The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1892-05-27

as freely as it will run.
When the plants get to height of
about four inches thin out with a hoe
or by wedding to distance of four to
six inches in the row, and then by
hand wedding thin out all of the
plants in each hill excepting the one
strongest plant so that there shall be
left one plant to every four, five or
six inches. This, in case the soil is
inclined to be heavy: if the soil is
very light they can be thinned out to
distance of eight to ten inches, that
is, one plant to eight or ten inches in
row.
Cultivate the soil very frequently
SO as to keep clean from weeds, and
when the plants get to such height
and the leaves become SO large that
further cultivation might injure or
break the leaves, hill up around each
plant and cease all cultivation.
Direct tests by government stations
in Europe and the best Individual
seed growers show that the amount of
sugar in the beet is dependent after
the soil, climate and temperature,
upon the amount of cultivation Civ
en-. The more cultivation the richer
the beets in sugar, the better the
yield, the more uniform the size of
the beets and the better the crop for
sugar making purposes in every way.
The reasons for planting and Guilt
waiting the beetS in the way described
are essentially as follows:
Beets for sugar making must not
exceed three pounds in weight in the
clean root; larger beets than these do
not have the amount of sugar neceS-
sary, are not as easily handled and or
dinarily cannot be manufactured as
profftably into sugar, and the yield
per acre will not be so great.
BY planting in rows as close tOgeth-
er as Is inches, and by keeping the
beetS as close as four to six or eight
inches in the rows the size of the
beets is reduced and made uniform,
and what has been lost in tonnage
from the weight of single beets is
made up, by the greater number of
beetS that an acre will yield.
Planted in rows eighteen inches
apart and one beet every six or eight
inches. an acre will contain about 90
900 plants. If these mature with the
clean roots weighing about one pound,
an acre will yield about 25 tons, but
on our soil the beetS will average
nearer two to two and half pounds,
so that the extreme tonnage yield
will be increased.
In our work last year the yield of
clean roots to the acre varied from
s tons to As tons, and in good season
in California several years ago there
were 305 tons of clean roots raised
from five acre field. l estimate that
our lands should yield an average of
from Is to 20 tons at least, if the di-
rections given are followed out, and
we are anxious to have the results
show not how many beetS can be rails
ed, because this will come after the
farmers understand how to raise good
beets, but how rich beet can be
raised.
The value of sugar beet for sugar
making purposes depends upon the
amount of sugar it contains.
Any established factory would con-
tract to buy beets at minimum price
of 81 per per ton if they were fit for
making sugar, and if the beets should
contain as much as twenty per cent
sugar they could afford to pay in the
neighborhood of So per ton.
Every hours cultivation given the
beets after they have sprouted and
are up, means hundred fold yield in
the results. For example,:
This seed if plated and the beetS
given no great attention, would prob
ably yield beets containing as much
as ten to eleven per cent sugar. but
directly in proportion to the amount
of cultivation given may these beets
be improved to yield as high as TWEEN
ty, or indeed twenty-five per cent SUI
gar. BeetS have been raised yielding
as high 26 40 per cent of sugar.
We raised them on the State Farm
the past year when our conditions for
various reasons and late planting
were unfavorable to the best results,
containing as high as 204 per cent SUI
gar. There is no soil in the world
better adapted to raising the best
sugar beet, nor other farmers more
capable, if they will undertake the
work, than is the soil and are the
farmers in Minnesota.
In harvesting the beets, run through
between the rows with a potato litter
and then pick the beets out, cut the
leaves off in about one-half or an inch
of the crown. Further instructions
will be sent you or published in your
papers regarding tSS harvesting OF
the beets in ample 11ee.
DO not plant 4 seed on swampy
DO not pls. on land which you
have recently Utilized.
Do not -! in wide rows as you Go
for stock 49,.
Do no1 - to thin the beets out
early. g8
Do n0tfail to cultivate frequently.
Do not fail to hill up well at your
last cultivation.
Do not let the dirt fall onto the
leaves while you cultivate.
Do not plant the seed where The
beets cannot get the sunshine. Sun
shine makes sugar.
Yours truly,
d. n. HARPER.