EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III. 93 



Question: How have they turned out? 



Mr. Moore: We had beets this year that approached close to 

 $85 per acre. We have had 22 and 23-acre pieces that went better 

 than $42. Last year the farmers were told to plow deep, the ordi- 

 nary plowing has been five to six inches, and some of the farmers 

 lost their crops last year on that account, although we had farmers 

 last year who raised in 10-acre fields beets that averaged better than 

 17 tons. We have had two or three acre fields that went 22 to 24 

 tons. 



Question: Wouldn't that indicate that a man w^ho has a little 

 piece would take the better care of his beets? 



Mr. Moore: You take it, where a small piece is taken in con- 

 nection with the other farm work, it gets better care. Where a 

 man has a big piece and the rain comes on to him, the piece gets 

 a little too big for him, whereas in a smaller piece they are able 

 to take care of it and get it cleaned up. The trouble this year was 

 the rains came on in July and where they had large pieces, they be- 

 came discouraged. 



A Member: Can you tell what I have raised on a small patch 



of sugar beets. I remember the last crop I raised I had i/4 acre. I 

 took a small sled and marked it out; it was never thinned. I 

 cultivated it with a corn plow three times, and pulled out of it 

 three 26-inch boxes. 



Mr. Moore : You pl^-nted them as wide as corn, but they wasn't 

 thinned at all? 



]\Ir. Reeves: That would be about five tons. I have grown 

 sugar beets for the last ten years. I started in ten years ago with 

 the idea of getting a factory at Waverly, and that it was a practical 

 thing for the farmer. On the start it is somewhat difficult ; but 

 when you get along, probably five acres will be what the average 

 farmer will get along with. You can hire the children from the 

 town, as they are loose from school about the time they are needed, 

 and it is a good thing to set them to work ; the little chaps will earn 

 a dollar a day. All the good to the community cannot be figured 

 by the profit the farmer gets from the beets, because more than that 

 amount has gone into the pockets of the laborers. The children 

 wouldn't be doing anything except running the streets or up and 

 down the river and fields, committing depredations. If you have 

 an industry like this in your community, they are learning some- 

 thing useful ; it makes them more manly and womanly. You have 



