PREFACE 9 



been carried on on a large scale for the 

 last twenty or thirty years, the total 

 acreage being at present approximately 

 four million acres that is, nearly ten 

 times as much as the whole acreage under 

 mangel cultivation in England. 



Another important point with regard 

 to sugar beet cultivation is that this 

 root can be grown year in year out in the 

 same ground, and it will be found that 

 after a few years the crop will give a 

 better yield than at first. It stands to 

 reason, of course, that proper manure 

 must be applied so as to give back to the 

 soil what has been taken out of it. 



But again the secret of such results is, 

 as we have said before, deep ploughing. 



We have, in the course of our experi- 

 ments carried out in England, met many 

 farmers, and though all were ready and 

 willing to listen, and willing to try the 

 new crop themselves, consideration was 

 given to the large acreage which would be 

 required to feed a sugar factory in a 

 given district the general impression 

 being that it might displace in time the 



