BEET SUGAR, IN CALIFORNIA 153 



pansion, a rich, mellow loam, deeply worked and with medium moist- 

 ure conditions, is the ideal for the purpose. Sandy soil, which dry 

 out in spite of cultivation, are available for beet growing by care- 

 ful irrigation. Heavy, wet soils may be put into condition by un- 

 derdrainage and cultivation, but there are such vast areas of soils 

 which will suit the beet without either irrigation or drainage, it is 

 probable that improvements in these lines will be left for the future. 



Tillage for Beets. Land for beets should be taken in hand 

 early. If it has not been summer-fallowed the previous summer, 

 it may receive a shallow plowing early in the fall, being left rough 

 to receive the rainfall. As soon as the heaviest and coldest rains 

 of the season are over in the locality a deep plowing should be 

 given, so as to secure a seed bed of ten or twelve inches depth of 

 stirred soil. This practice is best for coast valleys, where spring 

 rains after the plowing are likely to be sufficient to restore to the 

 soil a proper degree of compactness. In light, open soils, with 

 scant spring rains, the first plowing should be deep and the second 

 shallow for fear of leaving the lower strata too open. It is often 

 good practice to rely upon one good plowing early in the winter, 

 followed by the use of the chisel cultivator, harrow and clod- 

 crusher, to bring the surface into fine mellow condition to receive 

 the seed. Modification of methods must be made according to local 

 soil and rainfall, but the condition to be aimed at is deep stirring, 

 lower strata, moist but not wet, surface fine and moisture near it, 

 but not disposed to bake or crust with rains, which may follow 

 sowing. 



Rotation. Beets make a strong draft on some components of 

 the soil, and it is a common experience that they should not be 

 grown year after year for a long period, but should take their place 

 in a rotation, in the course of which one or two crops of beets 

 should be followed by a crop of grain or potatoes, and that, if pos- 

 sible, by a leguminous plant like beans, alfalfa or an annual legume 

 like burr clover used for pasturage, and then to beets again. Beets 

 improve soil for grain, because of the deep running of the root, and 

 because beet culture is not profitable without deep plowing and con- 

 tinuous summer cultivation. This deepens and cleans the land to 

 the manifest advantage of the grain crop, but still the beet reduces 

 the plant food in the soil and some change of crop should be made 

 with reference to its restoration, and this is the reason for the legu- 

 minous plant and pasturage if possible. 



Planting. Sugar beets are grown in drills about eighteen to 

 twenty inches apart. Seeding is done with machines. Covering 

 should be as shallow as will bring the seed into soil, which will 

 remain moist; depth depends upon earliness of sowing, character 

 of soil, as already explained in other connections. Sometimes it is 

 desirable to cover as deeply as two inches ; sometimes, and usually, 

 perhaps, one inch or a little less. In late sowings, when the sur- 

 face has become quite dry, an attachment to the drill which pushes 



