YIELD AXD COST OF CULTIVATION. 197 



of working; besides these, several other hypotheses 

 are most erroneous. 



When the roots are paid for in accordance with their 

 saccharine vahie the farmer bestows more care upon 

 their cultivation/ not after his own idea, but according 

 to principles and facts long since proved in Europe to 

 be exact. We know perfectly well the arguments 

 brought to bear, that if large crops containing less 

 sugar per beet should be cultivated the final amount 

 to the acre would be more than with rich beets and a 

 small yield. This is true, but the salts increase in the 

 same proportion, and the only possible way of utilizing 

 these with advantage is to discover some method not as 

 yet known to neutralize the same ; but, as this has yet 

 to be done, we had better adhere to old principles. 



To a certain extent any results obtained from expe- 

 rience in Germany or France will have no possible 

 connection with those to be expected in America ; 

 hand labor being the method of cultivation on all 

 the foreign beet-growing farms, the cost of which is, 

 without doubt, less than here, but, on the other hand, 

 our agricultural mechanical appliances are far superior 

 to theirs, thus producing a sort of compensation. 



The probable cost for the preparation of the soil, 

 etc., for beet culture varies with circumstances ; for ex- 

 ample, a flat surface would be less than an undulated 

 one ', on rich soils the manure or fertilizers made use of 



' See " Value of Beets." 



