THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY IN 1920. 33 
ing crops. Most of the competing crops may form a satisfactory 
crop-rotation system with sugar beets in one or more of the recognized 
sugar-beet areas. 
Bewis. — Tn the farm-to-farm survey of the Office of Sugar-Plant 
Investigations beans have been found as a competing crop in several 
localities, and under certain conditions it is one of the strongest 
competitors. This crop is easily produced and brings a fair return 
to the farmer for the labor and money invested. In some of the 
areas studied beans have ceased to be a competing crop because of 
local conditions, chief of which is the presence of certain bean 
diseases. It was believed that beans could follow beans profitably 
in the same field for a number of years, but this, like all other crops, 
is more satisfactory in the long run when grown in proper rotation 
with other crops. As in the case of sugar beets, continuous cropping 
with beans has enabled certain diseases of the bean to be propagated 
from year to year, thereby becoming more widespread and more de- 
structive, until bean production in certain areas is no longer profit- 
able. If properly handled, beans should be a good crop to rotate with 
sugar beets. They should not compete with the sugar beet to the 
exclusion of the latter, for the reasons above stated. The diseases 
affecting sugar beets and beans are for the most part very different, 
and for this reason these crops rotate well together. Again, the 
sugar beet leaves the ground in good condition for the production 
of the bean crop. • If the beet crop has been properly handled the 
weeds are eliminated, and in this respect the field is left in a good 
condition for beans. Furthermore, sugar beets leave the ground in 
good physical condition for a bean crop ; on the other hand, if beans 
precede beets the}^ will leave the ground in good condition for the 
sugar beets. The order of rotation, therefore, with these crops is 
not particularly important. 
Tobacco.— Tobacco is not generally grown in the sugar-beet areas, 
but there are a few localities in which both tobacco and sugar beets 
are produced. Though theHobacco crop is expensive to handle, the 
returns under favorable conditions make it a strong competitor. 
The methods used in growing tobacco do not usually lend themselves 
well to crop rotation; for example, tobacco fields are usually heavily 
fertilized with commercial fertilizer. Part of the results to be ex- 
pected from these fertilizers should be apparent during the second 
or even the third year after they are applied. Owing to this large 
expense growers usually expect to use the same field for the tobacco 
crop for a series of years, consequently it does not admit of ordinary 
crop rotation. Again, the tobacco crop requires a large amount of 
labor, some of which conflicts with the labor necessary for sugar- 
beet production. If, however, a farmer can obtain sufficient labor 
56830°— Bull. 995—21 3 
