BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 199 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry, Wm. A. Taylor, Chief. 

 April?, 1915. 



LOSS IN TONNAGE OF SUGAR BEETS BY DRYING. 



By Harry B. Shaw, 

 Assistant Pathologist, Cotton and Truck Disease and Sugar-Plant Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is common knowledge that an appreciable loss of weight occurs 

 through the evaporation of the water content of sugar beets, as well 

 as of other fresh vegetables, during storage. In the case of fresh 

 vegetables the actual monetary loss can be measured by the shrink- 

 age in weight. Some of this may or may not be compensated for 

 by an advance in the price of the stored vegetables. With beets it 

 does not follow that the loss in dollars and cents necessarily cor- 

 responds to that in weight, because beets owe their value chiefly to 

 sucrose. The sucrose does not pass off with water during evapora- 

 tion. Yet numerous studies in European beet-growing countries, 

 especially in Germany and France, on sugar beets piled in so-called 

 sUos by the growers or stored in the covered sheds of the beet-sugar 

 factories have shown that sugar, while in the beet, is by no means a 

 stable compound. Inversion and decomposition take place. This 

 inversion may be relatively more or less rapid than the loss of water 

 through evaporation, according to the method and duration of stor- 

 age. Under the present methods of extraction, beets frequently are 

 delivered at the factory much more rapidly than they can be worked 

 up, and they must therefore be stored by the sugar company until 

 the factory is able to handle them. The losses occurring during 

 such storage are recognized by the manufacturer. They do not 

 directly concern the beet grower. One phase of this question does 

 concern the beet grower, but it has hitherto received little considera- 

 tion and no experimental investigation. 



Probably the best practice in harvesting sugar beets is substan- 

 tially as follows: With a suitable beet plow or digger the beets are 



Note.— This bulletin takes up the subject of the losses incurred by allowing sugar beets to lie In the 

 flel'l. The data apply specifically to conditions in the Western States, such as Kansas, ('olorado, Utah, 

 Nebraska, Idaho, Montana, Nevjvia, portions of California, and Arizona, but they are equally applicable 

 to the regions having relatively higher humidity. 

 81737°— Hull. l'J9— 15 



