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market for this particular purpose. Any of the tools used 
for cultivating onions will do good work on sugar beets. 
The ordinary one-horse cultivators are often sold with 
special attachments for working on beets. Whatever im- 
plement is used it should merely scratch the surface of the 
ground, leaving it level and killing the small weeds, without 
throwing dirt onto the young beets. This cultivation needs 
to be repeated about once a week until the beets are large 
enough to shade the ground and conquer the weeds. I'he 
ground should be cultivated after each irrigation to throw 
the dirt back into the irrigating furrow and make a dirt 
mulch on top that will preserve the moisture. The cultiva- 
tor should also be run after each rain that the crust formed 
may be broken up. Ordinarily, it will require about five 
cultivations to keep the crop in good shape. 
IRRIGATION. 
The uses of irrigation before plowing and to germinate 
the seed have already been mentioned. It is advisable to 
delay the first regular irrigation as long as possible. When 
it is necessary, it is always given in furrows, care being 
taken to keep the water off the surface and not let it touch 
the crowns of the plants. All beet crops in Colorado will 
require one irrigation, and may need two or three. The 
cultivator should be run as soon as possible after each irri- 
gation. 
The most of the sugar is made by the beet during the 
last few weeks before it is ripe. To make the highest per 
cent, of the best sugar it is necessary that at this time the 
plant should almost cease growing and devote its energies 
to storing up in the root, as sugar, the nourishment that has 
already been taken from the ground and elaborated in the 
leaves. If water is applied at this time by rainfall or by irri- 
tation, it induces the plant to keep on growing, making a 
large weight of crop, but one containing a low amount of 
sugar. Hence the last irrigation should be given about six 
weeks before the crop is matured. This will be from the 
first to the middle of August. In 1895, there was a heavy 
rain in September at the College Farm, which kept the 
beets in full growth until frost and gave a crop with much 
less than the usual amount of sugar. Such rains very seldom 
occur in Colorado and this fact coupled with the control that 
the farmer has over his water supply under irrigation makes 
the growth of a crop with the largest amount of sugar more 
reliable in this State than in those sections that depend on 
rainfall to grow the crop. 
