594 



SUGAR-BEET 



SUGAR-BEET 



or into cars. Most shipping stations are provided 

 with dumps, so that the wagons are unloaded by 

 machinery directly into the cars. (Fig 822.) This 

 method avoids the necessity of forking the beets by 

 hand from the wagon into the cars, but is open to 

 the objection that all the dirt, more or less of which 

 clings to the beets when pulled, goes into the cars 



Fig. 822. Use of wagon-dump in unloading sugar-beets. 



and is hauled into the beet sheds. If the cars are 

 dumped at th6 sheds, as is frequently the case, the 

 dirt goes with the beets into the bins. 



If the harvest progresses more rapidly than the 

 factory is able to handle the beets, it frequently 

 becomes necessary to pit them temporarily in the 

 field. These pits differ somewhat from those used 

 for seed beets. In these field pits, the beets are 

 dumped in long piles about three feet high and pro- 

 vided with some light covering to keep out the 

 frost. As soon as the beets are needed, they are 

 reloaded and taken to the factory. 



Causes of injury to the crop. 



Hail. — Factory beets and seed beets are frequently 

 damaged by severe hail-storms. Fortunately these 

 storms are usually local, so that comparatively few 

 fields are seriously injured in a single season. The 

 storms occur most frequently in the early part of 

 the season, when the beets are small and tender. 

 It sometimes happens that a field of beets will have, 

 its foliage entirely destroyed. Since nothing can 

 be done to prevent the storms, every effort is made 

 to enable the beets to produce new foliage, and it 

 seldom happens that the beets themselves are de- 

 stroyed, although their growth is retarded to the 

 detriment of the harvest. 



With seed beets the damage is considerable if 

 the hail-storm occurs after the seed-stalks have 

 begun to form, since it may either break down 

 the seed-stalks or cut off the flowers or seeds, de- 

 pending on the time the storm occurs and on its 

 severity. 



Wind. — In some sugar-beet sections, strong 

 winds prevail. These are not injurious except in 

 certain localities where the soil is light. In such 

 instances, the young beets are sometimes covered 

 with sand and smothered, or their growth greatly 

 retarded. The real losses from this source have 



been slight but sufficient to emphasize the impor- 

 tance of avoiding light soils for sugar-beet produc- 

 tion, especially in those sections where high winds 

 usually prevail in the early part of the growing 

 season when the beets are small and easily covered 

 with shifting sand. 



Rain. — Few crops can withstand excessive rains 

 with less injury than sugar-beets, especially if 

 heavy rains do not occur until after the beets are 

 well established. The greatest damage is done 

 when such rains occur soon after planting, and 

 either the seed or the seedling beets are actually 

 washed out of the ground. Excessive rains falling 

 on improperly drained fields must necessarily be 

 injurious, since under such conditions the roots 

 cannot receive the proper amount of air. The only 

 remedy for this evil is proper drainage. Warm 

 rains sometimes occur when the beets are ripe. 

 This condition frequently causes a new growth of 

 foliage and a consequent reduction of the sugar 

 content. If it is impossible to harvest the beets 

 before such rains occur, it is often advisable to 

 let the beets remain in the ground until the sugar 

 content is again, restored to its maximum. The 

 effect of rainfall on adobe soil, with the remedy 

 therefor, has already been mentioned. 



Insects. — According to Bulletin No. 43, Division 

 of Entomology, United States Department of Ag- 

 riculture (entitled A Brief Account of the Princi- 

 pal Insect Enemies of the Sugar-beet, by F. H. 

 Chittenden), about one hundred and fifty insects 

 feed mbre or less exclusively on sugar-beets, of 

 which perhaps one-third are noticeably destructive. 

 A more or less complete account of these pests, 

 together with the means of combating them, will 

 be found in Bulletins Nos. 19, 23, 29, 33, 40 and 43 

 of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



Diseases. — There are very many specific diseases 

 of the sugar-beet ; some of them are due to bac- 

 teria, some to fungi, some to physiological or other 

 causes. Only two of the diseases have proved es- 

 pecially serious in this country up to this time, 

 namely, the leaf-spot, due to the fungus Cereospora 

 betieola, and the western blight or curly top, the 

 cause of which is not known. The leaf-spot may 

 be controlled by thorough spraying with Bordeaux 

 mixture. Rotation is to be advised. The most sig- 

 nificant fact in regard to the curly top is that it 

 seldom occurs in two successive seasons in the 

 same locality or in the same field. 



Literature. 



Some of the important treatises on sugar-beets 

 follow : Hermann Briem, Die Entwicklungsge- 

 schichte der Rtibensamenzucht (1889) ; same, Der 

 praktische Riibenbau (1895) ; C. J. Eisbein, Der 

 Zuckerriibenbau (1894) ; J. Fiihling, Der praktische 

 Riibenbauer (1877) ; Herzog, Monographie der 

 Zuckerriibe (1899) ; Fr. Knauer, Ueber Riibensa- 

 menzucht (1857) ; W. Kriiger, Die Entwicklungs- 

 geschichte, Werthbestimmung, und Zucht des Rii- 

 bensamens (1884) ; E. 0. von Lippman, Die En- 

 twicklung Der Deutschen Zuckerindustrie von 1850 

 bis 1900 (1900) ; G. Marek, Die Ergebnisse der 



