Sugar Producing Plants. 459 
are taken out. At this time the leaves are yellowish and 
the root firm and heavy, the growth being ended for the 
first year, while in the root is a store of sugar, which it has 
accumulated for further use, as bees do honey. But before 
it can get a chance to use the sugar in the second year’s 
growth, the manufacturer takes it out of the ground and 
carries it off to the factory. The harvesting is done either 
by hand, loosening the roots with a narrow spade and then 
pulling them out, or by special plows for the purpose. 
The leaves and heads are cut off on the field and the roots 
transported to the factory for immediate use, or put into 
what are called silos. These are large piles of beets covered 
over with eight or ten inches of earth to keep out the frost. 
It is a simple and good way of keeping any roots, and now 
universally adopted instead of the costly buildings or cellars 
of former years. In these the beets may be kept safely 
until they begin to grow again, which time depends much 
on the weather and the country. In France it is difficult to 
keep them after New Year’s day, while in Germany they 
may still be in good condition in February. In Russia and 
Canada they are perfectly inactive as late as the end of 
April, owing to the continuous cold. Once the sprouting 
begins, a series of chemical changes takes place inthe root, 
the principal one being the transformation of the crystalli- 
zable sugar into another form which is useless to the manu- 
facturer. On the other hand the beets may be frozen with- 
out damage, always supposing that they are worked up 
while still frozen, for, inasmuch as the freezing kills them, 
they rot as soon as they thaw, and the process of putrefac- 
tion partially destroys the sugar as well as makes the work 
in the factory well nigh impossible. 
In the culture of the sugar beet, the two primary consid- 
erations are, first the seed and then the soil. On the kind 
of seed depends, entirely, the richness of the beet and, the 
soils being the same, the size of the beet. Small beets are 
usually rich, large ones poor in sugar, and the great object 
of the manufacturer is to get as much sugar as possible per 
acre. The different kinds of beets are crossed and re-crossed 
