10 
BULLETIN 238, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
age distance by counting the plants in each row and dividing the 
length of the rows by the number of plants. This was accomplished 
with the simple contrivance shown in figure 1. 
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF POOR STANDS. 
Having shown that progressive reductions in the percentage of 
stand occur throughout the entire season, and having indicated the 
factors chiefly concerned in this destruction of plants, an inquiry may 
be made as to the significance of these reduced percentages. Does 
the eradication of these beets from time to time during the season 
affect the ultimate 
yield, or does it hap- 
pen that the remain- 
ing beets, being more 
widely spaced, so in- 
crease in size on ac- 
count of the aug- 
mented area allowed 
to each plant as to 
compensate for the 
diminished number 
to the acre ? 
It is frankly con- 
ceded that evidence 
on this question 
might be inconclu- 
sive if based alone 
on observations of 
plats or fields on or- 
dinary farms — that 
is, farms among 
which greater or less 
diversity of condi- 
tions exist, however 
much care may have 
been exercised in their 
selection: where the application of even identical methods will vary to 
some degree : and where there are other factors of variation known to 
everyone who has carried on such experiments. Fortunately many ex- 
periments have already been conducted under test conditions, both hi 
Europe and in the United States, which conclusively demonstrate that 
with such crops as cotton, corn, mangel-wurzels, potatoes, turnips, car- 
rots, lettuce, sugar beets, and other spaced crops an optimum area for 
each plant may be discovered. Only a few of these are cited. 1 To 
1 Holdeu. P . G., and Hopkins, C . G. The sugar beet in Illinois. 111. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 49,52 p.illus., 1S9S. 
Knauer, Ferdinand. DerRiibenbau . . . Aufl. 9, neubearb von Max Hollrung, p. 64-05. Berlin, 1900. 
Nicholson, H. H., and Lyon, T. L. Experiments in the culture of the sugar beet in Nebraska. Nebr. 
Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 00, 34 p., fig., 1S99. 
Shaw. G. W. Culture of the sugar beet. Cal. Agr. Exp. Sta. Circ. 13, 21 p., 3 fig.. 1905. 
Fig. 1 .—Graduated wooden rod used in measuring the gaps in a stand 
of sugar beets. 
