Preparation of Seed-Bed and Planting 109 
made any careful investigations in which costs have been 
figured. All seem agreed that for beets deep plowing is 
desirable, since the expanding roots require a soil that 
may be moved readily; but just what deep plowing is 
seems to be entirely a matter of local judgment. In one 
place twelve inches would be called deep plowing; in 
another locality nothing less than eighteen or twenty 
inches would be so designated. 
Ordinarily where mechanical traction power is available, 
the land is plowed deeper than where horse power is de- 
pended on. In some sections an attempt is made to plow 
all beet land twenty to twenty-four inches deep. Other 
sugar-beet areas find half this depth ample. The nature 
of the soil and other local conditions are doubtless im- 
portant considerations in this connection. The length 
of time the land has been cultivated must also be taken 
into consideration. It would most likely be unwise to. 
plow land twenty inches deep when it had previously 
been plowed only eight inches. The amount of raw soil 
thus turned up would probably render the land almost 
wholly unproductive the first year, particularly if the 
deeper soil were heavy and compact. 
The use of the subsoil plow was highly recommended 
for sugar-beets in the early days of the industry in America, 
but now there is little said of it. In some areas it doubt- 
less pays to subsoil, but usually subsoiling cannot be recom- 
mended as a regular practice in connection with plowing. 
In digging beets the land is in reality subsoiled; this is 
ordinarily all that is necessary. In some soils that have 
never produced beets, a subsoiling would probably be 
beneficial, but it certainly is not necessary to success in 
