260 The Sugar-Beet in America 
the temperature is cool at the time of harvest and where 
severe cold is not experienced, large uncovered heaps are 
to be preferred to all other methods of storage, since 
little expense is‘involved and the loss of sugar is slight. 
Beets are not injured by temperatures slightly below 
freezing when they thaw out slowly; consequently, only 
those lying on the very outside of the heap will be injured 
by frost. A light frost will result in no injury whatever. 
Care must be taken to see that these heaps do not 
begin to heat. If heating begins, the pile must be opened 
and the decaying beets removed. 
Beets stored at the factory are placed in V-shaped bins, 
the bottom of which is a flume covered with removable 
boards. By taking out these boards one at a time, the 
beets drop into a swift stream of water and are carried 
to the factory. 
WASHING AND WEIGHING 
The first step in preparing the beets for the factory is 
to remove rocks, sand, weeds, and other foreign material 
that might interfere with slicing. This foreign material 
is removed by a set of special devices shown in Fig. 31, 
after which the beets are carried up to the washer. The 
mechanical washer consists of a tank in which arms keep 
up an agitation in such a way that all dirt not removed 
while the beets were being carried by the stream of water 
into the factory is washed off. The beets after being 
thoroughly cleaned are elevated to a scale which weighs 
and records automatically. They are now ready to be 
sliced. 
