CULTURE OF THE SUGAR BEET. 273 



expenditures and are therefore in position to judge of this and other items of cost in 

 the culture. If the estimates found in the replies to our circulars, for the cost of other 

 operations involved in the culture are made upon the same basis, in the cases where 

 they are very high, such as $7 to $10 per acre for hoeing, for instance, it is easy to be 

 seen haw, even with the heavy applications of manure that have been made, the fig- 

 ures of the estimates given in the last column of our table may frequently be reduced 

 to such an extent as to show a handsome balance of profit to the farmer. 



Again, the estimates for the actual value of the stable manure will seem, in very 

 many cases, to be abnormal. It is true that if it be necessary to purchase it from the 

 stables of the town or village, the prices given, $5 and $6 per cord, are what must be 

 paid. But it can scarcely be reasonably asserted that it will cost anything like this 

 figure to produce it on the farm, and even half the amount named might be considered 

 sufficiently high. 



With the criticisms we have made upon the methods of culture followed, as indi- 

 cated in the replies to the questions of our circular, we leave it to the readers of this 

 report to make their own estimates of the cost of the various operations involved, and 

 we venture the assertion that in almost every case in which an estimate is based upon 

 the suggestions we have given and the system of manuring we have recommended, 

 the total cost will fall below the amounts of value of crop of the past year as given 

 in our table ; and, where there is any exception to this fact, the cause thereof may 

 generally be traced to some preventable deficiency in the quality of the soil or its 

 preparation, the quantity of seed sown, or the operations of culture. 



Another valuable item of profit to be set opposite the account of cost of the various 

 operations of culture is to be found in the favorable condition in which these opera- 

 tions by their thoroughness leave the soil for subsequent crops. It must also be ob- 

 served that an average crop of sugar beets, say 15 tons per acre, will provide for the 

 grower a quantity of pulp, resulting from the extraction of sugar, equivalent in feed- 

 ing value to something over one ton of good meadow hay, which is about the quantity 

 of the average hay crop in New England. 



It will therefore appear that, notwithstanding the many unfortunate results of the 

 past year's experience as to expense, the prospects for the future are by no means dis- 

 couraging. At the bottom of Table A we have brought together the figures showing 

 the comparative cost of culture of beets, corn, and potatoes. In some cases the figures 

 for cost of beets are higher than was reported by the grower, because tbe latter evi- 

 dently omitted to include the cost of the stable manure applied, and this was added in 

 making up our estimates.* It is a question whether something should not be added 

 to the cost of culture of the other crops also on this account. Yet where we take the 

 figures given, that is for the cost of simple cultural operations, it appears that the 

 same complaint can be advanced against other crops as against the beet crop, for in 

 the large majority of cases the margin for profit is small for all the crops, the princi- 

 pal advantage being in favor of potatoes first and then beets. But it remains to be 

 seen whether in coming years, with improved methods of culture, this order of things 

 will not be subject to change. 



Taere is still another consideration to which we would call the attention of the 

 farmers of Maine on account of the many statements we have received to the effect 

 that they could better afford to feed their roots to cattle than to sell them to the sugar 

 company at $5 per ton. It is a fact proven by an infinite number of analyses that the 

 pulps from the factory are really of almost as great value for feeding as the roots them- 

 selves, and the latter can be purchased from the factory at Portland at the compara- 

 tively low rate of $1 per ton. How much better, therefore, to make the exchange with 

 a clear profit. For the information of the farmers who have been the authors of the 



* Where the farmer footed up the estimates himself, leaving cost of stable manure 

 out of account, his figures were accepted and entered into this column ; otherwise, the 

 cost of stable manure was included at a valuation of $3 or $5 per cord, according to the 

 value most frequently given for the locality. 

 18 SB 



