THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY IN 1920. 7 
favorable and those that are unfavorable for the production of sugar 
beets. The primary object of this bulletin is to give a general survey 
of the beet-sugar industry, to encourage the more general application 
of those principles and practices which make for better returns to the 
grower, and to discourage those practices which tend to reduce the 
yields and quality of sugar beets and of other crops and also to un- 
balance the relation between crop production and the kind, number, 
and quality of the live stock on the beet farms. The general effect 
aimed at is the production of more sugar and a more nearly perfect 
stabilization of the beet-sugar industry in the United States. 
The production of sugar from beets in the United States for the 
five-year period from 191G to 1920, inclusive, is shown in Table IV. 
SOIL. 
Almost anj^ fertile soil capable of producing good yields of other 
crops will, if properly handled, produce good sugar beets. More de- 
pends upon the physical condition of the soil and the way in which it 
is handled than upon the so-called kind or type of soil. Extremely 
sandy soil or soil of a decidedly gravelly type is not usually satisfac- 
tory for sugar-beet growing. 
Raw soil. — Generally speaking, raw soil or new soil does not pro- 
duce as large yields of sugar beets as may be obtained from soil that 
lias been under cultivation for some time. In recent years much new 
soil has been brought under cultivation through the use of sugar beets ; 
this in a measure has had a tendency to reduce the average yield of 
sugar beets in this country. The argument in favor of growing sugar 
beets on new soil is that this crop will bring the raw soil under control 
and place it in good tilth for other crops more quickly than almost 
any other crop now produced on a large scale on American farms. 
It must be expected, therefore, that so long as new sugar-beet terri- 
tories are being opened in the partially developed sections of the 
United States this factor, tending to keep down the average yield of 
beet roots, will be effective. Also in many of the older sugar-beet 
sections in which the growing of sugar beets is being extended from 
year to year, whereby new lands are being brought under cultivation, 
this factor will be more or less effective in holding down the average 
yield. In those sections where sugar beets have been grown for many 
years (as, for example, in Utah) and in which a minimum acreage of 
new soil is being used for sugar-beet culture from year to year, the 
average yield of beets per acre is strikingly above the average for the 
entire country. Usually the grower who utilizes new soil for sugar- 
beet production expects a comparatively low yield and is generally 
satisfied, for the reason stated above, if the crop pays the cost of pro- 
duction. Though this is one of the causes of the low average yield of 
beets per acre in this country, it is by no means the only one. 
