Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1898-05-12
SUOAR BEET CULTURE.
Instructions Designed To Prevent Mistakes
and Keep the Profits Up.

Instructions Designed To Prevent Mistakes
and Keep the Profits Up.
The sugar beet is an exacting crop
and persons unfamiliar with the best
methods of growing 1t have much to
learn and will make many mistakes
that will cut down the profits. With a
view of helping those who are thinking
of growing beets for the factories the
Cornell experiment station has prepared
simple instructions, from which the fol-
lowing items are cleaned:
Sugar beets can be grown successfully
on quite IA variety of soils-grayelly
loan, sandy loan, loan and clay loan
though sandy loan is usually con-
sidered best suited to the crop. Any soil
that is well adapted to potatoes will
raise sugar beets.
Sugar beets should have a deep soil
with moderately porous subsoil. A
shallow soil with hard or water soak
ed subsoil is fatal to the crop. If the
soil is not right in these respects, it
may often be made so by thorough
drainage and subsoil blowing.
The necessity of deep blowing cannot
be emphasized too much in this connec-
ton. The sugar beet should bury itself
in the soil the same as "a parsnip, and it
will do so if the soil conditions are
right. If, however, the subsurface soil
is hard or saturated with water, the tap
root cannot penetrate into it, or if it
does get down fairly well, it cannot ex-
pand freely in the hard soil, but ex-
pands in the direction of least resist
ance, which being upward the result is
short root, considerable portion of
which grows above the surface of the
soil.
1t is found that the upper portion of
the beet, especially that part that grows
above ground, is less rich in sugar than
the part growing we'll in the soil, while
this same part is highly charged with
impurities that interfere seriously with
the manufacture of sugar. The factory
people aim to keep the impurities down
by requiring that the portion of the beet
growing above the surface of the ground
be cut off The aim should be to so pre-
pare the land that the root can bury it.
self we'll in the soil. Thus will be- Sc
cured not only larger yield, but "a
smaller percentage OF waste in the
crown removed.
1t is best to apply barn manure to the
preceding crop rather than to the beets,
but if used on the beet land it should
be applied in the fall. An effect of the
direct application of barn manure is the
tendency to produce i'll formed beets
Commercial fertilizers applied in the
spring should be thoroughly incorporat.
ed with the soil. Observations made
lead to the belief that commercial fer.
tilizers applied on the surface have a
tendency, like recently applied barn
manure, TO cause the development Of
fingers and toes" as the i'll shaped
sprangly roots are called.
The Kleinwanzlebener and the Vii.
MORN have been most grown III this
country and seem to be best adapted to
our soil and conditions 1t is customary
to sow about 20 pounds of seed per acre,
though if it all grows this is many
times more than is needed. If dry
weather follows the planting, only the
best of the seed will terminate. If IA
crust is formed before the plants are up,
they help one another to break through;
hence the chances are much better for
getting "a good stand with heavy than
with light seeding.