58 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



field crops, we can select those parts of our fields that are best adapted 

 to their growth, but never, plant beets on soil infested with June grass. 

 Be very sure to have the field well plowed. Let me emphasize this point, 

 for if a field be poorly plowed and specially where June grass is present 

 there is but one inevitable result and that is a failure. 



Let the land be plowed either the fall before, which is best, or as 

 early in the spring as possible, without injury to the land. Then work 

 thoroughly and often until seeding time. Never wait until ready to 

 seed fcefore preparing the land. If prepared thus early, the land will 

 become well firmed down to the sub-soil, and with a fine surface seed-bed. 



Beets, to do their best, must have firm footing. This firming process 

 will do more to insure a perfect stand of beets than anything we know 

 of. You have only to notice the headlands in any beet field to become 

 convinced of the fact. The matters of amounts of seeds used, width 

 of rows, and distance of thinning that is usually made so much of, we 

 consider of comparatively minor importance. Use plenty of seed; say 

 fifteen pounds per acre, to insure perfect stand of beets, and plant in 

 rows eighteen to twenty-four inches apart. We are coming to favor 

 the wide rows, because the little difference in the land occupied will be 

 more than made up by the ease of working and the larger growth of 

 beets: thin to at least eight inches in the row for good rich soil and 

 wider for a thin soil, and do this at the proper time. 



Now if I were to advise the beet growers of Michigan in a way to 

 help them in all their operations, and had to condense At all into three 

 little words, those words would be, ''Be. In Time." "Be In Time." Espe- 

 cially is this important in the matter of thinning. Remember that not 

 only do the weeds take advantage of delay, but also each beet plant in 

 the row is a weed to its neighbor. Now to illustrate, let us take two 

 rows, side by side, in a field that has been reasonably well handled up 

 to this point. One row we will thin and weed just as soon as the young 

 beet is large enough to grasp readily, to at least eight to ten inches in 

 the row. It will look as though we were leaving .nothing in the row at 

 all, but we need not fear. Now we will let the other row stand, as hun- 

 dreds and thousands of acres of beets in Michigan do stand each year, 

 until the weeds and beets have grown into a mass four, six or even 

 eight inches high. Then come back and weed this row. We will find the 

 young beets have long, slim, tender leaves, very light and sickly in color 

 and in removing the mass that surrounds each beet, Ave will so completely 

 destroy its root system that it simply has to stand still, if indeed it is 

 able to stand at all, until it can throw out and develop an entirely new 

 root system, and we find the cost of weeding will be nearly if not quite 

 double the expense of weeding the other row. 



Now if we notice the beets in the first row, we will find them with a 

 deep, rich color, stout, blocky little fellows that are ready to do business 

 from the start. The truth is, on this row with reasonable care thereafter, 

 there is a prospect of a handsome profit, Avhile with the other row con- 

 ditions will have to be very favorable indeed for it to pay its way. W^hen 

 we allow our beets to stand too long before thinning, we do two things, we 

 multiply the cost and divide the result, and right here is usually the divid- 

 ing line between success and failure. After thinning, give the beets 

 thorough tillage and good results are almost sure to follow. 



Now, I am not "'a prophet or a son of a ]U'opheT." but I am going to 

 predict a few things. 



