196 THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



feed. The weight of the pulp is about half as much as the weight of the beets that go 

 into the factory. In other words, a ton of pulp can be depended upon for every two tons 

 of beets sliced, after the water is partly drained out. 



STORING BEET TOPS. 



Beet tops make excellent feed, but some growers are so situated that the best use 

 they can make of them is to plow under the tops and necks. Mr. Ware, in the Suyai- Beet, 

 describes the French method of siloing beet tops. It is done as soon after cutting as 

 possible, not later than two weeks after. Pits about six feet deep and six feet wide and of 

 any desired length are iug on a slight slant in dry soil, filled with beet tops and carefully 

 tramped down. The leaf piles continue up three feet above ground and are then covered 

 with 2% feet of earth, straw not being suitable. Fermentation soon follows and the leaves 

 settle or shrink about one-third. Sometimes the leaves are simply piled in the field and 

 covered thickly with earth. It may require some days before the cattle will eat this beet 

 leaf silage, but by adding salt, the taste is soon acquired. About as much of this silage 

 is given per head daily as would be of corn silage. See also Page 110. 



THE PROPER MANNER OF TAKING SAMPLES 



from a patch of sugar beets is thus described in the Stiyar Trade Journal by J. G. Hamil- 

 ton of the Oxnard Compacy. The sugar beet matures in 4 to 4y 2 months from the date 

 of planting, but we generally commence sampling the fields about a month previous to 

 thoir maturity, that we may ascertain from week to week how the beets are ripening. 

 The correct way of getting a fair average of a field is to walk through the field diago- 

 nally, taking up about six beets, say one beet from every tenth row. Of course this would 

 depend entirely on how large the field was. If you want to select the ripest beets, always 

 pull those where the leaves are yellowish in color, and never those having new leaves 

 sprouting. The beet having green foliage shows that it is not ripe, and the beet having 

 new leaves growing indicates second growth, where the sugar content would be found to 

 be poor. Never select beets from the outside rows, they probably being larger and not 

 as mature as those more in the center of the field. Where a beet is pulled that 

 has fingers or false roots growing on it, it should be thrown aside and another beet 

 selected. After the samples are taken, the top of the beet should be cut off at the bottom 

 of the lowest leaf, and it requires about five to six beets to get sufficient juice to make 

 a proper polariscope test. 



THE PRODUCTION OF SUGAR BEET SEED 



in this country is receiving constantly increased attention. The work of the Lehi factory 

 in selecting the highest grade mother beets and raising its own seed has already resulted 

 in a material increase in the sugar content. California seedsmen are giving the matter 

 careful attention. The United States department of agriculture and various experiment 

 stations are also working on the problem. It is only a question of time before this coun- 

 try produces all the beet seed it will consume. As the cost for seed is from $ 1 to $2 per 

 acre, and as upward of 2,000,000 acres of beets will eventually be grown in this country 

 every year to supply the home market with sugar, the extent of the sugar beet seed spe- 

 cialty may at once be realized. Fortunately, the only obstacle heretofore in the way of 

 raising our own sugar beet seed has been removed by the publication of Lewis S. Ware's 

 new book, "Sugar Beet Seed," by the Orange Judd Company. This book is an elaborate 

 study of the methods followed by the most successful beet seed producers of Europe, and 

 a careful reading of its pages will be a great help to everyone interested in this phase 

 of the industry. 



The factory usually furnishes seed to the farmers in order to insure best results. 

 That plan avoids such instances as this: "Fraud in sugar beet seed has already begun. A. 



