66 



Sugar Beet Growing 



[Apr., 



loss. This emphasises the importance of rainfall during 

 germination and until the plants have formed a well-developed 

 root system. 



Place in Eotation. — The beet crop is normally taken after a 

 straw crop, and would in England occupy the place now taken 

 by roots in the rotation. For long there has been dissatisfaction 

 among farmers with the root crop on account of the high cost of 

 production and the relatively low return. Whether sugar beet 

 will assist the farmer in this matter is still a subject for experi- 

 ment, but it can conceivably take the place of part of the roots 

 now grown, with some j&nancial benefit. The cleaning of the 

 land is as easy under a crop of beet as under swedes or mangolds, 

 and is of just as much importance, so that its introduction would 

 cause no disturbance of present practice. 



Tillage. — The land requires very thorough tillage for this 

 crop, and farmers are particularly careful that the operations are 

 carried out so that drilling may be commenced as early in April 

 as the weather will pemit. The sequence of operations adopted 

 in Holland and Belgium is : — 



Autnmu. 2 ploughings and thop >\il';1i deaning. 

 Spring. Manu.ring. 



Cultivation. 



Rolling. 



2 liarrowings. 



Manuring. 



Drilling. 



Light harrowing. 

 Uolling. 



The two ploughings are carried out \vitli an interval of at least 

 a month between, and the land lies in furrow during the winter. 

 The sub-soiling plough is used once during the rotation, usually 

 when the clover land is being ploughed up. 



Manuring. — It is freely recognised that diti'erent types of land 

 have different manurial needs, so that hard and fast rules for 

 manuring the beet crop cannot be laid down, but the matter is 

 so important that it should be the subject of careful thought. It 

 must be remembered that the beet responds well to heavy 

 manuring. 



The application of farmyard manure to beet land is not 

 favoured in Holland, but a dressing of 10 tons to the acre is 

 frequently given in Belgium. Dutch farmers prefer to give 20 

 tons of farmyard manure per acre to the land at such a place in 

 the rotation that one or preferably two crops have been removed 

 before the beet crop is planted. They affirm that the highest 

 sugar percentages follow such a practice, and that maturing of 

 the crop is more regular. 



