TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. 



77 



No hops are produced the first year and no poles 

 are needed. A crop of corn or potatoes may be raised 

 between the hop hills. 



Potatoes and hops flourish best together. Either 

 crop will shade the ground and thus help the young 

 plants and give a return for cultivation. The second 

 year the hops will produce enough to pay the expenses 

 of cultivation and sometimes more. One pole to the 

 hill will suffice for the second year unless an unusually 

 strong growth has been obtained the first year. The 

 third year a full crop is produced, and the plant will 

 continue to produce well for ten years, and will pro- 

 duce much longer, but experienced growers prefer to 

 renew every ten or twelve years. 



One pole to the hill can be made to answer by 

 stringing the yard. This is done by putting a long 

 and strong pole in the center of every nine and run- 

 ning a strong string from its top to the other eight 

 at a point six feet from the ground and sending four 

 vines from each hill to this point, then two on the 

 string and two on the pole. The strings cost about 

 5.00 per acre. This saves an outlay of $60 to $100 

 per acre for poles, if the grower has to buy them, but 

 the labor of stringing exceeds that of setting the 

 second poles. Irrigation enough to keep the ground 

 damp below the surface is all that is needed. Frequent 

 cultivation to keep the ground free from weeds and 

 well aerated is essential. 



Harvest comes in the early part of September. 

 Picking costs % to 1 cent, per Ib. green, or 3to4 cents 

 per dried pound. Drying including coal and brim- 

 stone (to bleach and add to the keeping quality) and 

 all labor costs about 1 cent per Ib. Other expenses 

 5 cents per Ib., making a total of 10 cents baled and 

 ready for market. These figures are based on econo- 

 mical culture by experienced hands. Even less than 

 10 cents is claimed by New York growers, as an 

 average cost of producing, but beginners should 

 reckon on 10 to 15 cents in Colorado. One man can 

 take care of five acres until harvest with slight assist- 

 ance in the early part of the season. 



The setts should be planted between the middle of 

 March and middle of April, but as late as May 1st 

 will answer. 



THE IRRIGATION OF SUGAR BEETS. 



BY FRANKLIN H. AUSTIN* 



IT has been generally regarded in sugar circles that 

 the sugar beet cannot be successfully grown 

 where irrigation is necessary. Although my youth 

 was passed among the sugar-cane fields of the 

 Hawaiian islands, and I received a thorough training 

 in the manufacture of cane sugar, I cannot say that I 

 have more than a general knowledge of the beet 

 sugar industry. It has frequently occurred to me, 

 however, since becoming interested in irrigation in 



Southern California, that there should be no valid 

 reason why the sugar beet cannot be successfully 

 grown under irrigation, if the nature of the plant is 

 carefully studied. My attention was again called to 

 the matter by an article in the May number of THE 

 IRRIGATION AGE, which speaks of the low percent- 

 age in sucrose obtained from irrigated beets at Lehi, 

 Utah, factory last summer. THE AGE says: "The 

 sugar beet, like other plants, requires for its proper 

 growth and maturity a certain amount of moisture. 

 Whether this be supplied by natural processes 

 through the usual rainfall, or whether properly ap- 

 plied by artificial means can scarcely make a radical 

 difference with the plant itself." It is upon this very 

 point that I am compelled to differ with the writer of 

 the foregoing paragraph. The artificial application 

 of moisture does make a radical difference with the 

 plant; that is, as far as its sugar-making qualities are 

 concerned. 



All plants that produce crystallizable sugar are of a 

 cellular formation. During the early growth of the 

 plant the cells are filled, principally, with grape- 

 sugar, or glucose, without the slightest trace of su- 

 crose. At some period, probably during the latter part 

 of the plant's growth, the glucose in the cells under- 

 goes a gradual chemical change and sucrose is formed. 

 It is very difficult, almost impossible, in fact, to ascer- 

 tain exactly when this change begins. It is at first 

 gradual and almost imperceptible, but later on, dur- 

 ing the latter period of the plant's growth, the forma- 

 tion of sucrose is very rapid. Any sudden applica- 

 tion of moisture to the plant during this period of 

 transition has the tendency, to use a technical term, 

 of inverting the sugar, or to reduce it to glucose 

 again. 



The only practical method of applying moisture 

 by irrigation is that of bringing it immediately in 

 contact with the roots of the plant. This sudden ap- 

 plication, if it occurs during the early portion of the 

 transition period, is likely to destroy the sucrose 

 altogether, and the process of nature in the forma- 

 tion of sugar must begin all over again. If artificial 

 moisture is applied during the latter portion of the 

 plant's growth when sucrose is forming rapidly, it 

 must necessarily either reduce the sucrose, or at least 

 stay its formation for a time. In fact, to prevent the 

 invertion of sugar, or its return to glucose its origi- 

 nal state is the greatest difficulty to be surmounted 

 in the manufacture of sugar. All moisture intro- 

 duced in the process of diffusion must be removed 

 by evaporation and the glucose remaining practically 

 removed before the sugar can be crystallized. It is 

 fair to presume, then', that all superfluous moisture 

 furnished the plant during the formation of the su- 

 crose must be disposed of before the process can go 

 on, and all such delays necessarily reduce the per- 



