210 



ARID AGRICULTURE. 



USE CLEAN 

 GROUND 



TIME TO 



PLANT 



surface of the ground, cutting off the young 

 beets, as they do when the ground has been 

 flooded or when it has been rolled. When the 

 last harrowing is done, drive so the harrow runs 

 cross-ways of the prevailing direction of the 

 spring winds. 



Before planting your seeds be sure that the 

 ground is free from sticks and all trash; go 

 around with a wagon and pick this trash off. It 

 will catch in your cultivator and before you can 

 stop you have lost several feet in a row of beets. 

 The damage is done. You have lost money. Al- 

 falfa roots are like leather on your horse hoes. 

 They will not be cut in two, but drag out and 

 destroy the young plants. If you use alfalfa 

 ground for your beets, plow the alfalfa as shal- 

 low as possible and still get all the roots cut. Fol- 

 low with the harrow, harrowing out all roots and 

 cart them off the land. Replow the ground three 

 or four inches deeper than the first plowing and 

 prepare the same as other ground. Alfalfa 

 ground, fresh from the sod, produces fine beets, 

 rich in sugar. 



Beets should be planted early. Plant as 

 soon as danger of freezing weather is over. A 

 frost will not injure the young beets, but a freeze 

 so hard that the ground is frozen one-fourth inch 

 or more deep will kill the beets. The beets 

 should be out of the ground and as far along as 



