156 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



leaves and all the green part of the root grown, is done with knives, 

 though inventors are perhaps making some promising progress in 

 machines for this work. 



Beet tops are good stock feed if not allowed to become moldy 

 and are sold at $0.50 to $4 per acre, as determined by the factory 

 weight of the beets delivered. But wherever possible the beets should 

 be fed on the land and the manure returned to the soil, or fed on 

 a feed-lot if the soil is liable to be injured by tramping during the 

 rainy season. 



Yield. Very large yields of sugar beets have been reported 

 with perfect truth, and larger sugar percentages have been attained 

 in California than anywhere else in the world, but average state- 

 ments are a better guide than extremes. The statistics gathered by 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture show that the eleven factories 

 operating in 1916 worked up 1,439,000 tons of beets which were 

 harvested from 144,200 acres of land. The price for the beets was, 

 on the average, $6.44 per ton, and the average yield was 10 tons 

 per acre. The average gross return to the grower was, therefore, 

 $64.40 per acre. The cost of production is variously estimated at 

 from $40 to $50 per acre, leaving a profit of from $14 to $24 per 

 acre. Of course, some make much more than the average. There 

 is quite as large an opening for good farming in beet growing as 

 in any other crop, and the beet seems to know as clearly when it is 

 well off and gathers sweets like a bee. 



Beet Pulp for Stock Feed. The use of beet pulp for stock feed- 

 ing has increased rapidly during the last few years, and promises 

 to be as popular here as in Europe. It is fed fresh and is put down 

 in silos. It is very cheaply siloed, because it packs down readily 

 and it seals itself up from contact with the air by the formation of 

 a surface crust. The pulp is also being commercially dried and sold 

 in large quantities to stock-feeders. There are, however, many 

 economic questions concerning the cost of the pulp, either as it 

 comes from the factory, or dried, or as silage which are not yet 

 fully determined, and which it needs systematic experimentation to 

 demonstrate. 



Varieties. Thus far California has relied chiefly upon Euro- 

 pean beet seed. Recently a company in Idaho has brought into 

 practice the exact methods of testing and selecting the "mother 

 beets" for seed production which are practiced in France and Ger- 

 many. By this means the sugar-contents have been increased and 

 shape, thrift and other characters of the beet have been advanced. 

 It is probable that California will in due time develop local seed 

 supplies of the highest quality, but efforts in that direction in this 

 state have not yet succeeded in reaching considerable production. 



Of the varieties chiefly used at the present time by the Cali- 

 fornia sugar factories the best information is to be had from the 

 managers who furnish to growers the seed which in their experi- 



