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iV^,.:\C,UlTORE LIBRARY 
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1 . 
SUGAR BEET CUETURE. 
By frank L. WATROUS. 
Sugar beets were first grown in the Arkansas Valley for 
sugar testing purposes, in the year 1890. Most of the work 
was done on this Station, but there were two or three enter- 
* prising farmers who thus early began to investigate the 
subject. 
The work, that season, was altogether experimental. 
Little was known as to the best varieties for planting, subse¬ 
quent cultivation, and most of all, nothing was known as to 
^ needed amount, or manner of irrigation. This year was 
spent in groping after facts and the product, though encour¬ 
aging was not large. However, the work this year with that 
of the following season, proved among other things, that the 
Arkansas Valley was well adapted as to soil and climate, to 
the growing of sugar beets, and with this came a knowledge 
of the magnitude of the business. The farmers of this sec¬ 
tion, having already felt the consequences of soil deteriora¬ 
tion, through the successive cropping of wheat on the same 
land, began to see an advantage, providing a market could 
be secured, in growing a crop not particularly difficult to 
cultivate, not too tender to be handled by ordinary labor, 
less deteriorating to the soil than wheat, and less liable than 
most other crops to suffer from the exigencies of climate or 
the depredations of insect enemies. A period of drouth in 
the latter part of the season is just what the sugar beet 
requires, so that an occasional water shortage at that time is 
no detriment to the crop. 
