The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-12-08


We are at loss to account for the
apathy which exists in this country with
regard to the sugar beet 1t seems
almost beyond possibility to arouse any
general interest in its cultivation for the
purpose of making sugar, and yet the
time is coming when its value in that
direction in this country will be under
stood and availed of. But it is about as
difficult, and we do not know but more
so, to attract attention to the value Of
the sugar beet as stock food and espe-
cially for food in the dairy. We feed
more or less roots to mich cows, and
ought to feed more, the opinions OF
some well informed people to the con-
trary Notwithstanding. But the value
of roots for this purpose is dependent
upon the saccharine matter they con-
tain. Of all of them outside of the
sugar beet, the mangold is unquestion.
ably the best. and considering its large
yield. there will always be those who
will think that it is the most profitable.
But the sugar beet has demonstrated its
superior value in this respect in France,
even if it were necessary to know more
about it than that it is very rich in
saccharine matter. Perhaps one reason
that the sugar beet is not more highly
priced for feeding, is that the distinc-
ton between that and the common beet
is not fully appreciated. As stock food
the common beet has not generally. Civ
en- satisfaction. although there are those
who prefer even it to any other root for
feeding mich cows. The extent of its
value, however, in this regard we are
not Prepared to determine Our opin-
ion is not favorable to it. But the diff
ference between the sugar and common
beet is very wide. Both the red and
white sugar beet contains almost twenty
five per cent of saccharine matter, the
red beet being distinguished because Of
having a red neck. And as to our abil-
ity to grow the beet as rich here as it is
grown in Europe, we have demonstrate
ed that we can do it. They will not
yield, of course, like the mangold, in
bulk. but they will produce greater
amount of nutriment to the acre. Ten
tons to the acre is probably the mini
mum yield of the sugar beet under any
thing like favorable circumstances, and
it sometimes reaches twenty-five tons
Probably fifteen tons are an average
yield in the Northern States. And
then the sugar beet is not as exhausting
to the soil as the mangolds are, nor as
corn is, which fact brings us to the con-
sideration of the comparative profit
ableness of feeding sugar beet or en-
silaged green corn.
As the steady reader of the Rural
knows, it has never been able to decide
upon the actual value of ensilaged crops
taking all things into consideration. OF
the simple fact that grass or corn stalks
thus preserved are good food for mich
cows, we have no doubt. But that it is
as profitable a food-that it can reach
the same results as cheaply as they can
be reached in some other way, is not
clear. We do not believe that ensilage
will at all compare, taking everything
into consideration, with the sugar beet
as a winter food. If it is corn that is
ensilaged. the ground will be much
more exhausted by producing an equal
amount of nutriment than it will by
growing the sugar beet. 1t is fact
that about double the weight of green
corn is produced to the acre that there
can be of the sugar beet, but there is
more digestible nutriments in one ton of
sugar beets than there is in two tons of
green corn. The Sugar Beet gives figures
upon the exhaustion of the soil by green
corn and sugar beets, estimating that
an acre produces twenty tons of corn
and ten tons of beets as follows: The
corn will take up per acre nine pounds
more soda than the beets will; twenty
two pounds more lime; three pounds
more phosphoric acid and fifty-three
pounds more nitrogen. These figures
may not seem of very great moment, es-
peciallv to us in the West, where the ex-
haustion of soil has not as yet been per-
ceptibly great. but they are important.
Every ounce of fertilization that we can
keep in the soil by growing something
that will not exhaust it as much as
something else will, and yet will answer
the same purpose as the more exhaust
ing crop, is money in our pockets.
However much we may have neglected
to economic in exhausting our soil, it
is fact that to the degree that we do
not exhaust it, we are making money
for ourselves. 1t is on the principle of
"a penny saved is a penny earned" In
plain words, the sugar beet offers to
make the dairyman more milk and but
ter at less cost than green corn will
make, even il he were not at the ex-
pense of ensilaging it.
When we come to the expense Of pre-
serving the two crops the advantage is
greatly in favor of the sugar beet, which
requires no expensive or comparatively
no expensive silo. The beets may be
piled up right in the field where they
are grown and covered with the neces-
sary earth to prevent them from freez-
ing at a very slight expense. And
while ensilage may deteriorate in value,
there is no danger of the beet doing so.
II any of us farmers can tell why we do
not avail ourselves of this excellentfood
for the dairy and stock in general, we
should like to hear the reason. Suppose
we try it more generally next year
Western Rural
Testing q Trotting Team.