ARID AGRICULTURE. 



217 



beet, the moisture is below the surface and the 

 soil does not bake next to the beets. It is not 

 best to flood beets. The beets when flooded tend 

 to be smaller in size, but are generally richer in 

 sugar. The water standing on them in hot 

 weather is likely to scald and kill them. It is 

 best to folloAv each irrigation with a cultivation, 

 as soon as the ground is dry enough. 



Irrigation should be given as often as the 

 ground becomes dry. Never allow the beets to 

 suffer for water. The sugar beet is a crop that 

 will pay for all extra work and attention given 

 it. It is these extra attentions that give profit 

 in beet culture. 



It is in September and October that the beet 

 makes the best growth, the leaves contract along 

 the midrib and veins, the lower leaves take a yel- 

 lowish cast, the beet is now making sugar fast. 

 Beets that would yield about 15 per cent, sugar 

 the first of October will yield about 18 per cent. 

 October thirty-first. In this extra per cent, is 

 a good profit. The manufacturers will usually 

 wish to start the factory early and will want 

 early beets to begin on. The early planted beets 

 will be rich in sugar, but even these are still mak- 

 ing sugar. 



HARVESTING When the beets are ready in the fall, they are 



dug with a beet plow, drawn by three or four 

 horses. This plow runs by the side of a row and 



