Preparation of Seed-Bed and Planting 111 
whether disk harrow, spring-tooth harrow, spike-tooth 
harrow, float, cr roller should be used. Often a combina- 
tion of several of these implements is required to secure 
satisfactory results. 
It must be remembered that the young beet seedling 
is extremely tender, and too much care cannot be given 
to prepare the land for its initial growth. Thorough 
disking, harrowing, and floating are the successive steps 
usually followed. The float may often be followed to 
advantage by some implement to firm the soil just below 
the surface, for sugar-beet seed is not planted deep. A 
number of good implements are available for this firming. 
Finally, a light harrowing makes a thin surface mulch 
and kills the weeds that are newly germinated. The 
weed problem must be kept definitely in mind in this final 
preparation, because if all the weeds are not killed about 
the time the beet seed is planted, they will get ahead of 
the beets and cause much trouble. Weeds are most easily 
killed just when they are starting. The land cannot be 
harrowed after the beets are planted; and by the time 
they are high enough to cultivate, the weeds may have 
a good start. 
Rolling the land is often practiced to make the surface 
smooth and to break clods. Compacting the surface soil 
with the roller increases capillary movement toward the 
surface, thereby hastening the loss of moisture. The fact 
that the soil seems more moist after a roller is used often 
misleads farmers into thinking they are actually saving 
water. Probably the farmer is, under certain conditions, 
justified in sacrificing part of the moisture in the soil in 
order to secure a better germination than is likely to follow 
