Conditions for Growing Sugar-Beets 45 



quire attention at the same time corn must be cared for, 

 and since corn in this section brings more money for the 

 labor, sugar-beets will probably not gain much of a foot- 

 hold unless economic conditions change. A decided ad- 

 vance in the price of sugar or a decline in the price of 

 corn might change this balance entirely. 



Sugar-beets have not secured a strong foothold in the 

 great wheat sections of the country, partly because the 

 farmers can earn more money with less labor by han- 

 dling a large acreage of wheat than by handling a few 

 acres of beets. The farmer who has been used to raising 

 500 or 1000 acres of wheat and doing most of the work 

 by machinery is not likely to be satisfied to spend all of 

 his time over fifteen or twenty acres of beets, particu- 

 larly if he has to do most of the work by hand. 



It takes time for sugar-beets to come into active com- 

 petition with long-established crops, even though condi- 

 tions are highly favorable to their growth. Farmers have 

 to learn how to raise the crop, and they are limited in 

 their markets to regions having a sugar factory. This 

 means that the industry is usually extended gradually 

 and not rapidly ; but where it is well established, sugar- 

 beets usually have little difficulty in competing with most 

 of the ordinary farm crops. 



Labor. 



More than ten times as much hand labor is required to 

 raise an acre of beets as to raise an acre of wheat, over 

 five times as much as to raise an acre of corn, and more 

 than twice as much as to raise an acre of potatoes. The 

 horse labor required for beets is over three times that 



