Cultural Methods 119 
children are employed, careful supervision is necessary, 
since they do not realize the difference in yield resulting 
from careful and slovenly work. 
Beets should be thinned about the time they have four 
leaves. Before this time, it is impossible to tell which 
will be the strong plants. Later, the shock to the plants 
that are left is so great that they do not easily recover. 
Much more damage is done by leaving beets too long be- 
fore thinning than by thinning them too early. When 
the farmer has a large acreage, he must begin a little too 
early and continue a little too long in order to thin most 
of the plants when they are the proper size. Planting on 
two or three dates is necessary with large acreages in order 
to make thinning at the proper time possible. 
The distance apart to leave plants depends on a number 
of conditions. If the land is rich, the beets may be closer 
together than if it is poor. If the season is short, they 
may also be left closer in order to hasten an early maturity. 
Under some conditions, the highest yield and sugar-con- 
tent are obtained where the beets have from 144 to 160 
square inches of surface to the plant. With the rows 
twenty inches apart, the plants would be about eight 
inches apart in the rows. This would give 39,200 plants 
to the acre. If the beets weighed one pound each, a 
perfect stand would give a yield of 19.6 tons to the acre. 
In some places the beets are left as much as eighteen 
inches apart, but so great a distance usually results in a 
decreased yield. In a few places where the beets grow 
exceptionally large, this distance may be justifiable. 
When the beets are close together the yield may be 
higher, but the extra work of handling the smaller beets 
