— 18— 
TIME OF RIPENING. 
From "the standpoint of the manufacturer, the date at 
which the beets become sufficiently ripe for use, is one of 
the most important parts of the problem. A beet sugar fac- 
tory costs several hundred thousand dollars. At the most, 
it can work but about a third of the year and must be idle 
capital the rest of the time. In the climate of Colorado, it 
would not be safe to calculate on running later than the last 
of January. If the factory should start the first of October, 
it could have a run of a hundred and twenty days. Every 
day before the first of October that it could run would in- 
crease the amount of beets that could be handled and the 
profit on the whole investment. As the net profits of a well 
conducted factory are more than five hundred dollars per 
day, every additional day is of great importance. 
The results given in the foregoing table throw much 
light on the date at which sugar beets in Colorado may be 
expected to ripen. 
In the valley of the South Platte, north and northeast 
of Denver, the samples taken in September showed conclu- 
sively that the beets were not yet ripe. But a great change 
takes place in the last days of September and in the first 
week of October. The average of the samples taken be- 
tween September 25 and October 10 is 14. i per cent sugar 
and 80.7 per cent purity. This is an excellent grade of 
beets for factory use. Had a factory been in operation in 
the valley of the Platte during the season of 1897, it could 
have started up about September 25 with beets running over 
thirteen per cent in sugar and about eighty per cent in pur- 
ity. It is not meant by this that all the beets raised in the 
valley had reached that average at that date, but that on 
the three to four thousand acres of beets that would be 
grown for a factory, there would have been enough beets 
ready by September 25 to have kept the factory running 
until other beets ripened. 
This is a very important matter and cannot be too care- 
fully considered. To get the crop ripened is the principal 
aim of the beet grower since it is in the last stages of growth 
that the beet forms most of its sugar, and it is only when 
the beet becomes ripe that the juices becom'e pure enough 
for profitable manufacture. 
Several factors come in to influence the ripening 
of the sugar beet. The most important is this that the 
beets shall keep growing all the time fnmi the sprouting op the 
seed until harvest. All of the directions given for the plant- 
ing and cultivation of the crop have this object in view; 
