Beet Raising and Community Welfare 253 
crops and to cause a general improvement in the agricul- 
ture of the section. 
INCREASES CROP YIELDS 
Statistics! show an increase in the yield of crops in 
every country where the raising of sugar-beets has been 
introduced. This is not due to any plant-food added to 
the soil by the beet plant, for it adds none, but is the re- 
sult of the good tillage methods necessary to successful 
beet-culture. The fleshy tap-root of the beet penetrates 
deeply into the soil, which it loosens and allows to be- 
come thoroughly aérated. Any tendency to the formation 
of a “plow sole” is overcome, and there is a thorough 
mixing of the soil and the upper subsoil. 
Beets require deep plowing in preparation for the crop; 
they are given constant cultivation during the growing 
period ; and at harvest time the land is stirred deeply in 
removing the beets. This cultivation is paid for by the 
beet crop, but it also improves the condition of the soil 
for the crop that follows to such a marked degree that the 
yield is decidedly increased. 
Pure sugar takes no fertility from the land; conse- 
quently, if all of the by-products of the beet-sugar indus- 
try are returned to the land, its fertility can be maintained 
readily. With most other crops, the marketable part 
contains large quantities of the mineral plant-foods. Of 
1A great many figures on this subject have been compiled by 
Truman G. Palmer and published in his pamphlet entitled 
“Sugar at a Glance’? — U. 8S. Senate Document No. 890, 62d 
Congress (1912). 
