THE BEET-SUGAR, INDUSTRY IN 1920. 7 



favorable and those that are unfavorable for the production of sugar 

 beets. The primary object of this bulletin is to give a general survey 

 of the beet-sugar industry, to encourage the more general application 

 of those principles and practices which make for better returns to the 

 grower, and to discourage those practices which tend to reduce the 

 yields and quality of sugar beets and of other crops and also to un- 

 balance the relation between crop production and the kind, number, 

 and quality of the live stock on the beet farms. The general effect 

 aimed at is the production of more sugar and a more nearly perfect 

 stabilization of the beet-sugar industry in the United States. 



The production of sugar from beets in the United States for the 

 five-year period from 1916 to 1920, inclusive, is shown in Table IV. 



SOIL. 



Almost any fertile soil capable of producing good yields of other 

 crops will, if properly handled, produce good sugar beets. More de- 

 pends upon the physical condition of the soil and the way in which it 

 is handled than upon the so-called kind or type of soil. Extremely 

 sandy soil or soil of a decidedly gravelly type is not usually satisfac- 

 tory for sugar-beet growing. 



Raw soil. — Generally speaking, raw soil or new soil does not pro- 

 duce as large yields of sugar beets as may be obtained from soil that 

 has been under cultivation for some time. In recent years much new 

 soil has been brought under cultivation through the use of sugar beets ; 

 this in a measure has had a tendency to reduce the average yield of 

 sugar beets in this country. The argument in favor of growing sugar 

 beets on new soil is that this crop will bring the raw soil under control 

 and place it in good tilth for other crops more quickly than almost 

 any other crop now produced on a large scale on American farms. 

 It must be expected, therefore, that so long as new sugar-beet terri- 

 tories are being opened in the partially developed sections of the 

 United States this factor, tending to keep down the average yield of 

 beet roots, will be effective. Also in many of the older sugar-beet 

 sections in which the growing of sugar beets is being extended from 

 year to year, whereby new lands are being brought under cultivation, 

 this factor will be more or less effective in holding down the average 

 yield. In those sections where sugar beets have been grown for many 

 years (as, for example, in Utah) and in which a minimum acreage of 

 new soil is being used for sugar-beet culture from year to year, the 

 average yield of beets per acre is strikingly above the average for the 

 entire country. Usually the grower who utilizes new soil for sugar- 

 beet production expects a comparatively low yield and is generally 

 satisfied, for the reason stated above, if the crop pays the cost of pro- 

 duction. Though this is one of the causes of the low average yield of 

 beets per acre in this country, it is by no means the only one. 



