70 CULTURE OF THE SUGAR BEET. 



ready reference for those who may contemplate establishing the culture 

 in the sections in the near neighborhood of the line. 



]STow, I do not mean to assert that the band of country I have thus 

 plotted on the map is exclusively that in which the introduction of beet- 

 root culture may be attempted with, prospects of success, but it is cer- 

 tain that within this band the chances of success are greater than they 

 are without it, and it also appears that all the unsuccessful attempts* 

 that have heretofore been made to establish the industry have been at 

 points without it. It is therefore advisable that farmers or manufactur- 

 ers who may design entering upon the prosecution of this industry should 

 study with greatest care these influences which operate with so much 

 benefit or injury upon the profit of the crop. It is evident from what 

 precedes that the beet requires a cool or at least a moderate season for 

 suitable progress in development, that it may not reach maturity in ad- 

 vance of the time for working it into sugar, and under the influence of 

 the rains and elevated temperature of the autumn months enter into a 

 second growth, thereby destroying the valuable constituents which ren- 

 ders it so desirable as a sugar-producing crop. 



In this connection it has been suggested that in sections of protracted 

 warm seasons, when the root will develop and attain full maturity in 

 August, and during the summer drought, the crop could be taken up 

 before the appearance of the autumn rains, and by slicing and drying 

 the roots preserve them until the arrival of the proper season. This 

 mode of procedure has in fact been recommended to the agriculturists 

 of the south of France, and has, it has been stated, been the subject of 

 experiment in Algeria. The method has the objection of being a rather 

 precarious one on account of the chances of the crop being caught after 

 a long-continued drought by late heavy summer showers that would 

 prove almost as injurious as the autumn rains, t 



After the directions given by Briem and others it is scarcely neces- 

 sary to recapitulate here the meteorological conditions which appear to 

 be required by this culture, yet the conclusions arrived at from our 

 study of the subject, in addition, may not appear superfluous. The 

 conditions, then, are in general, comparatively dry and warm spring 

 months during the time for preparation of the soil, planting, and culti- 

 vating the crop ; moderate temperature, abundant and frequent rains 

 during the summer months, the time for ultimate development of the 

 crop and its valuable constituents ; cool dry fall, the time for ripening, 

 harvesting, and storing the crop. If these conditions prevail, the results 

 will be good ; otherwise they will be but medium or even bad. 



*The locations of these attempts are indicated by a red cross in the detailed map. 

 t The experiment of drying beets for preservation in Maine, in the fall of 1878, 

 proved quite disastrous financially for those who engaged in the enterprise. 



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