138 ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 



is possible to return the pulp, and this should always 

 be done. 



Advantages of Beets. Sugar beets have still other 

 advantages over tobacco. In the first place, the price 

 is fixed by the factory before the beets are planted. 

 The factory usually contracts to give about $4.50 per 

 ton for beets that test 14 per cent of sugar, with an 

 additional 25 cents per ton for each additional I per 

 cent of sugar. Thus beets testing 15 per cent will 

 bring $4.75 per ton, and beets testing 16 per cent will 

 bring $5 per ton. They will usually agree to ship the 

 pulp back to the farmer at a small cost, say 25 cents 

 per ton. The farmer knows just what price he is 

 going to get for his crop. What his land brings him 

 per acre depends upon his own efforts, and he will 

 then bend all his energies toward producing a high 

 test and a big yield. With other crops a big general 

 yield usually means a low price, but a big crop of beets 

 does not affect the price. 



Again, beets require less care than tobacco. They 

 do not need to be housed or cured. No capital need 

 be invested in sheds or curing rooms. 



In the third place, they can be grown successfully 

 on a large variety of soils, and they furnish, when 

 the pulp is returned to the farm, an excellent food for 

 stock. 



In the fourth place, their long roots, and the deep 

 cultivation required, bring to the surface fertility from 

 deep down in the soil. In Germany, several years 

 after their cultivation was introduced, more grain was 



