LOSS IN TONNAGE OF SUGAR BEETS BY DRYING. 11 
$5 for 16 per cent beets. Fractions of 1 per cent arc paid at the 
same rate. 
An example of the Hat rate would be $5 a ton for all beets testing 
14 per cent of sucrose or more. 
It is at once evident that any ordinary loss in weigh.1 due to a 
delay of one day or several days between digging and weighing is, 
under the sliding scale, reasonably well compensated for, and that 
the loss in that time due to inversion or decomposition is practically 
negligible, provided ^the sucrose test is made from beets taken when 
they are delivered and weighed and not from a sample taken from 
the field just before or immediately after the crop is dug. 
The sliding scale would probably also be fairly equitable in deal- 
ing with beets that have been piled under the sugar company's 
instructions for one or two weeks, but after such a time continued 
shrinkage in weight would mean a money loss to the grower, because 
an appreciable inversion of sucrose would become concurrent with the 
loss in weight. In Germany and other European countries this 
circumstance has been met by adding 1 per cent to the indicated 
sugar content. at the time of delivery for each month the beets have 
been stored at the request of the sugar company. 
The farmer who, whether or not from choice, accepts the flat rate 
sustains an actual money loss corresponding to the shrinkage in ton- 
nage through evaporation. He is paid according to the net weight 
of his beets at the time they are weighed on the factory scales. 
Let us say that a good beet grower obtains a yield of 20 tons an acre 
and agrees to accept a flat rate of $5 a ton. This equals $100, gross 
receipts, an acre. It has been shown that an average daily shrinkage 
of 6.48 per cent (or 6.5 per cent in round numbers) may occur when 
handling the beets in the ordinary manner. Frequently the writer 
has seen beets left several days in the field after they had been dug. 
This means a loss of $6.50 a day per acre. Should the farmer have 
no alternative but to accept the flat rate and at times find that delay 
in getting his beets weighed is unavoidable, he may effect a con- 
siderable reduction in evaporation from his beets by leaving them 
in relatively large piles and still further by covering the piles with 
beet tops. This may be done very easily and rapidly if the system 
of harvesting outlined in this paper be adopted. It would be quite 
practicable to gather the beets into piles even larger than those 
mentioned in Table VI, which averaged about one-fourth of a ton. If 
handled in the manner already described, the tops would he beside 
the beets and be at once available for covering the latter without 
further labor in collecting them. 
It is seen that the average daily shrinkage during five days in the 
large uncovered piles was 2.92 oar cent; 'in the covered piles this loss 
