16 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 



on the west is sufficient to show that with the spread of the beet-sugar 

 industry and the consequent adoption of proper cultural methods, the 

 farmers of the United States can render their soils even more pro- 

 ductive than are the rejuvenated soils of Europe, and that the beneficial 

 results to be secured from the introduction of this crop are not confined 

 to restricted localities. 



While corresponding closely with other reports on file, the number 

 of reports herewith produced is too small to be used as a basis for an 

 accurate calculation, but that the results obtained by these farmers 

 approximate the results that are obtained by other equally intelligent 

 farmers and which would be obtained by them generally with the 

 further expansion of the beet-sugar industry, there is no reason to doubt. 



The average of these 30 reports shows that at the time these farmers 

 introduced beet culture, their yield of wheat was 92 per cent above 

 the United States average yield for 1907, their yield of barley was 37 

 per cent higher, and their yield of oats was 70 per cent higher than 

 the United States average. Notwithstanding this fact, by the intro- 

 duction of beet culture as a rotating crop, they increased their acre- 

 age yield of wheat 42.5 per cent, their barley 78.6 per cent, and their 

 oats 71.8 per cent. If, through the general introduction of beet cul- 

 ture, all of our farmers should increase their yields of wheat, barley, 

 and oats a like number of bushels per acre, based on 1909 farm prices, 

 they would be richer by a billion and a quarter dollars a year, and 

 if they brought their yields up to those now secured by these farmers, 

 their extra yield of these three crops, on the same acreage, would be 

 worth $2,000,000,000 a year. 



The average acreage yield of sugar beets secured by these farmers 

 was 14J tons per acre. One report on alfalfa shows an increase of 

 1 ton and another of 2 tons per acre, while one report on beans shows 

 an increase of 5 bushels per acre and another 6 bushels. One 

 report on potatoes shows an increase from a merely nominal } T ield, to 

 200 sacks, or nearly three times the average United States yield. 

 Whether with the general introduction of sugar-beet culture, the 

 acreage yields of all our farmers would be increased as much, or 

 more or less, can not be determined. That they could do it, there 

 is no question, -but that some still would farm in a shiftless manner, 

 is altogether probable. 



Averages of the following reports: 



Average acreage yield of wheat, barley, and oats, -prior and subsequent to the introduction 

 of sugar beets as a rotating crop. 



