THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. 31 
number of the sugar-beet pests, including some of the fungi and 
bacteria as well as insect pests, may be controlled by crop rotation. 
Effect of sugar beets upon other crops. — As a rule, the effect of 
sugar beets upon succeeding crops is beneficial. This is especially 
true of the small grains; that is, small grains grown after sugar 
beets will almost invariably produce larger yields than when these 
grains are made to follow other crops. The sugar beet does not 
produce plant foods, as do the legumes, but owing to the long roots 
and the methods of cultivation employed in growing and harvesting 
the beet crop the soil is put in splendid tilth, thereby forming good 
seed and root beds for the crops that follow the beets. These in- 
direct benefits to the growers are important in considering the ad- 
visability of growing sugar beets and should be estimated at their 
just value. These indirect benefits due to sugar-beet growing have 
only a remote bearing upon the price paid for beets and upon the 
price of sugar. They should, however, be considered in figuring the 
profits derived from sugar-beet culture. 
COMPETING CROPS. 
Crops grown in competition with sugar beets may or may not 
be suitable for rotation with sugar beets. By competing crops is 
meant those crops grown in sugar-beet areas which appear to be 
more profitable or more easily produced, or for some reason are so 
favored by the farmer that he may possibly prefer them to sugar 
beets. Some of the competing crops do not lend themselves readily 
to a rotation with sugar beets. In such cases the competing crops 
may be a limiting factor in sugar-beet production on an individual 
farm, or if the crop is a general one it may be a limiting factor in 
sugar-beet production in a given community. A crop may compete 
with sugar beets because of its market price, because of the small 
amount of labor involved in its production, because of the peculiar 
fitness of the soil for the growing of that crop, because of local mar- 
ket conditions, or because it fits more closely the requirements of the 
individual farms than any other crop. The competing crops in the 
sugar-beet sections are such as beans, tobacco, potatoes, muskmelons, 
alfalfa, and grains. Other crops may temporarily be competing with 
sugar beets and some of. those mentioned may for local or other 
reasons temporarily cease to be competing crops. Most of the com- 
peting crops may form with sugar beets a satisfactory crop-rotation 
system in one or more of the recognized sugar-beet areas. 
Beans. — In our farm-to-farm survey we have found beans a com- 
peting crop in several localities, and under existing conditions it is 
one of the strongest competitors. This crop is easily produced and 
under present conditions it is bringing a fair return to the farmer 
for the labor and money invested. In some of the areas studied 
