adjacent plots and, at harvest time the beets on 

 each plot had been weighed and a half dozen beets from each plot had been pulped 

 together and tested for sugar under the assumption that the per cent of sugar in 

 the few" beets thus taken was identical, or approximately so, with the per cent 

 of sugar in the whole plot. Naturally, it is inconvenient if not impossible to grind 

 up all of the beets on the plot and make a composite test of such magnitude. In 

 selecting the sample beets for analysis they have sometimes been pulled hap 

 hazard without plan, again, after the plot has been harvested and weighed, beets of 

 average size and typical in shape of the given variety have been taken from the 

 loads; again, before harvest every fifth or sixth beet has been taken, or one every 

 two paces, or one from each square rod. Various circumstances have given rise to 

 suspicion that these few beets were not certain to fairly represent the plot from 

 which they were taken. A few observations bearing on this question are hero 

 recorded. 



1. Testing each beet in the row — Some seed, received from Dr. Wiley, of the 

 Department of Agriculture, had been sown in a plot of fairly homogeneous soil 

 Considering the source of the seed it is fair to suppose that it was from selected 

 mothers and uniform in quality. A single row in the middle of the plot, som^ 

 eight rods long, contained fifty-nine beets. They were pulled and numbered ac 

 cording to the Jocation in the row,, with results following: 



