50 BULLETIN 995, U. S. DEPAETMEXT OF AGRICULTURE. 
and evenly burned. The beet juice is treated with this burned lime- 
stone, and a large part of the mineral matter taken up by the beet 
plants in the process of growth combines with the lime and is removed 
by filtering. The lime is then washed out or otherwise removed from 
the mill and is known as waste lime or lime sludge. Large quantities 
of this material accumulate at the various mills and may be used as a 
soil improver and as a fertilizer. It is beneficial chiefly because of the 
lime, which tends to improve the physical condition of the soil, and 
slightly because of the mineral matter that the lime has removed from 
the beet juice. The use of this material as a fertilizer has not become 
general in this country. In some of the beet-sugar countries in 
Europe this by-product is all used in making commercial fertilizers. 
It is used in part as a filler in the manufacture of fertilizer and in part 
as a soil improver just as it comes from the sugar mill. It therefore 
has in this country two possibilities : First, it may be used just as it 
comes from the mill, and, second, it may be used in the manufacture 
of commercial fertilizers. When first removed from the mill it is wet 
and can be handled with difficulty, but it soon dries sufficiently to be 
handled readily, is friable and easily incorporated with the soil, and 
should all be used in improving farm lands. In some localities where 
the value of this material has been realized it is washed out and car- 
ried in ditches or flumes to the fields, where it is spread by the irrigat- 
ing water. In this way it may be handled quickly at a minimum cost, 
and if care is taken it may be evenly spread. As soon as the ground 
on which the lime has been spread is sufficiently dry it should be 
plowed and the lime thoroughly mixed with the soil. 
For sugar-beet culture there is very little danger of getting too 
much lime in the soil. Beets not only thrive well on limed soil, but 
the lime seems to have a beneficial effect under some conditions in 
retarding the development of certain plant diseases. 
ROADS. 
One of the most important factors in developing a beet-sugar 
industry is that of roads. Certain localities otherwise adapted to 
sugar-beet growing have been found in which this crop can not be 
recommended or encouraged because of the condition of the roads. 
Fortunateh T the interest in roads during the past few years has greatly 
reduced the number of such localities. Road building and sugar-beet 
culture have been mutually helpful. It is only by having good roads 
that crops which must be hauled to market in numerous heavy loads 
can be handled successfully; likewise, the demand that these crops 
have made for good roads has stimulated their building and improve- 
ment, as shown in Plate VI, figure 2. 
There are three points to be considered in connection with roads 
as related to sugar-beet culture: (1) The length of the haul. (2) the 
