sugar beets: preventable losses in culture. 
17 
necessary to grade and level a field properly could be put in at odd 
times during the autumn and winter and in many cases would not 
cost more than the additional labor and loss entailed each season by 
leaving this work undone. 
Implement manufacturers should be urged to study the improve- 
ment of seed drills in order to make them more responsive to the sur- 
face of the ground and to perfect a seed-dropping device for them. 
However, much of the trouble with seed drills could be avoided by 
better preparation of the seed bed. 
The first cultivation, taking place soon after the seedlings appear ? 
is sometimes carelessly done or is performed with implements not 
well adapted to the operation. Thus, many seedlings are smothered 
by having the soil thrown over them. A special type of cultivator, 
with disks adjusted to protect the plants, will prevent losses of this 
sort (fig. 5). 
Tig. 4.— Sugar-beet seedlings, showing the effect of late frosts and the bites of flea beetles. The dead 
seedlings were killed by frost; the others were bitten by flea beetles. 
LOSSES ON THE THINNING STAND. 
Many beet growers defer thinning and spacing too long. The 
European beet growers hasten to their fields as soon as most of the 
seedlings have acquired two pairs of true leaves. To delay beyond 
this stage may mean a marked reduction in tonnage and sugar, as 
is shown by an experiment in Germany in which the results given 
in Table V were obtained. 1 
Table V. 
-Losses due to delayed thinning of sugar-beet seedlings in Germany. 
Thinned— 
Yield. 
Loss per 
acre at $5 
a ton. 
At the proper time 
Tons. 
15 
13.5 
10 
7 
One week later 
$7 50 
Two weeks later 
25 00 
Three weeks later 
40 00 

1 Robertson-Scott, J. W. Sugar Beet: Some Facts and Some Illusions, p. 120. London, 1911. 
