BEETS 



607 



the disks are filled in with the loose dirt, 

 so that the surface of the ground is 

 level. 



While the beets are small it is safe 

 to cultivate fairly deep and quite close to 

 the plants. The depth to which the 

 ground is stirred when the beets are 

 small should never be as great as the 

 depth to which the roots have pene- 

 trated and never need exceed from 3 to 4 

 inches in order to accomplish the ob- 

 ject of the cultivation. As the beets get 

 older it is usually advisable to set the 

 cultivator so that it does not work so 

 deep or so close to the beets, for the rea- 

 son that the feeding roots must not he 

 disturbed. The manner in which the 

 beets are handled while small, especially 

 with reference to the soil moisture, will 

 govern to a great extent the position of 

 the feeding roots. If the ground is kept 

 rather moist near the surface the feeding 

 roots will develop near the surface and 

 great injury may be done by the later 

 cultivation. This emphasizes the import- 

 ance of withholding the water from the 

 young beets as long as possible, so that 

 the main root will be long and the feed- 

 ing roots formed well down on the main 

 root. If this is done a deeper mulch and 

 one that extends closer to the beets can 

 be maintained without injury to the 

 plants. This will be very helpful in re- 

 taining the moisture in the root bed and 

 also in maintaining a free circulation of 

 gases in the soil, 



Before cultivating it is always advis- 

 able to examine the plants with reference 

 to the length of the taproots and the lo- 

 cation and length of the feeding ones. 



Hoeing 



Beets receive their first and in many 

 cases their only real hoeing at the time 

 they are thinned. At this time the ground 

 Is or should be thoroughly stirred around 

 each beet. The hoeing should be deep 

 enough to destroy all weeds in the beet 

 rows and to form a continuous mulch 

 around and between the beets. Unfor- 

 tunately, in practically all sugar beet 

 localities all hoeing after the beets are 

 thinned consists simply in cutting out 

 the weeds in the beet rows. The conse- 



quence is that the ground in the beet 

 rows is not stirred from the time the 

 beets are thinned until they are harvest- 

 ed except at the points where weeds ap- 

 pear. This permits the formation of a 

 crust, in many cases the entire length of 

 the beet rows, through which an enor- 

 mous amount of soil moisture escapes. 



The destruction of weeds is of vital im- 

 portance, since if allowed to grow they 

 rob the soil of both moisture and plant 

 food, but the stirring of the ground be- 

 tween the beets in the row should not be 

 overlooked. 



Harvesting 



The proper time for harvesting the 

 beets is usually determined by certain 

 tests which show the sugar condition and 

 purity of the juice in the roots. Each 

 sugar company has its standard for these 

 factors of quality, and until the roots 

 measure up to this standard they are 

 not considered sufficiently mature to be 

 harvested profitably. Harvesting beets 

 consists of several distinct operations; 

 i. e., lifting, pulling, topping, piling, and 

 hauling. 



Lifting the beets consists in loosening 

 them so that they can be easily pulled. 

 Two forms of lifters are in general use. 

 One is a double-pointed implement so 

 constructed that one point passes along 

 on either side of the beets and at a suit- 

 able distance from the surface so that 

 the beets are slightly raised out of the 

 ground. The other is a single-pointed im- 

 plement somewhat resembling a subsoil 

 plow. This passes along on one side of 

 the beet row and loosens the dirt so that 

 the beets are easily pulled and is called 

 a side lifter. The side lifter usually has 

 a lighter draft than the double-pointed 

 implement. Aside from the draft, the 

 important points are that all the beets 

 be loosened and that as few roots as pos- 

 sible be broken. Both of these factors 

 are often a matter of good driving. Af- 

 ter the beets have been loosened they 

 are pulled and thrown in piles or rows. 

 The number of beet rows used in making 

 one row of piles, usually consists of from 

 16 to 24 rows of beets. 



