BULLETIN OF THE 
No. !<)<> 
Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry, Wm. A. 1 aylor, Chief. 
April 7, 1915. 
LOSS IN TONNAGE OF SUGAR BEETS BY DRYING. 
By Harry B. Shaw, 
Assistant Pathologist, Cotton and Truck Disease and Sugar-Plant Investigations. 
INTRODUCTION. 
It is common knowledge that an appreciable loss of weight occurs 
through the evaporation of the water content of sugar beets, as well 
as of other fresh vegetables, during storage. In the case of fresh 
vegetables the actual monetary loss can be measured by the shrink- 
age in weight. Some of this may or may not be compensated for 
by an advance in the price of the stored vegetables. With beets ii 
does not follow that the loss in dollars and cents necessarily cor- 
responds to that in weight, because beets owe their value chiefly to 
sucrose. The sucrose does not pass off with water during evapora- 
tion. Yet numerous studies in European beet-growing countries, 
especially in Germany and France, on sugar beets piled in so-called 
silos by the growers or stored in the covered sheds of the beet-sugar 
factories have shown that sugar, while in the beet, is by no means a 
stable compound. Inversion and decomposition take place. This 
inversion may be relatively more or less rapid than the loss of water 
through evaporation, according to the method and duration of stor- 
age. Under the present methods of extraction, beets frequently are 
delivered at the factory much more rapidly than they can be worked 
up, and they must therefore be stored by the sugar company until 
the factory is able to handle them. The losses occurring during 
such storage are recognized by the manufacturer. They do not 
directly concern the beet grower. One phase of this questioD docs 
concern the beet grower, but it has hitherto received little considera- 
tion and no experimental investigation. 
Probably the best practice in harvesting sugar beets is substan- 
tially as follows: With a suitable beet plow or digger the beets are 
Note.— This bulletin takes up the subject of the losses incurred by allowing sugar beets to lie in the 
field. The data apply specifically to conditions in the Western States, such as ; 
Nebraska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, portions of California, and Arizona, but they are equally appli. able 
to the regions having relatively higher humidity. 
81737°— Bull. 199—15 
