UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 995 
Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 
WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 
Washington, D. C. 
October 14, 1921 
THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED 
STATES IN 1920. 
By C. O. Town send, 
Pathologist in Charge, Office of Sugar-Plant Investigations. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Beet-sugar mills in the United States. 1 
Soil 7 
Subsoil 8 
Topography 9 
Climate 10 
Sugar-beet stand 13 
Water 19 
Drainage 22 
Seepage 24 
Soil fertility 26 
Crop rotation ,'jO 
Competing crops 32 
Farm equipment 35 
Page. 
Beet by-products and live stock 41 
Labor problems; 42 
The successful grower 44 
Diseases = 45 
Insects i 48 
By-products 40 
Roads 50 
Contracts : 51 
Area competition : 54 
Sugar-beet seed .i_ 55 
Publications of the United States 
Department of Agriculture relat- 
ing to sugar and the production__ 57 
BEET-SUGAR MILLS IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Ill the United States in 1919, 98 beet-sugar mills' were standing and 
equipped for extracting and refining sugar from beet roots. The 
oldest one of the mills now standing was built in 1870 at Alvarado, 
Calif. During the summer of 1919, 4 of the 98 mills had been erected 
and equipped for the campaign of 1919-20, G additional ones were 
built and equipped for the handling of the 1920-21 crop, and two 
others are in process of construction, making a total of 106 beet- 
sugar mills now standing. (Table I.) 
56830° — Bull. 995 — 21 1 
