THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. 11 
the development and storage of sugar. The young beet plant very 
early in its life begins to store sugar, but its maximum activity along 
this line is reached in the fall, when the difference in temperature 
between night and day is most apparent. This difference seems to be 
necessary for the proper elaboration and storage of sugar and is 
apparently a limiting factor in the production of sugar-beet roots 
sufficiently rich in sugar to make them profitable for sugar-making 
purposes. It is probable that the absence of cool nights at the end 
of the growing season permits the continued growth and develop- 
ment of the beets, thereby using up the sugar in plant growth instead 
of storing it. 
Moisture. — Moisture is necessary for the production of profitable 
crops of sugar beets. This reaches the soil in the form of rain or 
snow, or it may be applied artificially. Our present sugar-beet area 
extends over a portion of the humid and the irrigated sections of the 
country, as shown in figure 1. 
In the humid sections the moisture falls largely during the winter 
months, although there are usually frequent rains during the spring 
and summer. Occasionally some parts of the humid portion of our 
sugar-beet area are visited by heavy rains in the early spring, which 
greatly delay the planting of the beets as well as of other crops. This 
is sometimes followed about midsummer by a severe drought which 
greatly retards crop growth. If these conditions were of frequent 
occurrence over wide areas they would constitute a limiting factor in 
sugar-beet growing in the humid sections ; but they have occurred in 
this country only in limited areas and at long intervals. Occasionally 
rainfall is abundant at harvesting time, sometimes injuring the 
sugar-beet crop by producing a second growth of the plants, which 
greatly reduces the sugar content. The extent of this injury de- 
pends upon the condition of the beets and the duration of the rainy 
period. If this is followed by a period of favorable weather the 
sugar content will be restored wholly or in part, depending upon the 
duration and nature of the weather. It sometimes happens that the 
beets must be harvested before the lost sugar is fully restored, either 
to prevent the roots from freezing in the ground or to avoid a tem- 
porary shutdown of the mill. Consequently, a second growth due to 
late rains may cause serious losses to the grower and to the sugar 
company. A season in the humid region in which the rainfall is 
just sufficient to maintain a steady growth until near harvesting 
time, followed by continuous fair weather accompanied by cool 
nights and warm days, makes conditions most favorable for the pro- 
duction of sugar beets so far as the humid area is concerned. These 
conditions prevail generally in the humid sections where sugar beets 
are grown. 
