90 The Sugar-Beet in America 
tations. Under these conditions, it is a rather common 
practice to allow alfalfa to grow until the latter part of 
May. then plow under the crop and after thoroughly 
working down the land, plant potatoes or corn. The 
next year beets are planted. The organic matter plowed 
under with the alfalfa adds to the ee supply of the 
soil and enriches it in nitrogen. 
A farmer having eighty acres of land and wishing to 
raise twenty acres of beets and having as other possible 
crops, alfalfa, potatoes, tomatoes, peas, beans, and the 
small grains, might arrange his crop in a rotation some 
thing like this: alfalfa, four years; followed by potatoes, 
corn, or tomatoes, one vear; beets, one vear; peas or 
beans, one year; beets again, one year; grain as a nurse 
crop with alfalfa, one year. This would give an eight 
years’ rotation with the following acreage each: alfalfa, 
forty acres; corn, potatoes, or tomatoes, ten acres; beets, 
twenty acres; peas or beans, ten acres; and wheat, oats, 
or barley. ten acres. 
A variation of this rotation would be to put the two 
beet crops together and Jet the peas or beans follow; or 
if it was desired to have as large an acreage of beets as 
possible, the peas and beans could be eliminated and the 
beets raised three years continuously if well manured, 
giving a total of thirty acres of beets. If the farm were 
small, the same general arrangement could be main- 
tained, only it is probable that the relative area planted 
to beets would be larger. The rotation could readily 
be extended or shortened a year or two by increasing or 
decreasing the length of time the land was in alfalfa. 
Where alfalfa does not thrive, the same general plan 
