48 BULLETIN 721, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
in the season the sugar content also will be lowered considerably. 
Sugar-beet insects as a general rule are more or less local and are 
seldom very destructive for more than one or two years in succession. 
All biting or chewing forms of insects are susceptible to poisons 
and may be controlled by the use of arsenate of lead, Paris green, or 
other arsenicals. 
The leafhopper previously mentioned as a carrier of curly-top 
is frequently very destructive indirectly. It punctures the leaves or 
leaf blades of the beets with its slender beak and injects into the 
plant some substance or organism which exerts a decidedly unfa- 
vorable effect upon its growth. 
Among insects working in or near the roots are cutworms, wire- 
worms, and white grubs, all of which are very destructive. White 
grubs are abundant in sod land; therefore such lands should not 
be selected for growing sugar beets. Wireworms and cutworms as 
a rule are more destructive early in the season while the beets are 
small. They frequently destroy the stand to such an extent that 
replanting is necessary. Cutworms come from the surface of the 
ground and cut off the plants during the night. They may be de- 
stroyed by the use of poisoned baits, according to directions which 
will be furnished by the Bureau of Entomology. Wireworms usu- 
ally follow the row of young beets when they have begun their work 
of destruction, and since they usually remain in a row a second plant- 
ing should be made in the same direction, so that the rows are par- 
allel and several inches from the original planting, i. e., without 
harrowing or disking. By pursuing this method the second plant- 
ing will often become so large that little wireworm damage will be 
done. Other remedies, however, are necessary. 1 
The false chinch bug is a serious enemy to seed beets, frequently 
appearing in immense numbers and working on the growing tender 
seed stalks and leaves. When present in large numbers it frequently 
absorbs by suction so much of the vital juices of the plant that either 
the seed stalks are destroyed or the seed fails to mature. This in- 
sect may be controlled by the use of contact sprays, among which 
nicotine sulphate, 40 per cent, is most valuable. Experiments in co- 
operation with the Bureau of Entomology are now in progress to 
determine whether or not spraying seed-beet fields is a practical 
method of controlling this pest. 2 
BY-PRODUCTS. 
The principal by-products connected with sugar-beet growing and 
beet-sugar production are the beet tops, pulp, and lime. The first 
1 See Bulletin 123, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Dept. Agr., "A preliminary report on 
the sugar-beet wireworm," G8 p., 23 pis., figs. 1914. 
2 See Farmers' Bulletin 762, " The false chinch bug and measures for controlling it," 
4 p., 2 fig. 1916. 
