150 The Sugar-Beet in America 
the slicing season and also because the company’s agri- 
culturists, aided by chemical analyses, are better able 
to judge the proper time to dig than the individual farmer, 
who might allow the date of digging to be influenced more 
by personal convenience than by the condition of the 
beets. It is easy for the farmer, desiring to close off his 
fall work as soon as possible, to make the mistake of 
digging too early. It is difficult for him to realize that it 
is during the last few weeks of growth that the greater 
part of the sugar is stored in the beet, and that the ton- 
nage is also materially increased at that time. During 
its early stages of growth the beet plant is sending out 
roots and leaves and most of its food is used in growth. 
Only when growth is nearly complete is the plant in a 
position to do any large amount of storing. 
Under a number of conditions the beet plant may begin 
to ripen and store sugar, then later begin another period 
of growth and the sugar-content be reduced. These 
conditions are to be avoided. Every effort should be 
made to keep the plant growing up to the time of final 
ripening. A period of drought in the early fall may pro- 
mote ripening; and if followed by warm rains or by an 
irrigation, the plant may send out new leaf and root 
growth and use a part of the sugar that has been stored. 
It is, therefore, a mistake to let the beets become dry any 
great period before the time of digging. Some of the 
conditions bringing about this reduction in sugar are 
beyond the farmer’s control, but he should be watchful to 
make favorable the conditions of which he is master. 
