CHAPTER XV 



SUGAR BEETS, POTATOES AND 

 MISCELLANEOUS CROPS 



AMONG the most satisfactory irrigated crops are those 

 that pass through some process of manufacture before 

 they are placed upon the market. Thus, sugar beets 

 reach the consumer as sugar; potatoes, often as starch; 

 hay as butter or cheese; fiber crops as twine and rope; oil 

 crops as oil, and so on. It must be the great endeavor of 

 irrigation agriculture, the initial cost of which is often 

 larger than that of humid agriculture, to foster crops that 

 may be manufactured. Not only do such crops make it 

 possible to maintain more easily the fertility of the soil, but 

 they represent steady prices and ready markets. 



174. Sugar beets. The most typical irrigated crop, 

 in view of the development of irrigated commonwealths, 

 is the sugar beet. All fairly fertile soils may produce 

 sugar beets, providing proper methods of culture and 

 irrigation are followed. Sugar beets endure alkali 

 better than most crops; they yield fairly well even on 

 the shallow, sandy or gravelly soils of the mesas. A clay 

 loam of good depth is preferable, if it can be obtained. 

 Sugar beets respond well to an arid climate and to dry 

 summers. 



Sugar beets require careful soil preparation and an 

 even sowing and thinning. It is a common practice, 

 apparently to assure uniform and rapid germination, to 

 roll the soil after the seed has been placed in the ground. 



(286) 



