COLORADO EXPERIMENT STATION. 
5 
corn is planted. There are 56,000 plants to the acre, and 
5 to 10 per cent, of which is said to fail. The contract- 
stipulates that the progress of cultivation must be under 
the direction of the company, which from time to time 
will instruct the planters as to the best manner of success¬ 
ful treatment. A machine made especially for this pur¬ 
pose is used, with which the ground is made loose until 
the plants grow to such a height as to cover the space 
between rows and plants, when further cultivation is not 
required. In the fall, the beets are plowed up with an 
instrument especially adapted to the work. The leaves, 
in accordance with the contract, are cut off and left on 
the ground for fertilizing purposes. The beets are then 
hauled to the factory, where they are paid for in propor¬ 
tion to the saccharine matter contained, which is ascer¬ 
tained by an analysis made from slices of a half dozen 
beets taken from the load, as follows: $3 a ton for beets 
having 12 per cent, sugar, with coefficient purity of eighty, 
and twenty-five cents for each additional per cent, of 
sugar. Beet roots having 20 per cent, sugar bring $5 per 
ton. Very large beets, or those grown mostly above the 
ground, are rejected for sugar, as are also those that have 
been frozen, or diseased. The average yield to the acre 
is fifteen to twenty tons, and brings the planter about $45 
and $60 an acre. Considerable expense is incurred in 
thinning, for which purpose men, women and children 
are employed during the season. 
“ It requires about two and one-half days to take the 
juice out of a beet and run it into a barrel in the shape 
of sugar in the grain. The beets are unloaded alongside 
a hydraulic canal, in which they are rolled about till they 
are thoroughly cleansed, and are carried by the washing 
process to an elevator and taken aloft and deposited in a 
huge weighing machine holding just one ton of beets. 
This, upon receiving the last ounce, automatically 
