— 8 — 
THINNING. 
The thinning should be done when the plant has four 
leaves. The plants should be thinned so as to leave one 
plant in a place and the plants from eight to ten inches 
apart. If the crop is being raised for stock feed and the 
drills are two feet apart, a plant can be left every six inches. 
In general there is not much difference in the weight of the 
crop, at six, eight or ten inches apart, if the soil is rich and 
there are no missing plants; but the closer the roots are 
left the less likelihood there is of missing spots and the 
larger the crop on medium rich soil. 
In beets for the manufacture of sugar it is not desired 
that they grow to a large size. They contain the largest 
amount of sugar when they weigh about two pounds apiece. 
They should average under this size rather than over. For 
stock feed there is less objection to the large beet. By 
thinning to twelve inches on rich ground it is easy to get 
beets that weigh 'five pounds and over, inferior for both 
sugar and stock food. 
The thinning is usually done both by the hand and a 
hoe. With a narrow, sharp hoe the drill is struck cross- 
wise and the beets cut into hills. The final thinning of 
these hills to one plant, must be done by hand. 
FERTILIZING. 
The sugar beet takes from the ground a large amount 
of plant food. It follows therefore that the land must be 
liberally manured to keep it fertile. Most of the cultivated 
land in Colorado, contains at the present time, plenty of 
fertility to grow several crops without manuring; but at 
most this is only a temporary condition and sooner or later 
the farmers of this State will have to follow the customs of 
their eastern brethren and put as much plant food on the 
land as the crop carries away. 
For the next few years most beet raisers, will obtain 
fertility for their crops, by growing alfalfa and plowing 
under the sod. In this case the beet should never follow 
the alfalfa immediately, but a crop of grain should be grown 
first. This will rot the alfalfa roots and work the soil into 
better shape for the sugar beets. 
Unless in the case of alkali fields, which will be mentioned 
later, it is not considered advisable to grow beets more than 
two years in succession on the same ground. Where the 
supply of suitable land is not limited, better results will be 
obtained by raising but one crop, following the next year 
