FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 57 



it is utilized, aud as fbrty per cent of its value is in the stalks we believe, 

 after fifteen years experience, that at least a portion of the crop should be 

 utilized for silage. To secure the greatest value from the crop and to 

 keep pace with the commercial world the farmer must study economics 

 on the farm. 



SUGAR BEETS, THEIR PLANTING AND CARE. 



BY L. W. OVIATT, AUBURN, MICHIGAN. 



We feel that to us has been assigned (possibly very unwisely) the dis- 

 cussion of one of the most important questions that will be discussed at 

 this meeting. And that you may better understand us, we will briefly 

 state our position regarding this industry. 



Many of you will remember when we sat in this room, and listened 

 to a discussion of this question by the late Doctor Kedzie, before earth 

 ever had been broken for a sugar factory in Michigan, and how he as a 

 a result of years of most careful and painstaking investigation, presented 

 a chart showing by colored lines the average rainfall, mean temperature 

 and hours of sunshine for each month of the beet-growing season, of the 

 principal beet sugar producing countries of the w^orld, as well as of our 

 own State, where at that time not a pound of beet sugar was produced. 

 He showed conclusively that the conditions were favorable to our becom- 

 ing one of the best sugar-producing countries of the world, and in conclu- 

 sion said that in his judgment there was no more need of our going 

 abroad for our sugar than there was of our doing so for our potatoes, flour 

 or pork. Let me say just here that had this Agricultural College and 

 Experiment Station n^v?r done anything else than to establish the sugar 

 interest in Michigan it lias been and will be worth to the State all it has 

 cost. 



We went out from this hall that day with the firm conviction that when 

 both producer and manufacturer learned the business thoroughly, as we 

 are only just beginning to do, it would become one of the most satisfactory 

 branches of agriculture for our State and although we have never climbed 

 the mountain-tops of anticipation along this line we have never seen any- 

 thing to change our first convictions however much injury has been done 

 to the business by exaggerated and visionary statements. 



Our position might be illustrated by a stake driven out a little from 

 shore on the beach when the swells are coming in. Sometimes the wave of 

 public opinion would run high over our heads and we would be earnestly 

 cautioning our friends to go slow and be careful, then a little reverse 

 would come and we would find ourselves standing out very prominently 

 and urging them not to be discouraged but to try again, and since the ex- 

 ceptionally unfavorable conditions of the past two seasons, we find this 

 usually the case. 



We shall try to touch particularly those points where we think the 

 greatest mistakes are made. First, if sugar beets are to become a perma- 

 nent factor in Michigan agriculture, they must be given their place in 

 the regular crop rotation, and as they require less acreage than other 

 8 



