THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY IN 1920. 45 



like grains and forage, sometimes become very successful growers of 

 sugar beets, but generally they prefer the line of agriculture which 

 they have followed and from which they do not like to depart. 

 The same is true of the live-stock man, although the man who han- 

 dles live stock, especially dairy cows, is more inclined to take up the 

 growing of such an intensive crop as sugar beets and is more apt to 

 succeed in this line of agriculture than the grain or forage crop 

 man. This does not apply, however, to the live-stock man who 

 grows for the market, and especially the man who produces or han- 

 dles large herds of cattle. The point to be made in regard to the 

 grower is that he must have the natural qualifications for intensive 

 agriculture and must be fitted by training and experience for the 

 growing and handling of crops requiring intensive cultivation. 



DISEASES. 



Diseases are among the most apparent limiting factors in sugar- 

 beet production. A crop of beets that might otherwise be very 

 profitable is frequently turned to a loss by some disease. The 

 sugar beet, like all other plants, is subject to disease from the time 

 it begins its growth until it is harvested; and even after the plants 

 are harvested, if stored under certain conditions, the beets may 

 decay to a greater or less extent, impairing or destroying their 

 value for sugar-making purposes. Some of the diseases are well 

 known and easily controlled; others, while known, are handled 

 with difficulty; and still others are obscure as to their causes. The 

 losses produced by diseases may be brought about by a destruction 

 of the plant itself or by some injury which reduces the size or 

 quality of the beet root. 



Damping-off. — Among the diseases which attack the beet during 

 the early stages of its growth is the so-called damping-off. There 

 are several forms of this disease, due, apparently, to different organ- 

 isms. Frequently the young beet plants turn black just at the 

 surface of the gound, fall over, and die. Sometimes the entire 

 root turns black and softens, and sometimes the blackening is con- 

 fined to the outer layer or epidermis. In the latter case the beets 

 frequently recover. This disease is caused either by a fungus or 

 a bacterium which is in the soil or on the seed when planted. If 

 the disease is widespread, so that the stand is seriously injured, the 

 field should be disked and replanted. Damping-off is more common 

 in the early spring, when the ground is damp and not thoroughly 

 warm, but the disease will not occur unless one of the damping-off 

 organisms is present. 



Nematodes. 2 — The sugar-beet nematode is a minute wormlike or- 

 ganism, sometimes called an eelworm, which attaches itself to the 



2 See list of publications on p. 57. 



