su<iAR i:i-:i';r i\ sor'iii M'Kua. 175 



care till watching, and with brack sochi soils waiting to be cul- 

 tivated, a crop capable of substituting soda for potash is worth 

 keej)ing in view, especially as mangold ash contains unusually 

 large proportions of chlorine, and " beets, being the descendants 

 of a maritime i)lant, are found to be benefitted by applications 

 of c(,)mnK)n salt to the soil in which they are grown."* Leach,f 

 quoting Monier, states that 82.2 per cent, of the raw sugar-beet 

 ash consists of the carl)onates of potassium and sodium, and 

 ilial potassium and sodium sul])hate, togetlicr with sodium 

 chloride, make up 1 1 . 1 ])er cent. 



The whole matter is not one that can be taken up and settled 

 oti'-hand ; it is one of the many points points in which careful 

 chemical investigation is needed, and all through the line of 

 investigation this one thread of thought should twine itself; 

 How are the needs and requirements of the crop responded to 

 by the meteorological, agronomic, and other local c(Miditions of 

 South Africa, and is it possible to bring these into perfect 

 correspondence with each other? Questions such as these are 

 being studied in other lands ; the Secretary of Agriculture of the 

 United States mentions those investigations in more than otie 

 of his reports. I 



In his report for the year T911 the United States Secretary 

 of Agriculture urges the establishment of 



a system of well-equipped field lal^oratories in the beet-growing regions, 

 where studies in pathology, breeding and agronnmy can be carried out in 

 close contact with the fields. 



He adds that two additional lal)oratories of this kind had 

 bsen started durhig that year. Later on. he says: — 



A representative of the Department lias l)een sent to visit the beet 

 tields and experiment stations of Germany, France, and Russia, with a 

 view to adapting their practices to American conditions. § 



It is to be hoped that the tentative investigations begun in 

 South Africa years ago will soon be taken uv in earnest and 

 result in definite information on a comprehensive scale. There 

 is the more reason for this because the cultivation of sugar-beet 

 would be with us, as in the United States, an imported industry. 

 The industry was transplanted from Europe, where it was first 

 developed, into the United States, " udiere the basis of labour 

 costs and farm methods are quite different from those of Europe. 

 Therefore American beet-growers must work out many problems 

 in adjusting their cultural practice to their labour, soil, and 

 climatic conditions. ''|1 South Africa, too, has differences from 



* Thorpe : "Diet, of Applied Chemistry," 1, 435. 



t " Food Inspection and .Analysis" (1913), 569. 



$Year Book, Dept. of Agr.. U.S.A. (1908). 13, 443; (1909). 77- See 

 also U.S. Dept. of Agr. Report Xo. 92, " Progress of the Beet Sugar 

 Industry in the United States in 1909." 



§Year Book, Dept. of Agr., U.S.A. (1911), 57, .S8. 



II H. B. Shaw: "Sugar Beets: Preventable losses in culture." U.S. 

 Dept. of Agriculture, Bull. Xo. 238; July 14. 1915. 



