448 
The Cultivation of Sugar-Beet. 
3. Irrigate judiciously, and keep clear of weeds. Cultivate thoroughly 
during their early growth. 4. When well up, thin, so that there 
shall be one thrifty plant every 6 or 8 inches (some say 10 or 12 
inches), taking care not to injure the plants left standing. 5. In 
cultivation, take care to preserve the leaves, and to throw some 
earth to the plants each time. The portion of the beet which grows 
above ground does not contain much sugar. 6. Harvest when ripe, 
and preserve free from frost. As the results of analysis, the chemist 
to the Colorado station concludes : — 1. That there is a greater per- 
centage of ash present in beets grown on rich soil than in those 
grown on poor soil. 2. That the percentage of oxide of iron, of 
lime, and of phosphoric acid in the ash is greatest in beets from 
poor soil. 3. The specific gravity of the expressed juice of the beet 
is not a correct index to the percentage of sugar present, as various 
salts in solution, and often accidentally present, produce increased 
specific gravity when there is no corresponding increase of sugar. 
4. An examination of the beet-i-oot by horizontal sections shows a 
somewhat regular increase in sugar content from the top dowmvard. 
In Nebraska a systematic attempt was made in 1888, in and 
around Grand Island, to demonstrate experimentally that beets 
could be there raised of sufficient richness in sugar to warrant the 
investment of capital in a sugar-plant. The results were so satis- 
factory that last year the trials were repeated throughout the entire 
State, and, simultaneously, the Legislature of the State of Nebraska 
passed an Act the first section of which runs : — " That there shall 
be paid out of the State Treasury to any corporation, firm, or person 
engaged in the manufacture of sugar in this State from beets, 
sorghum, or other sugar-yielding canes or plants grown in Nebraska, 
a bounty of one cent ( W-) per pound upon each and every pound 
of sugar so manufactured under the conditions and restrictions of 
this Act." In addition to this, Bills have been quite lately intro- 
duced into the United States Congress providing that a certain sum 
(as yet unspecified) shall be paid as a bounty, to the farmer or 
planter for every ton of two thousand pounds of sugar- beets raised 
in the United States, delivered to a factory, and manufactured into 
merchantable sugar ; further, " that a bounty of eighty- five cents 
per one hundred pounds shall be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury 
upon all merchantable sugar made from sugar-beets in the United 
States, to be paid to the manufacturer thereof." Another Bill pro- 
vides for an appropriation for the purchase of sugar-beet seed from 
abroad, and to exempt the importation of beet-sugar machinery, 
and such seed from duty. With circumstances like these operating 
in their favour, it is not surprising to learn that the development 
of the beet-sugar industry in the United States is now receiving 
the serious consideration of capitalists and scientists. 
From a commercial point of view, the most serious obstacle that 
cultivators of sugar-beet in the British Isles would be called upon 
to encounter would be that arising from the artificial conditions 
created by foreign fiscal systems. In Germany alone the bounty 
paid last year on home-grown sugar-beet amounted to 885,000/., 
