Having selected the beets that are up to the standard in quality, they are planted in the early spring in rows three feet apart, the beets standing two to three feet apart in the row. Each acre thus contains approximately 5,000 to 7,000 beets.
The seed-stalks vary within wide limits both in regard to number and size. Some beets produce but a single stalk, others will send up several dozen. Sometimes the stalks are large and upright, while others are small and spreading. (Figs. 818, 819.) The flowers usually open in June and the seed is ripe in August, when the stalks are cut off near the ground and left to cure. As soon as it is thoroughly dry, the seed is removed by some con venient itaethod ; frequently, an ordinary threshing machine is used. It is then put through the cleaner, which removes all leaves, stems and other foreign matter, and is then sacked for shipment. The aver age seed yield per acre varies from season to season, but is usually 1,200 to 1,500 pounds.
The sixty-four factories now in operation in the United States require for the use of their growers more than 5,000,000 pounds of sugar-beet seed annually. Less than 2 per cent of this amount is produced in this country at present. However, the possibility of growing and maturing sugar-beet seed in several of the western states has been demonstrated beyond question, and it is undoubtedly only a matter of time when all beet seed required by American growers will be produced on American Planting.—After the seed-bed has been thor oughly propared in the way already indicated, the seed is planted, usually in solid rows, by means of a four-row planter. Occasionally a hill dropper is used, but this has not yet come into general use, since the growers are afraid that this method of planting will injure the chances for a good stand. For the solid-row method a drill planting four rows at a time is commonly used. The space between the rows varies from fourteen to twenty-eight inches, eighteen or twenty inches being the most common. The distance between the rows is deter mined largely by the quality and condition of the soil, especially as regards moisture ; and by the method of cultivation that is to be employed.
Fifteen to twenty pounds of seed per acre is recommended in order to insure a good stand,—a condition on which the tonnage and the sugar per acre depend in a large measure. A much smaller quantity of seed is required with the hill dropper.
The seed is planted just deep enough so that it comes into contact with the moist earth and is cov ered with a thin layer of fine soil one-half to one and one-half inches deep. Under favorable condi tions of moisture and temperature, the plants are up in four to ten days. Inexperienced growers should be cautioned against planting the seed too deep, since the inability of the seedlings to push their way through a too thick layer of soil may result in a very unfavorable stand. In the irrigated sections it is not uncommon to irrigate the plants up, but in those areas where moisture depends on rainfall it is necessary to wait until the soil is sufficiently moist before planting.
Blocking and thinning.—As soon as the Plants are large enough so they can be handled, i. e., when they have about four leaves, they are blocked and thinned. Blocking consists in cutting the se cd ling beets out of the solid row, leaving small tufts or bunches of beets at intervals of eight or ten inches. This operation is usually performed by means of a hand hoe, although blocking machines operated by horse-power ate coming into use in some localities.
Having blocked the beets, the next process, called thinning, consists in pulling from these remaining clumps or tufts all the beets but one, thus giving the remaining beet every possible chance to develop. Thinning is one of the most laborious and at the same time one of the most important operations in growing sugar-beets. If the thinning is not done properly, or if it is delayed too long, the yield per acre is greatly reduced. The closeness of the seed ling beets in the clumps that are left after blocking makes it necessary to do the thinning by hand. The structure of the seed-balls ders it impossible to plant the seeds far enough apart in the row to get one plant in a place. As already pointed out, only a few of the seeds are separate, most of them being produced in balls of two to seven. The De partment of Agriculture has undertaken to produce a plant that will yield only single-germ beet seed. If such seed can be produced in quantity sufficient for commercial use, hand-thinning may be aban doned, since the seeds can then be planted close enough together to insure a good stand and at the same time far enough apart in the row so that the resulting plants can be cut out with a hoe or other implement.