D. M. FERRY & GO'S DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE 



17 



Sugar Beets are desirable not only for the manufacture 

 of sugar, but are invaluable for stock feeding and table use. 

 They are deservedly popular both on the farm and in the 

 small garden. No one who raises beets of any kind should 

 fail to plant at least a trial bed. Our list comprises the best 

 strains on the market. 



SOIL— The best soil for Sugar Beets is a rich, friable, 

 sandv or clayey loam. They cannot be profitably grown on 

 a tenacious wet clay or a very sandy or excessively hard 

 and stony soil. Rich, mucky soils will often give an im- 

 mense yield of roots which though excellent for feeding are 

 of little value for sugar making. Most farm lands capable 

 of producing a good crop of corn or wheat can be made to 

 grow a good crop of beets. 



MANURE— Sugar Beets do much better when the soil has 

 been made rich for a preceding crop than when the fertihz- 

 ers are apphed the same season. The use of rank, unde- 

 composed manures, or such as contain a large amount of 

 nitrogen, will result in large, coarse roots of little value for 

 sugar making. If the condition of the ground necessitates 

 the use of a fertiUzer the current season, the greatest care 

 should be taken to have it evenly and thoroughly mixed 

 with the surface soil. 



SEED— There is no crop where the quality- of the seed 

 used is of greater importance than this. If inferior seed be 

 planted, no matter how rich the soil or how skillful the culti- 

 vation, the yield will be unsatisfactory and unprofitable. A 

 great deal of most patient and skillful labor has been ex- 

 pended in estabUshing and developing strains of beets which 



are adapted to sugar making. It is only by the use of the 

 best seeds that profitable suga)' making is possible. 



PLANTING AND CULTIVATING— The great secret of suc- 

 cessful and economical culture of beets is thorough prepara- 

 tion of the soil before planting. The seed should be planted 

 as soon as the soil can be gotten into good condition, which 

 is not likely to be before the middle of April, but the seed 

 should be in before the last of May. We plant in drills 

 twenty to thirty inches apart, dropping from twelve to 

 twenty seeds to the foot. This will require from ten to fif- 

 teen pounds of seed to the acre. It is very important that 

 the seed be well covered with not to exceed one inch of soil 

 pressed firmly over it. As soon as the young plants have 

 started suificiently to make the rows visible they should be 

 cultivated and the field should receive constant attention so 

 as to keep the surface soil loose and destroy the starting 

 weeds. When the beets are about two or three inches high 

 they should be thinned so as to stand six to ten inches apart 

 in the row, and cultivation should be discontinued as soon as 

 the roots have commenced to form. Often a crop is injured 

 by late cultivation which starts the plants into fresh growth 

 when they should be maturing and developing sugar. Sugar 

 beets ripen and become fit for harvesting as distinctly as do 

 potatoes or corn, and they indicate that they are approach- 

 ing this condition by the outer leaves turning yellowish and 

 the top seeming to decrease in size owing to the curling of 

 the central leaves. They should be gathered and stored when 

 ripe or mature, for if left they may start into fresh growth 

 which lessens the proportion of sugar. The successful culti- 

 vation of beets rich in sugar requires rotation of crops, how- 

 ever rich and good the soil may appear to be. 



Jaensch's Victrix Su^ar Beet Seed 



The latter part of the 19th century has 

 been made notable for the earnestness 

 with which scientific men have investi- 

 gated and studied the problem of how to 

 raise larger farm crops at less cost. 



No plant has been more carefully stud- 

 ied in this respect than the Sugar Beet, 

 and as a result the improvements in it 

 have been marvelous. Instead of ci'ops 

 yielding 10 per cent or less as was the 

 common average twenty years ago, we 

 now have those yielding, under most fa- 

 vorable conditions. 



18 to 30 Per Cent Sugar. 



This increase has been brought about 

 not so much by improved methods of fer- 

 tilization and culture, though these have 

 been factors, as by 



Improvement in Seed. 



The profitableness of a crop, even under 

 the same conditions of soil and culture, is 

 largely determined by the quality of the 

 seed used which affects the total weight 

 of roots harvested, the amount of tare (or 

 proportion of the root which has to be re- 

 moved in topping) and above all in the 

 proportion of sugar the roots contain. A 

 factory which will lose money when run 

 on beets giving but barely 12 per cent of 

 sugar, may be made to give a good profit 

 when supplied with beets yielding 14 per 

 cent or more. A farmer who will lose money on 

 a crop of roots so ill-shaped that it is necessary to 

 remove a large portion in trimming, will do well 

 on a crop in which, because of the use of better 

 seed, there is a small amount of tare, and for 

 which he gets an extra price because of the large 

 sugar content. A difference of a few cents in the 

 price of the seed is of no importance as compared 

 with the question of quality. 



Jaensch's Victrix is Unquestionably the Best 

 ^ Strain of Sugar Beet. 



It is grown by the most successful Sugar Beet 

 experts in the world, Gustav Jaensch & Co. This 

 firm has worked for many years in the midst of 

 the best Sugar Beet growers and factories in Ger- 

 many, and Mr. Jaensch himself has devoted years 

 of careful study to determining what a Sugar 



JAENSCH'S Victrix 

 Sugar Beet. 



Beet should be and how it may be pro- 

 duced. His facilities and knowledge being 

 unequaled, it is not sui-prising that the 

 result should be so satisfactory. Jaensch 

 & Co., not only by most careful examina- 

 tion and analysis of thousands of speci- 

 mens, select each year a few of the best, 

 but from these they select those which 

 show the greatest power to perpetuate 

 their good quaUties, rejecting those, no 

 matter how good in themselves, whose 

 descendants are not superior. Having 

 obtained a superior beet, the seed of which 

 produces beets of superior quality, they 

 skillfully increase the stock and are able 

 to offer seeds by the ton, every one of 

 which is the direct descendant in the sec- 

 ond or tliii'd generation of a single beet. 

 Such seed has a special value, since it 

 gives greater 



Uniformity of Product 



which is of great importance to both the 

 manufacturer and farmer. Beets of uni- 

 form quaUty can be more economically 

 worked than' those differing greatly in 

 sugar content. Roots from the same field, 

 or even from the same load, are not apt 

 to show precisely the same per cent of 

 sugar, and when this difference is great, 

 the farmer is quite likely to be dissatisfied 

 with his crop and refuse to contract an- 

 other year. Much of this dissatisfaction 



can be avoided by using seed of uniform quality. 



Not only do Jaensch & Co. produce the best seed 



grown in Europe, but before sending it out they 



submit it to a pi'ocess by which the 



Germinating Power 



is conserved and its ability to resist the attacks 

 of insects and diseases increased. Often this 

 special treatment enables growers to get a good 

 stand when all other seeds fail. 



We have been appointed sole agents for the 

 sale of Jaensch's Victrix in America, and urge 

 every Sugar Beet factory to make a trial of it; 

 every Sugar Beet grower should procure at least 

 enough for an acre or two, and compare the pro- 

 duct with that of other seed. He cannot afford 

 to do otherwise. 



Jaensch's Victrix Sudar Beet Seed 



Per Lb. 35c., postpaid. Lots of 5 lbs. to 35 lbs. by express, at purchaser's expense, 35c. per lb. 

 Original sealed sacks, weighing about 110 lbs. each, $17.50 per sack f. o. b. Detroit. 



