THE SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY 143 



fining cost of one-half cent a pound, it would contribute 

 to the American industry only about twenty-three million 

 dollars, whereas to produce the same amount of sugar 

 from American grown beets would contribute close to 

 three hundred million dollars to the American industry. 



But there are other and more important reasons why 

 the beet sugar industry should be fostered in the United 

 States, and one of these is on account of the beet's value 

 in crop rotation. In European countries where beet- 

 growing is practiced it is found that they get much 

 larger yields of crops per acre than we do in this coun- 

 try. Take for example barley. Our greatest barley 

 states are California, Minnesota and South Dakota; and 

 from the four million acres of barley we harvest about 

 ninety-two million bushels, while Germany harvests 

 from about the same acreage one hundred and sixty mil- 

 lion bushels, or seventy per cent more than we do. The 

 same is true of other crops. Our average yield of wheat 

 per acre is about fourteen bushels against Germany's 

 twenty-eight bushels; our average yield of oats is about 

 twenty- four bushels against Germany's fifty-eight; our 

 average yield of potatoes is ninety-five bushels against 

 Germany's two hundred and five. 



Moreover, European economists say that if cane and 

 beet sugar could be produced side by side, the cane sugar 

 at a cost of two cents per pound and the beet sugar at a 

 cost of four cents per pound, it would be cheaper for the 

 nation to raise the beet sugar on account of the indirect 

 agricultural advantages to be obtained through rotating 

 the land with sugar beets. 



Good drainage and deep plowing are necessary in the 

 cultivation of sugar beets. Instead of the ordinary fur- 

 row four or five inches deep, it is best to make it ten to 

 fourteen inches. The reason is that the root of the plant 

 is fed from the nitrogen of the air and the water from 

 the soil. Very little nutriment is secured from the soil, 



