LOSS IF TOISriSrAGE OF SUGAR BEETS BY DRYING. 11 



$5 for 16 per cent beets. Fractions of 1 per cent are paid at the 

 same rate. 



An example of the flat rate would be $5 a ton for all beets testing 

 14 per cent of sucrose or more. 



It is at once evident that any ordinary loss in weight due to a 

 delay of one day or several days between digging and weighing is, 

 imder the shding scale, reasonably well compensated for, and that 

 the loss in that time due to inversion or decomposition is practically 

 neghgible, provided the sucrose test is made from beets taken when 

 they are dehvered and weighed and not from a sample taken from 

 the field just before or immediately after the crop is dug. 



The shding scale would probably also be fairly equitable in deal- 

 ing with beets that have been piled under the sugar company's 

 instructions for one or two weeks, but after such a time continued 

 shrinkage in weight would mean a money loss to the grower, because 

 an appreciable inversion of sucrose would become concurrent with the 

 loss ui weight. In Germany and other European countries this 

 circumstance has been met by adding 1 per cent to the indicated 

 sugar content at the time of delivery for each month the beets have 

 been stored at the request of the sugar company. 



The farmer who, whether or not from choice, accepts the flat rate 

 sustains an actual money loss corresponding to the shrinkage in ton- 

 nage through evaporation. He is paid according to the net weight 

 of his beets at the time they are weighed on the factory scales. 

 Let us say that a good beet grower obtains a yield of 20 tons an acre 

 and agrees to accept a flat rate of $5 a ton. This equals $100, gross 

 receipts, an acre. It has been shown that an average daily shrinkage 

 of 6.48 per cent (or 6.5 per cent in round numbers) may occur when 

 handling the beets in the ordinary manner. Frequently the writer 

 has seen beets left several days in the field after they had been dug. 

 This means a loss of $6.50 a day per acre. Should the farmer have 

 no alternative but to accept the flat rate and at times find that delay 

 in getting liis beets weighed is unavoidable, he may effect a con- 

 siderabh; reduction in evaporation from his beets by leaving them 

 in relatively large piles and still further by covering the piles with 

 })('ot tops. This may be done very easily and rapidly if the system 

 of harvesting outlined in this paper be adopted. It would be quite 

 practicable to gather the beets into piles even larger than those 

 mentioned in Table VI, which averaged about one-fourth of a ton. If 

 Imndh^d in tlie manner already described, tlie tops would lie beside 

 the boots and he, at on(;e available for covering the latter without 

 further labor in collef;ting them. 



It in soon that the uverugc! (hiily siu'inkage during five days in the 

 large uncovered piles was 2.92 o.3r cent; in the covered piles this loss 



