The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1892-06-02
HOW TO RAISE SUGAR BEETs.

In raising beets it is not the quantity
which you can raise to the acre, but
the quality of the beets which makes
it profitable. To get the best results
as far as the quality of the beet is con-
cerned depends first of all upon the
soil, but chiefly upon the cultivation
which the farmer gives. Therefore, in
your work this year with this seed, do
not endeavor to get large tonnage,
but follow the instructions carefully
so as to get the best seeds.
A mild, moist, loamy soil with good
quantity of sand in it, not swampy, but
rather lying high, we'll drained, and
which has just yielded crop of pota-
toes or corn or some grain. It is best
to use land which has been cultivated
during the past three years at least;
older land than that will be equally
good.
Do not in any case plant this seed
upon new land which has not vet raised
a crop. II you have fall ploWed land
| which YOU hHvN worked over this year
! It is best 10 usO that.
do not l!ntter any condition put
stable manure upon this land, as it is
a mistaken idea of our farmers that
highly fertilized land is necessary. For
sugar beets you want land that has
not yet been fortified at all. Land
which has been plowed deep, say from
nine to ten inches, is best, and it will
certainly pay you, if you have not such
deep land, to prepare some. However,
good beets have been grown during
the past year upon land which has not
been plowed SO deeply.
CONDITION OF THE SOIL.
After having selected land as de-
scribed above, get it in fine condition
by harrowing,or as this seed will plant
but a small strip of land, you might
be able to spade it so that it will be in
the very best condition, that is, where
all the Jumps are broken up and the
bed is in the condition of a garden
patch.
TINE TO PLANT, ETC.
Do not plant the seed, unless it
should turn quite warm, much, if any,
before the 18th of May, or at the time
it would be proper for you to plant
corn. The day upon which you put
he bed in its final fine condition, plan
the seed in rows eighteen to twenty
four inches apart, the closer the bet
ter, and if the land is moist, to depth
of onehall inch; if the soil has become
dry put the seed in about ten inches
deep.
Plant the beets on level, not in
ridges. and cover. If the seed is plant
ed too deep it will not sprout as well.
Plant at the rate of twenty pounds to
the acre. This package contains a
pound, SO that it will plant but small
patch Either drop the seed in the
rows by hand or drill it in as freely as
it will run.
When the plants get to a height of
about four inches thin out with hoe
or by wedding to the 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 or five or six inch
es. 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 in a row.
Cultivate the soil very frequently so
as to keep clean from weeds, and when
the plants get to such a 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.