The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1910-07-14
BEETS ON DRY LAND
Can Be Raised With More As
surance Than Any Other Crop.
PLANT Itself Furnishes Storage Reser-
voir for Water, and Also utiIizes
Rainfall During September
ard October.

As a general proposition II IS rec
oguized that the most rational meth
cd to sell farm produce IS 10 sell II on
the hoof. and the more so the longer
the haul TO the shipping point All
stock to bring the highest price has 10
be finished with a balanced ration fur
nishing sufficient carbohydrates in the
proper proportion to the cheap protein
In the alfalfa. writes Hans Mendels.
sohn in Deseret Farmer. Grain alone
al present prices Is too expensive.
and neither does Il furnish enough
carbohydrates. Root crops do this
much better and cheaper. They are
a succulent, palatable food. which is
more easily digested than grain alone.
and II fed with grain and roughage
enables the animal TO eat and digest
a larger quantity OF IT,
The total amount Of dry substance
one is able 10 raise on an acre In the
form Of roots. compares very favor
ably. TO say the least. with any other
forage. An acre Of sugar beets on
irrigated land should yield IS tons Of
beets and IL tons OF tops. The yield
on dry land will be much smaller.
as the rows must be planted three
feet apart instead OF 20 inches. Thus
only $4,000 bSets grow on an acre. as
compared with 10000 on irrigated
land. OF course the individual beet
will be larger. At conservative es-
timate 12 tons OF tops and beets can
be grown equivalent to three tons OF
highly valuable dry substance with
about 25 tons OF digestible carbohy-
drates; 30 bushels wheat per acre
would give only 0.s OF ton OF diges-
tible material.
Beets can be raised on dry land.
perhaps with more assurance than
any other root crop. as the tap root
goes very deep in the soil The beet
In itself furnishes storage reservoir
for water and also utilizes the rainfall
during September and October. The
beets growing now on the Broadview
farm, on the goth Of August. after an
unusually hot spell. hardly showed a
wilted leaf and looked as vigorous as
any grown on irrigated land.
Whether sugar beets are preferable
remains TO be seen. Quite a number
OF circumstances point toward the
stock beet as the better one. STOCK
beets usually hay Ter leaf sur
face than sugar beets ana therefore
the evaporation OF water In hot wealth
er is not so large. Since they ars
! growing partly out of the soil ths
harvesting is much easier. The,
yield unquestionably a higher tonnag,
OF fresh material and are not as con
centrated as sugar beets. They seen
to be more relished by the stock ant
the stock gets used to them quicke
without securing effect. The amour
OF valuable available dry substanc,
for both varieties from an acre viii
be the same. For milch cows nothini
can take the place of this succulen
food, and the same is true for broo,
cows.
Beets planted three feet betweel
the rows are an inter tillage croT
The cultivation can be done bette
than. for instance. on a corn feld a
the roots are deep in the soil an
one does not need to be afraid TO hur
them by deep cultivation, and the GU
tiyation can be kept up until the hai
vest.