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Show Iij Importance of Sugar Beet Growing ! Demonstrated; Rotation ILssentiai 1'nltll recent I outside of scientific agricultural circle., it was a generally accepted conclusion In the L'nltea States iliat sugar beet culture injured ' the soil. Ferment so contended, and so universal was ih- contention thai factory managc-mr ins wen compelled to concede t Itu t lh farmer were right. Certain it was that after hav-ing hav-ing been planted to ii".'. several suc-''csslvo suc-''csslvo season-, tields yielded a lower tonuace with each succeeding ir. While the department ol ajrricul ture pointed out mini ,.,!i mt igea of migai beet culture and urged farmot to engage in it. i irioui agricultural Weeklies uiMi'm! t!,iir imiIci lhal whatever mlglii lo the tonnage icr acre anil whatever the price of beet lcr ton. they couhl not afford to.en-gage to.en-gage In beet culture. .1 . .1 . nn v. ml destroy the productivity of their Melds and ruin the value of their tarms. H FIRST It i GIV1 n Some ten yean ago. I read In a H country weekly the first detailed st.it. - mcnt 1 had seen which purported to show in bushels per aero just )iow much mi gar beet culture increased the yield of other crops when grown H I in rotation with them. The article gave with much parttcularltj the re suit of a series of experiment which it was claimed had been conducted In Germany, ami showed that :ugar heel culture greatly Improved the soil. Al-though Al-though unsigned, it horc evidence ot I ; sincerity, and i republished it In a 1 shot t lilstory of the heel sugar Indus- 8 tr. only to be met with expressions I of incredulity. H I VeeJtngahat we in the United states H I might have faihd to discover the mug- re net which Induced the nutlon-i of Bu ft ropo to favor the beet sugar Indus! I try to ji far gn atei :len1 than H I favored other Industries, I went then I tu Study conditions first hand and to I verify or dibproe. th statement e.n- I tainod in t lie countr weeklj a&ovt I noted. 1 searched for reports of re- H I cent experiments on the subject. 1 u t H was told there was none: that the1 B facts had been definitely determined H many years ago, and that there was no t inure occasion for making such x- H pcrlments now than to Make a re. Hf. survey of the distance between Berlin 1 and Vienna both had been Aetortn- Hf land beyond question, even the trade j preM had ceased to give space tj 1 tor decades even European ugricul n t ui 1st had recognized sugar beet out- n lure .1 the father ,f modern s?len- ' 1 title agriculture, the key nob of the II 1 Hl 1: thus became necessary to search f Wr the works of earlier Tiuthora. In I he.-e works and in . ..n . rsatlon with' egri ultural economists ami sugat 1 bee! growers, 1 ilHmvuvd of .H our trouble, the one reeson why m peiienco of American sugai farmers gavo contr.irj n-sultx ltnine. i iiroiipliout the sugar beet districts of JSurope. Amerl-1 Amerl-1 fanners were growing beets on lb "MM soil year after .ar. their, '' I thought beliV ' so nvui tons of 1 POT aire at so'much per :ii." "tneo learnhiR lb.- iiuhnci l V'rtiuc of bugar beet culture. ICuro I'v.ni faruiers use them as a mean n :i.i icasr the yield of other crops' tu thulr direct n t' 1 pi 1 in H 1 over aa creat kji area as 1 ;-iiit beets on the same soil Hj - r in threo to five. Kfom ttmi H ' me this information since has j ;' Pieced before the American en-' R ' lt farmer, and now. by practical i 'lfce. many have learned of the H '!'' 1 i')U,r let rotatii.ii and arc n iriusuisiie over n suits obtain, d h iiinooncrinen; m.J. thst H u.Bon or a iturbank had discov f m.-ans whereby eeh acre of' H State which is doted 10 B crops couM I maite la leio I K two lusheln where thy now Midgut' H fn. legardlesa or am reasonable .-;.eti .-;.eti whtcti might b Involved. th' ssH aistovrer woutii xreeted u :hei H o rid greatest public benefactor, the' H u'vl ? ll:41 'ed the high COSt of ' VITA I DSCXVKR1 H 1 h" vs'ue of th. telephone H .nentlona sinks into Inslcn ilka 1.. ssh rni rompared to thst of a discover H 1 would 'nble rountr ,. frd 11 OOubls the number of pcoui whbp H u 11 J discovery wna made a .enturr H sge and was heralded and utilized B by the leading ntlkun of H with the reault that their wtvrnout H soils have been rejuvenated that H now they produce two bushel of vrain H wher former), they produced but H one Hut for the fact that Kun.p H creasing opula'.iui. H strange as It may egeru ".. .11,. H n.ry has not been exploited Mi the United States. With few exceptions. American writers on agricultural top-j top-j les seem to have been totally ob- livious both as to the cause and of 'the fact that the "worn-out soils ui I Europe" have been su built up thai 1 Ihej now produce no bushels of grain where the virgin soils of the , 1 lilted Btates produce but one. In their iKO'-ra m . onu American writ-erg writ-erg even advise farmers against adopting adopt-ing the very method which has revolutionized revo-lutionized agriculture in Europe. And so It followed that American farmer have not profited by It, and. then yields x r acre remain practically sta-' I tlonary, while the crop yields of the balance of Che world increase from year 10 year. During the pas: thlrt ! years tho combined average yield per a tp oi wheat, rye, barley and oats In the I'nlted ytates has Increased but s.s per pent, while tho acreage ylclo. of the same crops in Oerinany has In- creaeed so per cent during th? sams period. Bxperii n. e in the United States : anJ tJirouKhou; Europe demonstrates conclusively that the Introduction or 1 hoed r ot crop in iix- rotation one 1 year In tour is a prerequisite to heavy, ylclqj of cereal crops. Even though a farmer applies no science lo hia work .-a-.c that of d voting his Molds t " a root crop one e i r in four, he Will realize more from cereal crops than -.111 the farmer who avail:: himself him-self - all known scientific agricul-tui agricul-tui !. low ledge, but fulls to Intro-dui Intro-dui a hoed root crop In his cycle ol rotation. 'I he opening of the Panama canal, the deepening of our Inland water-Mfaya water-Mfaya iho bulidini; of good roads th.-establishment th.-establishment of a credit svsteir. Bfherebj American farmers may secure se-cure lognd at ,i low rate of Interest, theso and other projects are offerer! as soiiitnir.s to Die high cost of living liv-ing problem, but It Is obvious thu Important as these projects are, then comblneh Influence would reduce the cost of lUliiR slightly comparison to What It would he reduced f without additional expense our farmers were enabled it. produce two bushels 01 M-i 111 w n.-ro ine now produce one. Whin the writing of Cato and Plini and other ancient agricultural writes indicate that the art of root crop rotation ro-tation was praetlced 2000 vears ago Great ltrltam has the distinction of aelTIB the first country In mnder:i Umea 10 Introduce rcot culture in rotation ro-tation with cereal crops as ., means of Increasing the (eld of the latter tor a hundred years the ba-t of British ugricnlture wall the turnip In ISO.,. Thai r, the Engl lab agriculturist, agricul-turist, wrotgi s book on (Jhc suliject "r i"P rot.iti..,, .or,..,, crops, and as a result of his teachings and of those who followed him, Krit-ish Krit-ish farmers- Increased their plantings or roots from year to er Thc now grow 2.000.000 acres of hoed roots .Principally turnips. In rotation. With MOO.Me acres of cereal crops which accounts for their heavv viHd per acre. Thaer s work was" iran- lated and DlaeOd in the hands of German Ger-man farmers, and for many vear tterman agricultutal economists endeavored en-deavored to Induce them to adopt Thaers methods, but in vain, T., objections defeated all attempts In this direction. First, it required di u mowing, and deep plowing meat "' " ' "' " '-top f one, R-o.ll.l I... ,ffr7r. '''"ch er Lo b hauled off the field Second, it meant th, introduction of a crop that in Itself d 1. t : nio inoneN xai. , ., 10 be fed Instead of aold. and was 1 l. P'Hable than the crons' which ttj th id; were growing 1 uej declined to grow it N kPOI 1 g 1 I iiv A few yes m later. Napoleon's K. etutsts discovered the Indirect value of ugar beets when grown m ratals rata-ls ??f? C Val croum' n(1 on M CU, Ull. the French empeior di. -jateu a note t his minister of the, WU r instructing him to see that! lifc hiJT" cf boc" Wcr P'anted In I the dlffernt aiTondiwrnent. th f... lowing season, and that the prope, orricials he appointed to enforci his command He then oppr..pr,t. o M4.M0 fr.nn with which ... rtah-llsh rtah-llsh schools of lijuru. :i.n i0 ,. glvea in I. on para to those who ere.-fed faetorie-. Although It w3a ew nd unknown crop ,h- faruwrs were compelled to plant the t. i. At end of iu yeara, us smaii Freucb lactones were producinc r.'te.fftu pound or surai. and t.y itJs the" io'iui ":ir product amounted t, itiiuntitiSt riii" ,,f j,"rman i ' ,,!!"!,Vl"lt Ii11 bee In Franc- 0'"nied agi leu, tore ly lacrems- leid of cereals to i,n run Ki i S5? lhn h"J l,1rlp m I rvn it 3erm"n Mnonilst to1 ol 1 ' !n,,,c their farmer ..... ' ' 1 ' ' !i. 11 .1 .1 o induce their farmers to grow thin t' 'hey UU 10 Indues I J."1 10 frow. ,'Jr beeta FtnsIM I , "metoaoo foiio the yrr.n. the fatftories to pay such prices for beets as would coax farmers to increase in-crease their imager plantings. They levied a high tale of duty on Imported sugar, and established a system ot govi 1 1. men! bounties 0:1 sugar exports, i whereby their sugar manufacturers not dnlj were nabted to pay high J prices for beets, but to sell their sugar in foreign markets at .1 price below the cost of production, and still nmk g handsome profit. Immediately the German HUgaf Industry began to expand ex-pand ami 01 her European nations adopted similar industry, with the result re-sult that today 0ne-ll8.lt of the world's susar supply is derived from Kuro-pean Kuro-pean sugar heels. 1 EDM 1 -1 ROP SI - ll .M When sugar beet culture was Introduced In-troduced Into Kurope. their farmers rc practicing What is known as the "threo-crop " system of rotation three successive cereal crops, followed by one year of fallowing, the tallowing tallow-ing in order to rest the soil and enable them to pull out the dense crop ot weeds by hand. It Is stated that in Germany approximately one-third of I the total area of level land was re-' gunled as being too poor lo pa) for cultivation, and their yiHd of ,',r.;il . rops on the better land was but 12 bushels per acre. They were plowing but three and' four inches deep. using fertilizers ! sparingly, and tho fertility of Ihe I thin laer of loose surface soil was' ll but exhausted. The grain roots I were unable to p'-aeirute u- hard i soli underneath, and could thc have done so, It would have heen of no avutl. for. containing no humus aim not having been aereated, it wus no: fertile, ltelng a decp-rooter. ft prc-reoulsilo prc-reoulsilo to real -,igar beet culture Is that 1 he :il ,,0 !!jTpa ,0 fle tn or eight to fourteen Inches. The tender l.eetlet. having to undrr-go undrr-go the shod; of thinning a soon ae it comes up. In order to leave only one beet in a place, demanded a well pr p red. mellow seed bed. Gathering! the lUgar In 11 leen from the it-1 nioaphpre bj the aid of the light and torlllg it UP In the root, the s;iirr' w et would not thrive .f the llgh , m through being shaded by w 1 and the eradication of the wood.-, be- t'r','?Vln?, "ed mea" not only fur her stirring of tho soil by cultivation culti-vation and hoeing, but weedleaa fields for succeeding crops. VBMOR11 KiN 111 MOIS1 I R Heing plowed out hi the autumn gave in extra fall plowing, which left tnc land In condition to absorb instead in-stead of storing up the moisture for' ihe followlny sea-on's crops With the remowj or the main root.' ' 'brous io..t we,t. ..rokrr off ami left in the sol to an estimated! rotting, th, j not onl deposited humus1 II the lor ,,ra,H or so( hut Oft minute diannels through which It, became aereated, and hence fertile rhr, . roots of sl,,co.Uent crop tol-owed tol-owed these n'er,tis and drew HU- trimeiii from two or three tunes the hen -e Sf r" f reaehe4 and nen. e the farmers doubled and treb-I aerobe. " ,thout in9 their j SfC III mm. m 1 1 1 D l .illzing the by-produeta tor to k Reding pur,.oses gr.atl increased th-', s Oik ...riM;,w rap.,. v ,., In. , ,,,. be furnishing a proportionate In- with Which tO bUUd up the rro tlvlts of the worn-out soil Although Al-though many American farmers still mil t.. rcog-,u,. tn. valu, of bg n,nxi,r nl consider lt a' nul- . k M,B,uch th9 ccumulatii., s muat he removed. Scientists have vCl' Jo discover it, eMual as a ferti Uu The application of this Increased I riuantlty of the beat fertllUrer -and of other fertilizers not onll re-! suited in greatij Increased tonnage "f is. ou' ... ihe h.t, alorbedi onti a portion or n,e r..rtiiu,g . .'. nienta. th balance was available for erop. which followed during the sue-ceding sue-ceding three years Th. reaeoe vh.v the culture of sugar I el Improrea the boii to a areatri I meal than does the culture of otb' r i root crop, is l.e,,,. thMr 4u!tlir(. , sure, more liberal fertilisation eeo- er p.oaing ,rid better cultivation than I ordlaarfl 1 to oiher roe- , 't t," oT lhk tr amouatj urtu rvuia which are left in 'rie ground. Farmer will engage In sugar et euilure l preference tD the cultute ot- other root . roim t.ecause it la a .-ash nionec r..;.. while 0'h-r 1001 crops onlv can b fd t, atock and : because ftei haviuj; i.re., r,,id for ugar . onUlned In ihe hets far , haul back to their fa.-,a he- PT-prod-1 ucta which contain all th . :rl, , extracted from the soli, and the feed ng Value Is hut sltghth- diminished b the extraction of the auga- or lUHiT . H.s The cultere of sugar beta m Europe Eu-rope taught them ths advantage of U I. M ' rr'T ,n 'h. rota- . and now in the ttWlttag hr 1 there arc no sugur fai lories, the) lalsi siiRiir bi et-. mangles ytid tur-Olpa tur-Olpa fot' stock feeding purposes. do alo the British furmers, but Axnerl-( Axnerl-( an farmers cannot be Induced to grow a lioeil root crop, except where a . sugar factory Is at hand to contract J for the product at a hlith prii . As a result "f Hiigar beet culture. ' Ihe areaa in Europe which formely were regarded as worthless hae been ; brought under cultivation, thus great-! great-! ly increasing the cultivated area, the, I three-crop system of rotation txlth : one year of fallow has disappeared, j and fields now yield four crops In four years Instead of three crops In four years. Where formerly only the I lands would yield If bushels of C0-i C0-i reals three ears in four, or nine bush-; els vearly per acre. now. with all the, ! poor land added to the cultivated ; area, the worn-out and worthies soilsi have been 10 rejuvenated that the present combined average yield of wheat, rye, oats and barley In west-ern west-ern Kurope. including the yield of, the less progressive states of the south, is 27. 2 bushels per acre, while In Den-, mark It is in Herman;. u. ' Midland A 1 9 and In Belgium 61.'. j bushels, as compared to an average vb id of but buahela of th same rops from the iiRln soils of the I'nlted States. IXCREAS1 I i BJ L i i.i ii In the farming districts of the I'nlted Slates where sugar beet culture cul-ture had been introduced, the yield Of ' ' ft al crops grown in rotation with Kucir heels Is greatly in excess of the (eld tn western Kurope, or even in tjermany. In l'.K'J, from 200.000.00u acres devoted lo corn, wheat, rye, oats and barley In the United States crops were produced to the value d J.T.yiln.Oeii.iil.iM 1 1 ad till-' .' re i pn. dfuoed as many bushels per acre Of each crop as were produced In rota Hon with sugar heots by the sugar beet farmers reporting to me. i the earns price per bushel, their j tela would have returned them $6,900,000.-t00. $6,900,000.-t00. an Increase of J3.900.Oin. That American farmed can and wul secure se-cure such yield if the beet u(.ar ln-du?r ln-du?r spreads, (a certain, and the In-avltable In-avltable result will be a lowering of nrlcea of food commodities, thus dl-1 vidlng the advantage between pru-j ducera and consumers and materially reducing the h!gh cost of living. I cost German) and other Euro-pean Euro-pean countries large sums of money to develop their indigenous sugar In OUatry, bUl their extra production of, grain and stock and the consequent Influence on the price of meats ana j dairy and cereal products has repaid them many times over. Krom 1M0 tr. i?u;. when (European expnit boun .. wi' aoobshed undei ( in,, (m i hi Krusi la, conven- , lion, which was brought about bj Great Britain, the German .ein mcnt paid its sugar manufacturers J3ol.000.0On In export bounties, and so well satisfied were they 'with the raeull obtained tha. the figures w-i-published In chart form, bearing the legend. t. lease, hang In a conspicuous conspicu-ous place." ai.d sent broadcast throughout the empire. Muring the paid each year in ihe increase of cereals ce-reals and ItvestOv'k- i.i I'M kXYS Sl'G lt i KttlS OerinanN has produced S4.oee.0eg ton's of sugar, valued at Jt . of ternvli' nc, ., . "Uinr !., il; value uf $50..'i)0 004 s er. Having ! become the grcutext sugar producei in the Morll. Germany, more than any other n.untn, nominates the aorld In rrl,. , ( :far. The reull of Eon ..gar beat production which, as sta ed before, now .-onstl- amount of sgar auld have been pur-baeed in li'i. ih'is eonsutoting a savuig anich in Itoetf repays everyi four year tbe entire cihuim estab- ilihlng the Induatr- Tl m res iits of the opposite aarrart-l an pnlMs whleh hare been in COO-I stunt operation In German) and Urea: Britain during the past t hree-quartera , of a centurv. arc worth the consideration consider-ation by th'- American people, who consume one-fifth of all the sugar produced in the world GBJ r itm r i - i ONDIl mn About the time that Germany begun be-gun to foster her heel sugar industry, Great Britain was In the Lhroea of a debate concerning the abolition of the duties on imports uf cereal frops and tho adoption of Cobden's free trade pol!c. .t Manchester. In October, Oc-tober, '18-4 3. at a public meeting called for the purpose of expounding his theories to ihe People, Mr. I'obden aa id I have never been one who 'believed 'be-lieved tbiil. the repeal of the corn laws would throw an acre of land out of cultivation. Our object i Is not to diminish the demand for labor In the agricultural districts, but I verily believe, it the principles of free trade were fairly carried out. thi would give as much stimulus to th demand for labor in the agricultural agricul-tural as 1n the manufacturing districts." dis-tricts." Five year later Cobden'a theory was adopted and the "corn laws" were abolished. Qraiif( vegetablea, meat and other farm product. were irans- ferred from the dutiable ' thi frc- list, and the British free trade policy I was inaugurated. But Cobden did not prove to be a prophet. In 1841. of the 16,000.000 people of England and Wales, 2.333.- t wen engaged in agricultural pur- i Milt, while In 1901. of their S2.600,- ! "Oo people, but t98, a-ere engaged In agricultural pursuits. Muring the past thirty years 3.000,000 acres ol I land huve heen withdrawn from tillage till-age to cereal crops and l.ild down to grass, and during the same period ! land values, which have doubled andj icxrn quadrupled In Germany, havei i decreased f 5.000000.000 In th.'. United I ' Kinsilom. ax sta:.. I b) K H Inglta I'nlgiave. y. R. S. In The Journal ol ! I the Kuyal Statistical Society for I Mar. h, 90u : "1 have now to sum up the total I loss of agriculture during the last I years and will begin with ihe lOas In ithe capital alue. With rdapecl lo this, the final rejort of the commis sion on agriculture, printed In lv.iX, records a decline of nearly 1,000,-000.000 1,000,-000.000 pounds sterling In the capital I value of land In the L nlted Kingdom as h.iNlng occurred between l7o and 1S94." MM I I RJ XCE is BflOWK While Germany has extended her tilled area and has Increased the yield per acre so per cent In SO yeara, Mi. I'algrave gives the loss in value oil crops produced in the United King- dom duilng thirty years aa IS. 000 - 000.000. Me sajs. v. have now to attempt to um up the drop in the value of -..11111-lural produce In the I'nlted Kingdom I from is" onward. I ha.. ende;ii ,,-.. , 1 to -tun ate It, as mentioned above,! uiklng the difference between thel ..iue of ihe produce each year from' 1 .s onward, and the amount of IIS 1 noo.OOO pounds estimated by Mr. Turn- , bull - ihe average value from 1872 lotto 1 17; B, amounts In all to 1 - ' C 1 7. ..mi. noo pounds." Meanwhile, not having built up a domestic auger Industry, Great Urit-.( ,aln has continued to Import sugar ' largely from Germany, which coun-!r. coun-!r. with Its export bonntle. r.Me' and glad to sell her surplus sugar u a price below the cc.t of production.; because of the beneficent effect or , beet culture on the yield of olhet ; top. While tinman p, luced nearly Ja. 000,000.000 worth of sue u fiom 1S40 to 1909. from 1846 tp date 1 Great Britain has Imported iTaoO-! iTaoO-! 000.0..0 worth .,! .'U-.,r, a liirK,. lion of it coming from Germ.., v. and she now Imports sugar to Iho value V-"'"00' " a.th'.'rrh pro ducing, experlmentajly. richer bet a and more beets to the acre than are produced n Germany. Eliminating the taxation for revC. nue purposes in both countries the' German people procure their sugar at the -os: of German production, nlusf1 a profit lo Germ.,,, manufacturers. Plus a brokerage to German bVok ers. while the people of the I Qlted 1 Kingdom pay the German Mgar man- ufaoturerr. the cost of production, plus I "he German m liufacturers' t P ua Oerma.. ,, ,,,, s,.J,,0;tr,i , " ;'";- trok.rage, ... , . J , rrcighl. plus Insurance, plus brok- It iago In the Lni:e,i Kingdom. ,j I I d and KSK leasLVk ( sugar in a few months, JbbbH i I- ' .u'uKTi , ! '"'I la .ifftK , htC. 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