BEETS 607 
the disks are filled 1n with the loose duit, 
so that the surface of the ground is 
level. 
While the beets are small it is safe 
to cultivate failly deep and quite close to 
the plants The depth to which the 
ground is stirred when the beets are 
small should never be as great as the 
depth to which the ioots have pene- 
trated and never need exceed from 38 to 4 
inches in order to accomplish the ob- 
ject of the cultivation. As the beets get 
older it is usually advisable to set the 
cultivator so that it does not work so 
deep or so close to the beets, for the rea- 
son that the feeding roots must not be 
disturbed. The manner in which the 
beets are handled while small, especially 
with reference to the soil moisture, will 
govern to a great extent the position of 
the feeding roots. If the ground is kept 
rather moist near the surface the feeding 
roots will develop near the surface and 
great injury may be done by the later 
cultivation. This emphasizes the import- 
ance of withholding the water from the 
young beets as long as possible, so that 
the main root will be long and the feed- 
ing roots formed well down on the main 
root. If this is done a deeper mulch and 
one that extends closer to the beets can 
be maintained without injury to the 
plants. This will be very helpful in re- 
taining the moisture in the root bed and 
also in maintaining a free circulation of 
gases in the soil. 
Before cultivating it is always advis- 
able to examine the plants with reference 
to the length of the taproots and the lo- 
cation and length of the feeding ones. 
Hoeing 
Beets receive their first and in many 
cases their only real hoeing at the time 
they are thinned. At this time the ground 
is or should be thoroughly stirred around 
each beet. The hoeing should be deep 
enough to destroy all weeds in the beet 
rows and to form a continuous mulch 
around and between the beets. Unfor- 
tunately, in practically all sugar beet 
localities all hoeing after the beets are 
thinned consists simply in cutting out 
the weeds in the beet rows. The conse- 
quence 1s that the ground in the beet 
rows is not stirred from the time the 
beets are thinned until they are harvest- 
ed except at the points where weeds ap- 
pear This permits the formation of a 
crust, in man) cases the entire length of 
the beet rows, through which an enor- 
mous amount of soil moisture escapes. 
The destruction of weeds is of vital im- 
portance, since if allowed to grow they 
rob the soil of both moisture and plant 
food, but the stirring of the ground be- 
tween the beets in the row should not be 
overlooked 
Harvesting 
The proper time for harvesting the 
beets is usually determined by certain 
tests which show the sugar condition and 
purity of the juice in the roots. Each 
sugar company has its standard for these 
factors of quality, and until the roots 
measure up to this standard they are 
not considered sufficiently mature to be 
harvested profitably. Harvesting beets 
consists of several distinct operations; 
i. e., lifting, pulling, topping, piling, and 
hauling. 
Lifting the beets consists in loosening 
them so that they can be easily pulled. 
Two forms of lifters are in general use, 
One is a double-pointed implement so 
constructed that one point passes along 
on either side of the beets and at a suit- 
able distance from the surface so that 
the beets are slightly raised out of the 
ground The other is a single-pointed im- 
plement somewhat resembling a subsoil 
plow. This passes along on one side of 
the beet row and loosens the dirt so that 
the beets are easily pulled and is called 
a side lifter. The side lifter usually has 
a lighter draft than the double-pointed 
implement. Aside from the draft, the 
important points are that all the beets 
be loosened and that as few roots as pos- 
sible be broken. Both of these factors 
are often a matter of good driving. Af- 
ter the beets have been loosened they 
are pulled and thrown in piles or rows. 
The number of beet rows used in making 
one row of piles, usually consists of from 
16 to 24 rows of beets. 
