— 10 — 
suits are strikingly in favor of planting on freshly plowed ground. 
In the first case three days elapsed between plowing and planting; 
in the second case four days intervened. The four items of germi- 
nation, sugar, purity and weight of crop are in each case in favor of 
the beets planted as soon as possible after the ground is plowed. 
These differences are not always large, though in the case of the 
weight of the crop they amount to one-seventh, but in the aggre- 
gate the difference would have a decided influence on the sugar 
value of the crop. The average of the two plantings on freshly 
plowed ground is 16.74 per cent sugar, 80.3 purity and 17.6 tons 
per acre. The beets planted three or four days after plowing give 
16.23 per cent sugar, 77.3 purity and 15.3 tons per acre. Combin- 
ing tl\ese figures, the first gives 4731 pounds of available sugar per 
acre, while the latter yields but 3839 pounds, a difference of nearly 
a thousand pounds of sugar, or something over ten dollars per acre 
in favor of immediate planting. In the light of these figures, it can 
be seen how important it is that if large areas are to be planted, they 
should be plowed in sections and each section planted the day of 
plowing. 
3. Irrigating at the Time of Planting. 
Three tests were made of irrigating the ground as soon as the 
seed was planted, as compared wdth allowing the seed to germinate 
from the moisture in the soil. In each case a small furrow was 
made some six inches from, the seed, and water run in this furrow 
until it soaked sideways and v/et the seed. 
Irrigated at Planting. 
Not Irrigated at Planting, 
Rows. 
Num- 
ber 
beets 
per 
row. 
Tons 
per 
acre of 
crop. 
Sugar 
in 
beet. 
Purity. 
27-32 
232 
15.8 
17.48 
84.7 
45-56 
338 
18.4 
17.77 
86.4 
165 170 
Average, 
112 
227 
9.9 
14.7 
12.12 
15.79 
76.5 
82.5 
Rows. 
Num- 
ber 
beets 
per 
row. 
Tons 
per 
acre of 
crop. 
Sugar 
in 
beet. 
Purity. 
21-26 
243 
16 0 
17.84 
85 7 
33-44 
271 
17.8 
16.97 
84.6 
171-176 
128 
8.1 
13 08 
76.2 
Average 
214 
14.0 
15.96 
82.2 
The results are closer than would be expected had the treat- 
ment been exactly alike, showing that so far as these tests are con- 
cerned there was no advantage from irrigating up the seed. It 
should be remembered, however, that this was on a soil very reten- 
tive of moisture, and which at the time the first two of these tests 
were made, was already w^ell supplied with water. This soil also 
bakes easily and of course the bad effects of the hardening of the 
soil would go far toward counteracting the good effect of the extra 
moisture. It was expected that if irrigating up the seed was an ad- 
