SUGAR BEETS : PREVENTABLE LOSSES IN CULTXJEE. 19 



The highest percentage the writer has attained by the careful use 

 of a 6-inch hoe was 92.58 per cent for one row. His best average for 

 8 rows was 83.7 per cent, when working with moderate rapidity. 



ELIMINATION OF HAND SPACING. 



Although it is believed that the singling of beets will never be 

 accomplished with machines or implements, it is thought to be 

 entirely practicable to effect the spacing in such a manner. 



In this country of high-priced labor, means should be devised to 

 eliminate hand labor from farming operations as far as possible. 

 Much has been accomplished already toward the successful pulling 

 and topping of beets by machinery. A number of machines for 

 blocking beets have been patented, and some of them are in success- 

 ful operation. In some parts of Europe a 4-row or 6-row cultivator 

 is run across the field at right angles to the rows, thus cutting out 

 spaces at regular intervals. Generally, this spaces the beets too 

 widely. Numerous attempts have been made in the United States 

 to accomplish proper spacing by transplanting sugar-beet seedlings 

 in the manner that tobacco, cabbage, celery, etc., are successfully 

 set out. However, it has been thought that this causes the beets to 

 become sprangling, by injuring or turning up the taproots of the 

 young plants. 



LOSSES AFTER THINNING AND BEFORE HARVESTING. 



Individually, the losses occurring between the times of thinning 

 and harvesting are of minor importance, although they aggregated 

 6.82 per cent among the plats under observation during the season 

 of 1912. (See Table II, column 17.) A source of loss present every 

 season, especially among less experienced beet growers; is that aris- 

 ing from the careless or unskilled use of the cultivator, not only when 

 turning at the ends of rows, but in the rows themselves, by allowing 

 the cultivator to swerve far enough to cut out plants. With a 2-row 

 or 4-row cultivator this may occasion a serious loss, because two or 

 four rows are injured simultaneously. It need only be said that a 

 little more care would appreciably reduce this loss. 



The later in the season that the various depletions in stand are 

 made, the more serious is their effect on the yield, because the plants 

 then have less chance to respond to space effect by an additional 

 increase in size. 



LOSSES FROM THE DRYING OF BEETS. 



Another scarcely suspected loss, not due to deficiency of stand, 

 often takes place at harvest. This is caused by leaving the beets 

 in open rows or piles in the field after they have been dug. As soon 

 as the roots have been torn from the soil, rapid loss of water takes 

 place from every portion of the plant. Therefore, whether the beets 



