34 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND 



The cost of preparing and planting the ground in 

 Illinois with a crop of beets would not exceed that 

 of preparing and planting it with corn, for it would 

 all be done by the same machinery that is now used. 

 The increase of cost would arise from the greater 

 amount of hand labor required on the beets to keep 

 them entirely free from weeds. In France this labor 

 is all done by the piece. The following are the prices 

 paid for each operation subsequent to planting the 

 seed upon the above-described field, containing 580^ 

 acres : 



First weeding, $1.18 per acre. 



Second weeding, .... 1.03 " 



Third weeding, .90 



Thinning out, ...... .23 " 



Pulling the beets, .... 1.42 " 



Loading into wagon, . . . .03 per ton. 



Putting into " silos," ... .04 " 



At these prices the workmen make from thirty-eight 

 to forty-two cents per day. Much of the work is done 

 by women and children. 



On a crop of twenty tons to the acre, the cost of 

 this labor would amount to $6.16 per acre. It is cer- 

 tainly safe to assume that the same work would not 

 cost over twenty dollars per acre in this country ; for I 

 have found that the prices of labor in the United 

 States are certainly not more than three times those 

 prevailing in France, where a farm hand gets from 

 fifty to sixty cents per day in gold. 



The usually estimated cost of cultivating beets in 

 France is from four hundred and fifty to six hundred 



