125 



ynoisture from the air, whilst the Indiana and Maryland soils continue to lose in 

 weight. 



Series (6), of Table II, where the soils were placed in normal exposure, similar re- 

 sults are observed. The per cent of moisture in the station soil is constantly higher 

 than in the other soils, and toward the end of August, when the Maryland and In- 

 diana soils had become practicably insensible, the station soil was still highly sensi- 

 tive in taking up and in retaining the moisture which it had received, as is shown 

 by the data tabulated on August 31. 



The data set forth in the tables illustrate the striking adaptability of the Nebraska 

 soils to the Nebraska climate. They show the peculiar capability of those soils to 

 withstand the usually bad effects of an excess of either rain or drought. They further 

 indicate that, should the strong winds exercise an influence disturbing to the balance 

 of the other climatic conditions, temperature, and rainfall, that influence appears to 

 be effectually neutralized by the signal properties of the soil. 



The " thinning out," it was said, commenced May 26. The plants were taken when 

 they had four well-developed leaves. It appears very undesirable to disturb the 

 young plantlets until they have reached the size stated. The rootlets have too frail 

 a hold of the ground, and premature disturbance may more or less detach the plant- 

 let from its soil connection. 



The laborers employed were chiefly men who had never seen a beet field. Occasion- 

 ally an old workman came who as a lad had been in the beet fields of Germany or 

 Bohemia. The thinning out of the beets is the most particular operation of the cul- 

 tural season, and with such laborers the work not only proceeded very slowly, but it 

 was only possible at the beginning under constant practical supervision. Each man 

 had to be shown, and repeatedly shown, until he could observe all the small points 

 in the work. Small hoes with 3-inch blades were used, but the nervousness of tho 

 men, fearing they would not be able to manage the strokes, caused them at first to rely 

 too much upon their hands. 



In the hands of expert workmen the hoe not only enables more work to be done, but 

 the work is done better. Not merely is the ground removed around and between the 

 plants which are left, but the actual separation of the plants thinned out from the 

 plants left is done with less damage to the latter when the hoe is used. A skillful 

 workman will separate a bunch of plants better with the hoe than with the hand, ex- 

 cepting where there are very many small plants together. He will quickly with his 

 practiced eye and hand separate the best plant, and by a manipulation of the hoe, 

 slightly press the soil about it, and in the same act cut out the surplus plants, and in 

 such a way that the standing plant remains even more firmly in its place than before. 

 Such skillfulness requires much practice to acquire. Thinning out with the hand is 

 apt to do more damage to the standing plants unless one hand is used to hold tho 

 standing plant, while the surplus plants are pulled out with the other hand ; but that 

 is an endless method. The ultimate form of the beet, and possibly other conditions, are 

 directly affected by the act of thinning out. If the plants which are to stand are 

 disturbed by the removal of the surplus plants so that the tap-root is severed from 

 the soil at the point of the root, by which act the root-cap may also be injured or 

 separated from the root, then instead of developing one tap-root with a system of 

 very minute, fine, and fibrous root growth, several prongs will be put out and the 

 form of the beet is wholly distorted. For example : Ten plants were drawn out of 

 the soil with great care, and without apparently leaving any portion of the root in 

 the ground. Those plants were replanted and grew to average sized beets. Each 

 one of the ten beets, however, developed no tap-root, but instead several prongs or 

 fingers, varying from two to five in number, and the natural form of each beet was 

 distorted. 



The " thinning out " of Fields B and A, the first time over, was finished June 11. On 

 June 2, a strong rain fell, which brought away the seed still lying in the ground very 



