OCR Text |
Show Desirable to Plant Sugar Beets : Early and On Firm Seed Beds As it is now approaching time when sugar beets are to be planted, it is important for farmers to have in mind the great importance of seeding seed-ing early and of seeding; on. firm seed beds, according to Professor George Stewart, agronomist, Utah "Agiicultural Experiment station. We have greatly changed our general gen-eral idea as to the time of seeding sugar beets during the last dozen years or so. Beets used to be planted plant-ed only after the season had warmed warm-ed up pretty well and considerable time after the grain crops were seed- The chief difficulty with such a condition con-dition is poor germination and subsequent sub-sequent suffering from moisture even . when germination does take place. ! By way of summary then, it should be said that carelessness in the prep-j aration of the seed bed often causes very great losses. This can be overcome over-come by careful packing of the seed bed and seeding early. Farmers are therefore urged to take no risk but to pack the seed beds thoroughly and i then to sow as soon as the season warrants. j I ;ed. It is now recognized by sugar! companies and frequently urged by their agriculturists, and properly so, that beets should be sown just about as early as is possible. Of course : there is some small danger of risk, in case the beets should get well started and a very severe frost should j ; follow. Ordinarily it is counted safe and wise to plant beets as soon as spring seems to have permanently opened. i In various sections of the country it has been found that beets planted early yield ' anywherei from five to twenty per cent greater returns and sometimes even more than that, than do beets planted later in the year. j Sometimes only ten days will make a ; difference of several tons should the season turn off hot and dry rather j early. j Another point of considerable im-'portance im-'portance is that seed beds for sugar beets need to be rather firm. By this is meant not that these seed beds should be hard and crusted on top, 'but that there should be about an inch or so of rather mellow surface soil and that the seed beds should be so thoroughly packed by means of j harrows and drags that horses walking walk-ing on the land will merely leave distinct dis-tinct hoof prints and not sink in to any appreciable extent. A number of years ago the Un'ted States department of agriculture made a careful survey at Lehi, Utah, Garland, Utah, and Idaho Falls, Idaho. It was found that nearly fifty per cent of tbe stand of beets was lost during the entire year and of this nineteen per cent was lost due to poor seed beds and improper seeding.. seed-ing.. Many of the beets were sown on lands that were so loose that the surface soil Ndried out before the beets could germinate and as a result re-sult large misses in the rows occurred occur-red with a consequent reduction in yield. The occasional missing of a sincle beet is not a serious matter but if the miss is for several feet or sometimes for two or three rods as freouently hapnens due to poor seed beds, then this loss is not . made up by increased size of adjacent beets. The most serious trouble of all in the seed beds was found to be in material such as alfalfa land that had b?eri freshly broken up and had not been worked over sufficiently to pack the land. It is well known that when alfalfa land is sufficiently prepared, beets give higher yields on such land, but the risk has become so- great that it is now deemed advisable as a general gen-eral irule not to attempt to seed beets after such a crop as alfalfa. Very coarse farm manure may also leave the land in such a condition. |