18 
Bulletin 63. 
DRYING OUT OF BEETS. 
This takes place rapidly if the beets are exposed. Beets 
wrapped in paper and placed on the earth of a cellar bottom lost 
about five per cent, of their weight during the first twenty-four hours ; 
from this the daily loss fell to about two per cent., at which rate the 
beets continued to lose up to the seventeenth day. The percentage 
of sugar increased. 
The drying out of beets has another effect, it is accompanied by 
a loss of sugar. This loss varied in the experiments recorded from 
one-fortieth to one-sixth of the sugar present. 
The suggestion is made that the loss may be materially in¬ 
fluenced by the condition of the crop, the loss being greater in 
unripe beets than in riper ones. 
The yields recorded range from 7.9 to 11.8 tons per acre for 
sugar beets, and 15.9 tons per acre for Lane’s Imperial. 
The ratio of the weight of the tops to that of the beets was 
found in two ways. First, weighing the carefully removed tops 
and beets gave for sugar beets of different varieties ratios 
varying from 1:1.087 to 1:1.274, or the weight of the tops varied 
from 78.5 per cent, to 92.0 per cent, of the weight of the beets. The 
second method was to weigh the beets as harvested and the tops as 
removed from them. On removing these tops no part of the crown 
of the beet was taken. The result was that we found the ratio to be 
1:1.14. The general ratio obtained by the first method was 1:1.12. 
The weight of leaves as harvested in the field equalled 87.7 per 
cent, of the weight of the roots. The results obtained in the labor¬ 
atory gave their w r eight as equal to 89 per cent, of that of the beets. 
The tops of beets grown on alkalized ground were relatively a 
little heavier than in cases where the ground was practically free 
from alkali. 
The tops increase but little in weight during the last six weeks 
of the growing season. The beets, on the other hand, gained 64 
per cent, of their weight at the beginning of this period. 
The beets ripened this season, 1897, the second week in 
October, and about one third of the total crop of sugar was deposited 
during this period. 
The percentage of dry matter in sugar beets increases with the 
maturing of the beet. In green beets harvested September 2nd we 
found from 8.8 to 14.6 per cent., with an average of 12.1 per cent. 
In mature beets it ranges from 17.0 to 20.5 per cent., and in ex¬ 
ceptionally favorable seasons it may be higher. Sugar forms a 
larger percentage of this dry matter in mature beets than in green 
or immature beets. 
