SUGAR BEET SEED 429 



Cultivation should be begun as soon as the rows can be 

 followed, and continued at intervals of six or eight days until 

 the tops meet between the rows. A special cultivator which 

 cultivates several rows at a time is in common use. In 

 order to obtain a perfect stand and prevent crowding, the 

 plants must be thinned at about the time the fifth leaf is 

 produced. They are bunched and then thinned by hand 

 in the same manner as already described for mangels, except 

 that the distance between the plants is about 8 inches. The 

 beets should be harvested before danger of frost in the fall, 

 and should be protected from freezing. The tops are ordi- 

 narily twisted off by hand and the beets thrown into piles, 

 from which they are hauled to the sugar factoiy or shipping 

 station. The tops are usually cured for feeding to cattle 

 or other stock. If they are not needed as forage, they should 

 be spread on the land as fertilizer. 



The highest percentage of sugar is produced when there 

 is plenty of moisture, particularly during the early growth, 

 with abundant sunlight. These conditions are found most 

 commonly in the irrigated districts of the Rocky Mountain 

 and Pacific states, though the Northern states generally 

 present favorable conditions for the growth of sugar beets. 



586. Production of Beet Seed. Sugar beets for seed 

 production are selected by taking small samples out of the 

 side of the root with a trier and determining the percentage 

 of sugar they contain. Only those which show the proper 

 sugar content are retained for planting. The hole made 

 by the trier should be filled with charcoal or clay to prevent 

 decay. The roots should be stored over winter in sand in a 

 dry cellar or pit, tested the next spring for sugar content, 

 and then planted in rows in the field to produce seed. From 

 three to five, roots are required to produce a pound of seed. 

 Eighteen to twenty pounds of sugar beet seed per acre is 

 sufficient for a good stand. A large part of the sugar-beet 

 seed sown in the United States is now produced here. 



