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BULLETIN 735. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tion, a heavy crust is likely to form on the ground and the small 

 plants are unable to break through, which necessitates rolling to 

 break the crust. If the ground is cloddy, the rolling should be done 

 before the seed is planted, as beets never give the best results where 

 there is lack of care in the preparation of the seed bed. Getting the 

 young plants' Avell started early in the spring is one of the essentials 

 of a good tonnage of sugar beets. Kolling does not seem to damage 

 the plants to any great extent, as they do not break off easily and 

 the small leaves are not often crushed. 



SsSC'SBSB 



Fig. 5. — Cultivating sugar beets with a 4-row cultivator, which will do twice as much 

 work as a 2-row machine, with practically the same amount of man labor and 

 horse labor. 



CULTIVATION OF BEETS. 



Cultivation starts as soon as the beets are well through the ground 

 and continues during the season at short intervals until the beets are 

 so large that they shade most of the ground and one can not get 

 through the rows without breaking the leaves. In earty cultivations 

 the work must be done slowly and carefully, as the beets are very 

 small and there is danger of covering them with dirt. Knives or 

 duck feet are used for the first cultivation, or both are used by attach- 

 ing the duck feet behind the knives. (Fig. 5.) In later cultivations 

 larger shovels are used, and the work can be done more rapidly than 

 i n the earlier cultivations. In the first cultivations the ground should 



