THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



261 



THE SUGAR BEET. 



The many experimental efforts at sugar 

 beet growing during 1897 fully demon- 

 strated that the new and profitable crop 

 could be handled successfully in nearly 

 every section of the irrigated West. My 

 experience was highly satisfactory and the 

 analysis made in Washington and at the 

 Utah Experiment Station gave good re- 

 sults. The product ranged about fourteen 

 tons per acre from raw sage brush land, 

 and the sugar content was more than the 

 average even on beet farms. Five analyses 

 made during September, October and No- 

 vember, returned sugar in the juice from 

 16.2 to 20.43 per cent and 82.5 to 85 per 

 cent purity. The samples harvested 

 about the middle of October were the best 

 and the transplanted tubers contained 

 more saccharine and yielded at least two 

 tons more per acre than those left in the 

 original seed rows. 



The land was plowed about ten inches 

 on April 15 and seeds drilled in rows six- 

 teen inches apart April 29. Plants were up 

 nicely May 10, wJien I cultivated with 

 a garden plow and irrigated about once in 

 ten days to two weeks during the season. 

 Immediately following each irrigation I 

 used the plow and hoe keeping the soil 

 stirred and the weeds down. Beets were 

 thinned in June to stand from three to six 

 inches apart. Those remaining close to- 

 gether had upright tops and did not con- 

 tain as much sugar as those having low, 

 flat tops, the saccharine matter being col- 

 lected from the atmosphere the wide 

 spreading, thrifty tops did best. No in- 

 sect disturbed the plants and but few sin- 

 gle tubers weighed over two pounds. The 

 beets were relished for table use while 

 young as greens, and later as pickles, and 

 were eagerly devoured by the cows, horses, 

 hogs and poultry. The tubers kept well 

 in the cellar and I found them an all round 

 profitable crop. 



Sugar beets are small, round, oval tubers 

 resembling parsnips. They can be grown 

 on any soil and will yield from ten to 

 twenty-five tons to the acre depending up- 



on the location and cultivation. The 

 price paid for beets by sugar factories 

 runs between $4.00 and $5.00 a ton and 

 the cost of growing an acre is $30 or more 

 varying with the value of the land occu- 

 pied. Several beet growers have given me 

 their figures on cost and receipts and, while 

 they vary considerably the average is about 

 $75,00 from an acre with an expenditure 

 of $30 for plowing, planting, cultivating 

 harvesting and working the crops. These 

 figures would i?ot apply in all localities, 

 but where a factory is near at hand. The 

 unsaleable beets are used for stock feeding 

 and the tops are left on the ground ' for 

 fertilizers. A good beet crop leaves the 

 soil in excellent condition, free of weed 

 seeds and better in every respect because 

 of such tillages as the beets require. All 

 farmers, however are not successful beet 

 growers any more than all merchants are 

 successful business men. 



Beet sugar factories are being erected 

 in many sections of the west and farmers 

 should grow some beets in order to test 

 their abilities and demonstrate the possi- 

 bilities of the soil. There is no danger 

 from an overproduction very soon, hence 

 this generations of farmers need not fear 

 but what a market can be obtained. Our 

 country imported in 1895 over seventy- 

 six million dollars worth of sugar and near 

 ly one and one half million in molasses and 

 confectionary. So long as such conditions 

 exist there is room for home sugar factor- 

 ies, making sugar, syrup, confectionary 

 and rum from beets, and insuring the far- 

 mers a market for their products. In ad- 

 ditiion to the income from growing beets 

 the factories create a home demand for 

 everything the farm produces and furnish 

 labor for many hundreds of men, woman 

 and children. The beet pulp is used for 

 fattening cattle, sheep and hogs and a fac- 

 tory using 50,000 tons of beets annually 

 would supply enough pulp to feed an im- 

 mense herd of stock. The era of sugar 

 beet growing has come and its opportunities 

 should be graspad before the time of change- 

 able investments shoves it to the rear. 



