42 The Sugar-Beet in America 



all the trouble necessary to produce the crop if the yields 

 were greatly reduced by unfavorable conditions. 



The use of irrigation water makes possible an easy con- 

 trol of soil moisture, and as a result the beet-sugar indus- 

 try of America is largely an industry of irrigated districts. 

 Michigan is the only important sugar-beet state where 

 irrigation is not practiced. The methods of maintaining 

 proper moisture relations by the aid of irrigation are 

 discussed in a later chapter. 



In non-irrigated regions, the production of sugar- 

 beets follows the zone with a favorable distribution of 

 rainfall as closely as the zone of favorable temperature. 

 The time and manner in which the precipitation is re- 

 ceived, as well as the total amount, must be considered. 

 In a district having heavy soil that packs or crusts, a 

 heavy rain at the time the plants are sprouting may cause 

 trouble. A region having the greater part of its rain 

 during the period when the beet is growing most rapidly 

 and ceasing before harvest time is fortunate. Regions 

 having a continuously rainy and damp summer, however, 

 do not raise good beets. 



Small showers at the right time may be beneficial, but 

 usually they do not wet down far enough to do any good. 

 If the precipitation comes in heavy rains, there may also 

 be considerable loss due to run-off from the surface of 

 the land. Such storms also have a tendency to pack the 

 soil and cause crusting. It is desirable, therefore, in con- 

 sidering a region for sugar-beet production, to study the 

 nature of the rainfall as well as the total amount. Hail- 

 storms are not so injurious to beets as to crops having the 

 marketable portion above ground. 



