16 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



SOME OF THE OBSTACLES. 



Up to this point the Michigan farmer has every reason for self congratu- 

 lation on the advent of this promising infant industry; but he is foolish 

 in the extreme if he does not study and prepare for the diflSculties and 

 unusual requirements following in its train. First comes the great 

 amount of hand labor required. Says the Special Keport on the sugar 

 beet industry, issued by the United States Department of Agriculture, "It 

 requires all the fortitude of a community to meet the first shock, when 

 the revelation of the amount of labor to be performed in raising the beets 

 first dawns upon them." The "bunching" can be rapidly done with a hoe, 

 and then must follow from 60 to 80 hours of the most tedious hand work 

 to thin an acre. This work can be imperfectly performed or postponed 

 only at great money loss to the grower in decreased percentage of sugar 

 and increased expense in thinning, the season for which lasts but about 

 two weeks. Thereafter the beet roots rapidly twine about each other and 

 greatly hinder separation. As the extreme limit, allowing that one man 

 can thin two acres, at a season, June 20 to July 1st, if there is scarcity 

 of laborers in a community what will be that scarcity when it adds from 

 3,000 to 5,000 acres of sugar beets to its crop rotation. Obviously con- 

 tracts should be for small acreages, thinly scattered, or that failing, large 

 importation of laborers be made during this critical period. Harvesting 

 also requires about an equal amount of hand labor. 



One of the most irksome tasks imposed is that of sub-soiling, yet it 

 doubtless is one of the most necessary ones upon the average Michigan 

 farms. They are unlike the deep friable soils of the west. Generally 

 speaking, at a depth of from 6 to 10 inches we encounter either a stiff 

 clay sub-soil, a hard pan, or "plow pan," which must be broken to allow 

 the deep penetration of the long tap root, and insure the complete cover- 

 ing of the body of the beet with earth. Otherwise there will result a 

 prongy, mis-shapen, bifurcated mass of roots, protruding high above the 

 surface and low in sugar content. It pays many per cent to sub-soil, 

 opening up as it does a wealth of water, potash, phosphoric acid and 

 nitrogen. 



SOIL EXHAUSTION. 



As bearing on the question of soil exhaustion, the following table will 

 give an idea of the amount of plant food removed by 1,000 pounds of beets 

 and beet-leaves as compared with the same constituents added to the 

 land by the application of an equal weight of well-preserved barn yard 

 manure: 



