CHAPTER V 
SOILS 
SUCCESSFUL sugar-beet production, as well as every other 
phase of agriculture, is dependent on the intelligent han- 
dling of the soil. All farm profits ultimately go back to the 
land. Live-stock, important as it is, merely furnishes a 
means of marketing what the soil produces. Every effort 
should be made to understand the needs of the soil in 
order that it may be made to yield bounteously and 
permanently. 
RELATION OF SOIL TO BEET-CULTURE 
Sugar-beets are not so sensitive as to require a special 
kind of soil. They will grow on any good agricultural 
land on which the ordinary field crops thrive. As with 
other crops, however, beets do better on some soils than 
on others. This is reflected much more in the yield than 
in the quality of beets. Wiley,! after making a rather 
exhaustive study of beets raised on soils in many parts 
of the United States, reports : 
1 Wiley, H. W., U. S. Dept. of Agr., Bur. of Chem. Bul. No. 96, 
p. 34. 
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