Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1899-02-17
SUGAR BG IS.
The Actual Exp rience of one Who Has
Raised Them.


ers' institute:
Now as To the sugar beet my exper.
fence is that it is the best thing that
has come Ia this country, for it bids
the despairing fImer take fresh cour-
age i"r he may hope to pay cfl the old
mortgage. tor ne may be sure the bee' :
will bring the cash so all he mas To dc
is raise them.
70 raise them successfully he must
have suitable soil and be near good
shippu facilities. The best soil has
proven 10 be clay loan. As IA safe
rule you may be sure that any soil that
VIII produce good crop Of corn will
produce II good crop of beets, and
every farmer can readily know that.
Plow your land in the fall and aS
deeply and early rs possible. As soon
rs the ground will work nicely put on
the sprung tooth harrow or pulverizer
and cultivate from time TO time, eSpe-
cially if the land is becoming too dry
a it did last year.
A very important thing is to get
your land level, that j., fill in the dc.
pressions aud take down the knobs
This that the seed may be put in even
~ and come up evenly else some seeds
Will be up and have five OF six leaves
while others are Just coming up, and
having to wait for the small on,s will
give the weeds chance to get the start
Of you. A float made of planks or
one made of small poles woven So that
the ends project works well. But take
down the knobs and fill up the holes if
you have To do it with spade. As
soon as the danger of heavy frost is
over, say from the LIST To 10Th of May.
would sow my seed, using a wheat drill
for The purpose, having run over the
land with roller just previous to start
ing the drill This rolling is TO prevent
getting IN the seed too deep in the mel
lowest spots. use common 9.tooth
Superior wheat drill, but you'd think
Tire disc drill might do better work on
account of the tendency of the tooth
drill to clog by grass, roofs, etc. The
use of the disc drill might enable Us To
put beets on land freshly MANFRED
with coarse manure. Don't be frIg l.
ened if tAe seed is not all covered rs
they will terminate even though the
soil be moderately camp The drill
teeth are usually set inches apart and
by taking off each end tooth then leav-
ing one and taking of two You will
have three teeth left q inches apart; of
course you stop the drill holes not used
by placing piece of tin over each.
Now suppose you set the drill to SOW
pecks Of oats, using but oDe.thlrd of
the teeth, you will SOW one-thlrd Of
peckS, or IA half ousnel; now as the
seed weighs 20 pounds to the bushel,
you will Ee sowing about 10 pounds to
the acre, which VIII bee about Iignt.
though the sugar companies say you
must SOW l5 pounds, but YOU don't
have to always do just IS they tell you.
Ten pounds is the quantity agreed upon
by the beet growers society of Bay
county. When starting the drill
would first put in four quarts of seed
and see if had planted quarter OF az
acre when it was run out. You mus.
bear in mind that it j. of the utmost
Importance that you harvest your scels
before cold rain and snow stolms set
in. This you can't do unless you plant
early. Better get them all in before
the 18th of May if possible.
l commenced wedding and thinning |
when the fourth leaf was well out hat |
left several rows nearest the pigpcn to
be thinned and ted as needed. I sug
gest long narrow plat next lane or
field where stock may run and be easily |
reached from any part of the fed, rs
this will be very convenient even un-
til away in the winter to feed the tops
and crowns.
For cuItivating | use Il pony and
5-tooth cultivator with only the two
large shovels attached to the back |
Teeth, running light and throwing the
dirt from the beets when they begin to
lift above the ground as they will ON
clay loan. Use common shovel pillow
with one of the shoyels from any two
tooth cultivator, going once in row.
commenced harvesting October %.
Those on sand and sandy loan could