82 THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



fertilization is best is yet a subject of experiment and much is also to be learned 

 about fertilizers on old land. 



In all cases, the crop seemed to do best if the ground was manured the socond 

 year before the season the beet is to be raised. Well-rotted stable manure to be 

 plowed under is advisable and in Nebraska results in greatly increased tonnage. In 

 Utah, on the other hand, there has been a disposition among growers to put too much 

 manure on their land, obtaining tonnage at the risk of quality, because beets of such 

 gross growth do not ripen well. Even on the apparently inexhaustible soils at Chino, 

 fertilizers have proven effective. "Green" or fresh stable manure should be plowed 

 under the previous fall ; better still, apply it to the previous crop. The main point 

 is to have the soil well filled with available plant food in proper forms. 



Elaborate experiments have been conducted along this line in Europe on the old 

 soils of Europe, which Wiley thus summarises: "As for the relation which the quan- 

 tity of material returned should bear to the quantity abstracted, it may be said in 

 general that it is desirable to return as much nitrogen, one and a quarter to one and 

 one half times as much potash, and two and a half times as much phosphoric acid as 

 has been abstracted. The greater additions of potash and phosphoric acids have no 

 disadvantageous effects upon the crop. Direct investigations in regard to the rela- 

 tion between the sugar and potash in consecutive crops for many years have failed to 

 give th'e least ground for a contrary conclusion. But it must not be expected, on the 

 other hand, that increasing fertilizations, especially potash fertilization, will produce 

 proportionately increasing crops, as has been asserted by some. 



"The opinion has generally prevailed among beet growers during late years that 

 heavy nitrogenous manuring, especially with nitrate of soda, produces no injurious 

 effect on the quality of the beet. This opinion was based on the fact that in such 

 beets the sugar per cent was only slightly diminished. Nevertheless the quality of a 

 beet may be impaired even with little or no diminution of the sugar content by rea- 

 son of the increase of the percentage of non-sugars present. It has been shown that 

 heavy manuring with nitrogenous substances greatly injures the quality of the beet 

 for sugar-making purposes." 



It is true that the beet is not an exhaustive crop, provided all its by-products are 

 returned to the soil, but we fear that this will not be done in America for some years, 

 meanwhile there is danger that failing to thus restore to the soil what is taken from 

 it, farmers may get the idea that the beet will not exhaust the land, and that it can 

 be grown in defiance of the fundamental principles of agriculture. This error should 

 be guarded against by liberal fertilization. 



PLOWING. 



Immediately after harvesting the small grain, plow shallow (two or three inches) 

 in order to prevent the weeds from going to seed. When this is done, spread the field 

 with stable manure (if any is to be used) and in the fall plow deep. This deep 

 plowing is very important, because the beet is thereby enabled to penetrate into the 

 subsoil without much obstruction, thus preventing it from growing out of the ground 

 and allowing it to extract considerable nourishment from the lower soil. The deep 

 plowing will also give clean ground and will make it ready for early planting and 

 thus insure a large tonnage. The best way to accomplish this is to plow 8 to 10 



