the highest grade beets since it reduces the manufacturing 

 cost. As a rule, however, the beets with the highest sugar 

 content do not produce the largest yield per acre. Hence, 

 much study is given by seed growers to the matter of pro- 

 ducing beets that will combine a high sugar content with a 

 good tonnage per acre. Seed which will give good yields 

 of high quality beets under proper conditions may prove dis- 

 appointing under bad conditions of soil, tillage, season, or 

 manuring. 



While the factories instruct the farmers in regard to suit- 

 able soils and tillage, even to the extent of sometimes taking 

 charge of all the tillage work from the time the beets are 

 planted until the harvest, there has been too little attention 

 paid to the matter of profitable manuring of the crop. Doubt- 

 less this is due in some degree to the opinion commonly held 

 in the irrigated region that water is both food and drink to 

 the plant, while in the humid region most of the beets are 

 grown where the use of commercial plant foods is very little 

 understood. 



Under these circumstances, it is not strange that very few 

 factory managers or superintendents have given any serious 

 attention to the question of the most profitable manuring of 

 the crop. Too often it is dismissed as being "unnecessary'* 

 instead of inquiring whether it can. be made profitable. From 

 time to time, some experiments have been made but often 

 these took the form of testing some manufacturer's "brand" 

 rather than an investigation of the real plant food require- 

 ments of the crop. And even when more systematic ex- 

 periments were undertaken, the time and method of applica- 



7 



