CULTURE OF THE SUGAR BEET. 287 



The variety cultivated was a pink beet rather rooty, smooth skin, belonging to the 

 ordinary race of the country. The saccharine degree, 7.94, is low for extraction. In 

 two other experimental fields, cultivated in beets without interruption for ten years, 

 one of the fields receiving no manure, the other receiving each year a complete chem- 

 ical manure, the yield for the same year, 1879, was — 



Sugar of beets per cent.. 



"Weight of beets per hectare kilos.. 



"Weight of sug<*r per hectare do . . . 



"With "Without 

 manure, manure. 



8. 3 I 10. 



33,000 I 10,000 



2,739 1,000 



In these three crops the proportion of sugar increased according as the total product 

 decreased, but it always remained low enough. In the manured field it increased to 

 13.9 in 1872, with the same common beets of the country, and rose to 16.7 in 1877 with 

 an improved beet. 



On the other hand, at Asnieres, and under the influence of sewage water, the beets 

 being planted at the rate of 10 per superficial meter, the yield per hectare was 80,000 

 kilograms of beets and 4,750 kilograms of sugar after 9 waterings made in July and 

 August in new, sandy, and very poor ground. The crop reached 180,000 kilograms 

 of roots and 6,640 of sugar in a soil irrigated during ten years and until the end of 

 the season. These figures would at first seem to justify the sugar industry when it 

 protests against the tendencies of the culture to push toward a general product by 

 means of manures to the detriment of the industrial yield. Both interests may, how- 

 ever, be conciliated within the limits of reasonable conditions. 



The sugar-producing power of a given surface of leaves is not undefined ; it depends 

 upon the degree of aptitude acquired by a chosen variety of beets and, undoubtedly, 

 also upon the meteorological and other conditions which have presided at the forma- 

 tion of the seed employed. It also depends upon the temperature and clearness of the 

 period of vegetation of the plants issuing from a given seed. If water and manure 

 stimulate the development of the root in an exaggerated degree, as compared with the 

 power of the leaves, the weight of sugar amassed in the root may increase, but it will 

 increase in a much lower proportion than the total weight, and the saccharine content 

 will diminish to an extent injurious to the extraction. There are, therefore, rules to 

 be fixed either for the better preparation of the seed or for the culture of the products 

 of this seed'for the best interests of the two parties concerned. These rules are begin- 

 ning to be determined by the labors of Messrs. Ladureau, Pagnonl, Corenwinder, 

 Dehe"rain, but there still remain several questions to be cleared up. 



It seems to be thoroughly demonstrated that sugar is primarily elaborated in the 

 leaves under the influence of light. Outside the variety chosen, and which should be 

 the best that can practically be procured, the greatest possible surface of leaves 

 should be exposed to luminous action. Every ray of light which strikes the soil with- 

 out being intercepted by a leaf is a lost force. Besides this, it produces a direct evapora- 

 tion from the earth of a quantity of water not passing through the plant, and is a new 

 source of loss to the latter, without the elevation of temperature that may be attributed 

 to this nudity of soil being able to compensate for the assimilating surface which must 

 result from it. Bare spaces in the beet field in good condition should be carefully 

 avoided by regular planting with a separation proportional to the development to be 

 taken by the variety to be cultivated. 



Concerning water and manure, the experiments made at Asnieres may furnish in- 

 formation that may be usefully added to that furnished by the agricultural schools or 

 stations. It may be referred to three types. The first plot of land was submitted to 

 no irrigation, but it had been manured in previous years by the solid deposits in the 

 irrigation trenches from the sewage waters ; the plantation was made at the rate of 10 

 to the superficial meter. A second parcel composed of new and very poor ground 

 received 12 waterings with sewage waters from May 28 to August 28. 



