New York Aoukjultukal Experiment Station. 585 



of the entire actual product from a fairly exteriHive area will 

 give safe figur^rrs. 



The yield this year on the Station farm from a two-acre field 

 was at the rate of sixteen and a quarter tons pf^r acre, which 

 quantity, after cutting off the toj) of the beet in the manner re- 

 quired at the factory, and making due allowance for dirt, was 

 considerably reduced. This field of beets was on some of the best 

 land the Exi>eriraent Station farm contains, and was ^ven thor- 

 ough cultivation and the best of care. The sugar content in this 

 crop was very satisfactory. 



It is significant that during the j>ast five year-s the average pro- 

 duction in Belgium, and also in Germany, has varied from about 

 eleven to approximately thirteen and a half tons per acre. To be 

 sure these are averages, and while averages are not a measure of 

 what the best farmers may do, they are the standards by which, 

 as before stated, the success of a business must be gauged. We 

 should not expect the American farmer to do much better than 

 the Euroj>ean farmer, where this industry has for a long time 

 existed, esi^ecially at first. New York farmers, if they enter upon 

 the i>roduction of sugar beets, will have occasion to congratulate 

 themselves, if, for the first two or three years they reach an aver- 

 age of twelve tons of high grade product per acre. This is not 

 necessarily a condemnation of the business. 



We must remember still further that it is necessary for the 

 farmer and the manufacturer to be. mutually prosx>erous, and 

 there certainly are some facts which seem to warrant careful 

 consideration, by the farmer, of the manufacturers side of th'- 

 business. 



There is great danger that much of the capital which is likely 

 to be invested in this new enterpri.se will be inefficiently directed. 

 The manufacture of beet sugar is something with which ea.stern 

 bu-siness men have had no experience, and no careful .study of 

 means and methods will take the place of the knowledge which 

 comes from experience. Disasters to capital which may cause 

 lo.sses to farmers are to be feared. It behooves business men, 

 therefore, to proceed with the erection of beet-sugar factories 



