BEETS 155 



of Wilmington, North Carolina, the crop will be ready for the 

 market about May 15 or May 20. 



Although it is a somewhat expensive process, seedling beets are 

 grown and carried through the severe portion of the winter in 

 cold frames, and in February are transplanted to the cloth- covered 

 frames, the plants being set about 9 inches apart each way. They 

 are allowed to grow to marketable size in this closely planted bed. 

 The alleyways between the beds are usually about 3 feet apart, so 

 that all but a comparatively small area is occupied by the plants. 

 It will thus be seen that in the neighborhood of 75,000 plants 

 can be grown to the acre, which will give about 15,000 bunches 

 of beets, 5 beets to the bunch, and even if only 2 cents a bunch 

 were received for them, the gross receipts would be $300 per acre. 

 It is safe to say that the crop can be grown for from $75 to $100 

 an acre, even when the extra expense of growing in the cold 

 frame and transplanting to the open is necessary. On this basis 

 even, the crop is a remunerative one. 



In the Norfolk area and on Long Island, beets are profitably 

 forced in sash-covered frames. On Long Island seedlings are 

 started in hotbeds in the spring, and in Norfolk they are started 

 in the autumn, carried through the winter in the sash-protected 

 frames, and transplanted to sash-covered areas, where they are kept 

 until the danger from freezing has passed. The sash are then re- 

 moved, and the board sides of the frames are either taken for cucum- 

 ber frames or are piled for the season. It is not long after the sash 

 are removed before the beets are ready to market. Figure 1 3 shows 

 a field of frame-grown beets after the sash have been removed. 



Forcing garden beets in greenhouses. While cucumbers are 

 extensively planted as the warm-weather crop in houses used for 

 forcing lettuce, beets are almost as universally planted as a catch 

 crop with the cucumbers. The seed of sorts that produce bright 

 leaves and leafstalks is used for this purpose. The seed is sown 

 broadcast or in broad bandlike rows a few inches apart. It germi- 

 nates quickly, and the young plants are induced to make as rapid 

 growth as possible. When the plants are four inches high they are 

 harvested, washed, and sold* in bulk by measure for greens. Some 

 growers devote the entire space of the greenhouse to beet growing, 

 but this is the exception rather than the rule. 



