VEGETABLES. 319 
sized beets, of perfect form, no fingers and toes, grown entirely under 
ground, solid, compact, with a high percentage of sucrose and a small 
percentage of other solids in the sap, which are separated with difficulty 
from the sugar in the processes of refining. Good yields are wanted, but 
not too much at the expense of per cent and purity of sugar in the juice. 
A large yield of sugar per acre in large, coarse beets is often nearly worth- 
less on account of the materials which must be gotten rid of in extract- 
ing the sugar. 
Value per acre of beets depends upon the amount of sugar grown and the 
cost in manufacturing it, and not alone upon the tons of beets brought in 
the farmer’s wagons. As the better butter and cheese factories now all pay 
for milk on its analysis, so beet factories pay for beets on chemical an- 
alysis. 
To grow the most value per acre, the following general plan is recom- 
mended: 
Choose any good corn land that is of such a texture that natural down- 
ward drainage or percolation is easy and complete. Too light a soil, as 
one largely of sand, is not best, as it is too much liable to drouth. Like- 
wise a Stiff clay is too cold, may be too wet, and is too hard for the easy 
penetration and development of the roots, and on this land cultivation 
is too difficult and expensive with beets. The prairie loam, the timber 
soil made up of a happy mixture of clay, sand and humus, in fact most of 
our immense amount of rich soils, exactly suit the beet. Just as the edu- 
cation of the boy should begin by educating his parents, so the prepara- 
tion of the soil for beets must be begun in growing the previous crops. 
It will not pay to grow beets on weedy soil. It simply costs too much in weed- 
ing. As sugar beets are nearly certain to grow too large and coarse if 
placed on freshly manured lands, two crops of corn or other hoed crops 
in which not a single weed is allowed to seed, should be grown on our rich 
lands between the manuring and beet crop. They can then be raised 
without so much expense, and will have fair size with excellent form and 
quality. Fall plowing may pay in some cases, but as a rule I should plow 
only once and that in the spring, following at once with the drag or some 
better surface pulverizer. As the plowing should be done nearly or quite 
ten inches deep, less raw subsoil will have to be turned up if the plowing 
for the previous crop has been nearly that deep. 
The land should be put in fine condition at the surface. The seed 
should be planted at corn planting time or even a little earlier.. Twenty 
pounds per acre should be planted with a hand drill, Mathews is good, 
or with a horse planter, where obtainable. The rows should be eighteen 
inches apart, with the intention of using hand wheel-hoes in cultivating. 
Thick planting results in more value per acre, as there is then a large 
yield of medium sized beets. Planting in rows twenty-four inches apart, 
with a view to cultivating between the rows with a horse hoe, will suit 
many farmers as they can afford to give the one-third more land and the 
Slight difference in the quality of the beets for the chance to substitute 
horse for man power. The seeds should be covered about three-fourths 
of an inch, and with a horse machine we found care necessary that the 
press wheels do not go too deeply in the softland. The cultivation should 
begin very early, and the first work is best done by the hand wheel-hoe 
run very close to either side of the newly appeared plants. Ifthe ground 
