2 BULLETIN 199, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
first torn from their root anchorage and lifted several inches in the 
soil, which is at the same time loosened. As soon as several rows 
have been dug, laborers pull the beets entirely out of the ground by- 
hand, throwing those from five, seven, or nine rows into piles at 
convenient distances apart in the line of the center row. Another 
squad of laborers immediately follows and tops the piled beets, 
throwing the tops to one side of the pile of beets. Finally the wagon 
comes, and the beets are loaded into it and at once hauled to the 
factory scales. It is thus possible to haul the first load within about 
an hour after the digging is begun. Most beet growers, however, 
are not able to organize the work so well. For one reason or another 
several days may elapse before the beets reach the scales. After the 
beets are torn from their root system, transpiration still continues, 
but the water thus lost is no longer replaced by the roots. Evapo- 
ration also takes place from the underground portion of the beets in 
Fig. 1.— Temperature curve, October 14 to 19, 1912, Ogden experiment station, Ogden, Utah. 
the now loosened soil. After the beets have been pulled, the evap- 
oration is greatly augmented, whether or not the beets have been 
topped. Commonly, the beets after being topped are thrown into 
open piles of no great bulk, remaining there until loaded into wagons. 
It is obvious that much loss of weight may occur between the dig- 
ging and the weighing of the beets. The experiments described in 
this bulletin were carried out to ascertain the extent of these losses. 
EXPERIMENTS IN PULLING AND DRYING SUGAR BEETS. 
THE DRYING OF BEETS PULLED BUT NOT TOPPED. 
At Ogden, Utah, October 17, 1912, the writer dug and pulled 
several rows of beets. After shaking off the adhering soil these beets 
were at once weighed and spread on the surface of the ground in the 
rows from which they had been pulled. They were gathered and 
weighed again the same evening; then spread out and left until the 
following morning, when they were weighed for the last time. The 
mean temperature during this experiment was 43.29° F. (See fig. 1.) 
The results are given in Table I. 
