CULTIVATION 453 



less than eight inches and often twelve to fourteen inches. It should 

 then be thoroughly worked and pulverized, in order to insure a good 

 stand and facilitate the careful hand-work necessary during the first 

 six weeks with young beets. 



Manure and Fertilizers. For stock beets it is practical to make 

 very heavy applications of manure,, up to twenty tons per acre. 



All root crops require relatively more potash than grain or grass 

 crops. Fertilizers for roots are usually in the proportion of 4-8-6 to 

 4-8-10., applied at the rate of 400 to 600 pounds per acre. 



Farmyard manure is best plowed under the fall before the land is 

 planted to beets, but fertilizers are applied at the time the seeds 

 are planted. Scattering 100 pounds nitrate of soda per acre, be- 

 tween the beet rows in midsummer, will greatly stimulate growth, 

 but, in the case of sugar beets, injures quality. 



Seeding. The beet seed of commerce is a capsule containing one 

 to five seeds. Each capsule will produce about two plants on the 

 average. Beet seed is usually of good quality and retains vitality 

 for several years. Mangels should stand seven to eight inches apart 

 in the row and sugar beets five inches. From twelve to fifteen 

 pounds of mangel seed per acre and eighteen to twenty pounds of 

 sugar beet seed are generally used, in order to insure a full stand, 

 although under ideal conditions half of this would be sufficient. 



Seed is generally put in with a garden drill or grain drill, 

 although special beet drills are used where grown on a large scale. 

 The rows are usually twenty inches apart for sugar beets, and thirty 

 to thirty-six inches for mangels. 



Thinning. When the plants have four leaves they are 

 " bunched " with a narrow hoe, by chopping out the plants except in 

 little bunches six inches apart. Soon afterward the plants are 

 thinned by hand to one in a place. This is the hardest and most 

 particular work connected with beet growing. 



Cultivation. A weeder or light harrow can be used several times 

 after the beets are well started. After this thorough shallow cultiva- 

 tion with narrow tooth cultivators throughout the season. Usually 

 from one to two hand hoeings are necessary, the first being given at 

 time of thinning. 



