242 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



force their way with difficulty through the resulting 

 caked surface. Shallow irrigating furrows should be 

 made midway between the rows, and the water will 

 reach the seeds by seepage. These furrows can be 

 made at the time of drilling by an attachment like a corn- 

 row marker, which could also be used separately after 

 drilling. If the ground is moist enough to bring up 

 the seed, the irrigating furrows need not be made until 

 the operation will kill many sprouting weed seeds. 

 Further cultivation can be done with a hand hoe or 

 the many forms of garden and horse cultivators. The 

 soil should be kept mellow. The more cultivation the 

 more sugar. Hilling is not necessary, as good varieties 

 of sugar-beets grow very little root above ground. 

 When the beets have from four to six leaves they 

 should be thinned to single plants four to eight inches 

 apart in the row. Thin to four inches in very rich 

 ground and to more than eight inches in very poor 

 ground. The long roots of the beets gather so much 

 moisture from the subsoil that they require less irriga- 

 tion water than do the shallow-rooted grains and 

 grasses. During the fall the beet requires a dry sur- 

 face soil to increase its saccharine content, and will 

 thrive, getting all the moisture it needs from the sum- 

 mer irrigated subsoil. Stop the irrigation early. 

 Guard against seepage from surrounding land, and, 

 above all, avoid such an excess of water as to flood the 

 ground or accumulate in pools on any portion of it. 

 Irrigators of sugar-beets learn to use less water each 

 3'ear. 



The foregoing instruc5lions apply to beets grown 

 for the sugar fadlories. Producing them for live stock 



