Conditions for Growing Sugar-Beets 45 
quire attention at the same time corn must be cared for, 
and since corn in this section brings more money for the 
labor, sugar-beets will probably not gain much of a foot- 
hold unless economic conditions change. A decided ad- 
vance in the price of sugar or a decline in the price of 
corn might change this balance entirely. 
Sugar-beets have not secured a strong foothold in the 
great wheat sections of the country, partly because the 
farmers can earn more money with less labor by han- 
dling a large acreage of wheat than by handling a few 
acres of beets. The farmer who has been used to raising 
500 or 1000 acres of wheat and doing most of the work 
by machinery is not likely to be satisfied to spend all of 
his time over fifteen or twenty acres of beets, particu- 
larly if he has to do most of the work by hand. 
It takes time for sugar-beets to come into active com- 
petition with long-established crops, even though condi- 
tions are highly favorable to their growth. Farmers have 
to learn how to raise the crop, and they are limited in 
their markets to regions having a sugar factory. This 
means that the industry is usually extended gradually 
and not rapidly; but where it is well established, sugar- 
beets usually have little difficulty in competing with most 
of the ordinary farm crops. 
Labor. 
More than ten times as much hand labor is required to 
raise an acre of beets as to raise an acre of wheat, over 
five times as much as to raise an acre of corn, and more 
than twice as much as to raise an acre of potatoes. The 
horse labor required for beets is over three times that 
