Sugar Beets. 
21 
There were certain spots in which the seed failed to germinate, 
and the cause of this was not discovered. It was not explained by 
either a lack or an excess of moisture, nor was the alkali as excessive 
as in some other places. 
The plot experimented with was the same as that used in 1897, 
the results of which appear in bulletin No. 42. 
The rainfall for the months of July, August, September and 
October was 2.8 inches, the total amount received by the crop from 
the time of planting till harvested was about eight inches. The 
ground at the time of planting was wet, and the water plane was 
about two feet below the surface. The water fell about a foot in the 
next thirty days. An irrigation given July 8th to 11th did not 
suffice to raise the water to its earlier level, and it fell two feet in 
eleven days. The level of the ground water was not sensibly 
affected two hundred feet east of my plot by this irrigation. The 
water plane fell slowly from July 25th until early in October, when 
it reached its lowest point. The water plane from July 15th to 
October 10th ranged from three to four and one half feet below the 
surface at the east end of the plot, and there were but few beets in 
this section. At the upper and higher end of the plot the plane 
varied from 5.2 to 6 feet below, and the crop was excellent. In an 
intermediate section the water plane varied from 3.5 to 4.5 feet 
below the surface, with an abundance of alkali, and it yielded a 
good crop. The crop showed the need of water during the later 
part of the season, notwithstanding the high water plane. The 
ground had been kept as mellow as possible, and clean, having 
received five hoeings and five cultivatings. This plot of ground 
was put in beets in 1899, and needed no irrigating, it having been 
sub-irrigated this season from higher ground lying to the west of it. 
The wetness of the ground interfered with the cultivation of the 
crop, but the mechanical condition of the soil was so much 
improved over that of previous years that the cultivation was much 
easier. In 1899 this plot was soaked, August 31st to September 2nd, 
and the crop left to itself. The crop from this plot in 1897 was, 
taking an average of all varieties of sugar beets, about nine tons; 
in 1898, thirteen tons; in 1899, fourteen and one half tons to the 
acre. The increase in the crop is due to the betterment in the con¬ 
dition of the soil and a rather better stand. 
Application of manure, sheep manure in this case, improved 
the stand by at least ten per cent. 
The ripening of the crop of 1898 was entirely different from 
that of the crop of 1897. In 1897 there was a rainfall in Septem¬ 
ber, on the 14th, which interrupted the ripening. In 1898 the crop 
developed continuously up to maturing. No sudden increase in the 
percentage of sugar was observed as in the preceding year, when the 
