The above analyses of sugar beets grown in this State during the last season have a very wide range, viz, from 6.39 to 18.79 per cent of sugar in the juice; of the 95 analyses given in the above table, 19 come below 10 per cent of sugar, 56 come above 12 per cent, 38 above 13 per cent, and 16 above 15 per cent of sugar in the juice. But very few of the farmers who sent in beets for analysis had previously had any experience in growing beets; besides this some of the beets were grown for stock food, with no intention of testing their sugar-producing capacity. Bearing this in mind, it would seem that the showing is a very creditable one; where grown for sugar, and where good care was bestowed, the beets contained a high percentage of sugar. As regards the field, but very few and uncertain data were obtained, most of the farmers having grown only small plats, from which an estimated yield was reported.

Of the different portions of the State, the eastern region seems better adapted for sugar-beet culture than the western, as far as the data on hand will enable us to judge about the matter. Judging from the data obtained, which are of course very limited, it may further seem that three regions may prove especially well adapted for the culture of sugar beets of the localities from which beets were received during the past season, viz, the country around New Holstein, Calumet County, (latitude about 44°); around South Germantown, Washington County, and around Kewaunee, Kewaunee County (latitude 44.5°). The aver age of all analyses from New Holstein was found to be the very high figure of 17.83 per cent of sugar in the juice; the average for South Germantown was 13.51 per cent, and for Kewaunee 13.85 per cent (of the fourteen samples received from this locality, twelve came above 12 per cent, and seven above 14 per cent of sugar in the juice). Also other localities may prove well adapted for sugar-beet culture, which have not yet been investigated outside of our substations, e. g., the counties of Rock, Jefferson, Waukesha, Washington, Milwaukee, and Ozaukee, in short the whole eastern portion of the State.

A continued study of this subject may disclose other sections where sugar-beet culture may be conducted successfully. The work has just been entered upon. From what has been done at this experiment station and at substations in different parts of the State, it is known that good crops of beets can be grown of a good quality. While the results reached so far would indicate that Wisconsin may prove well adapted for the culture of sugar beets, the work must be repeated for several seasons before the question can be considered as fully settled.

EXPERIMENTS WITH SUGAR BEETS AT FORT SCOTT, KANSAS.

Quite a number of samples of beets was analyzed at Fort Scott with the following results:

A few of these samples showed good qualities for sugar making, but the most of them had too low a content of sugar and purity to be of any value for the manufacture of sugar.

ANALYSES OF BEETS AT THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT STATION OF MINNESOTA.

Prof. D. F. Harper, chemist of the station, has furnished me with the following analyses of beets made at that station.

The character of the beets for sugar-making purposes is fairly good:

EXPERIMENTS WITH SUGAR BEETS AT TOPEKA, KANSAS.

Quite a quantity of beets was brought to the factory at Topeka, and an experimental run was made with them. The number of tons of beets used was 22. The juice from the samples of beets entering the battery was found to contain 15.36 per cent. of total solids and 9.30 per cent. of sugar.

It will be noted by the above figures that the quality of the beets was worthless for sugar-making purposes.

EXPERIMENTS WITH SUGAR BEETS AT MEDICINE LODGE,

KANSAS.

In addition to the analyses and control of the sorghum sugar work extensive examinations were made of the beets growing in the locality of Medicine Lodge.

The season was a peculiar one for beets. At the commencement of the rains on the 28th of August the beets were scarcely at all developed and were regarded as a total failure. After the rains commenced the beets grew rapidly and continued to grow vigorously through the months of September and October. About the middle of November the harvesting of the beets was commenced and continued until De cember. At that time the beets had reached a fair size and developed a high content of sugar. Two hundred and sixty-one wagonloads were brought to the factory and large samples were taken from each of these loads and subjected to analysis. The means of 261 analyses follow:

In the juice.

Total solids...

Sucrose
Purity..

- per cent.. 18.52 ...do.... 15. 12

81.04

Four hundred and eleven miscellaneous analyses of the beets from different plots in the vicinity of Medicine Lodge were made with the following mean results:

In the juice.

Total solids...

Sucrose

Purity...

- per cent.. 17.80 .do.... 13. 20

75.60

The fresh chips entering the battery had a mean sucrose content in the juice of 13.90 per cent, much less, as will be noted, than that represented by the analyses from the different loads.

The diffusion juices show a content of 10.45 per cent sucrose, and a purity of 81.2.

The working of the beets with the sorghum-sugar machinery was extremely slow, and either from this cause or from the method of liming, which was very heavy without any subsequent use of carbonic acid, the clarification and boiling of the juices became a matter of great difficulty, and they suffered in this process rapid deterioration; for instance, the purity of the clarified juice was only 78.8 and of the sirup 78.3, while the mean purity of the massecuites showed the enormous depression represented by the difference between 78.8 and 59.4. The actual cause of this remarkable deterioration in boiling is not well understood. The juices boiled with the greatest difficulty, it being almost impossible to prevent them from foaming in the pan. The semi

sirups also, after standing for a time, deposited a large quantity of mucus or viscous material, and this would lead to the supposition that a pernicious fermentation of a viscous or mannitic nature was the cause of the great loss of sugar during the boiling operations.

It is evident at once that the attempt to make beet sugar without appropriate apparatus must be regarded as futile. Beets of the quality of those delivered at the Medicine Lodge factory, if they had been properly and promptly manufactured, would have yielded almost 250 pounds of sugar to the ton; instead of this the yield was extremely small, the separation from the massecuite very difficult, and the whole manufacturing process disappointing.

In regard to the probability of producing beets in the locality of Medicine Lodge, I am still of the opinion, expressed in Bulletin No. 27, that it is a locality too far south to expect the successful culture of the sugar beet. In using the term "too far south" it is not meant in an absolute sense, but too far south from the zone of the probable beet industry as indicated in the map given in Bulletin No. 27. The actual growing season at Medicine Lodge, it will be noticed, was not during the summer, but in the autumn after the rains fell and the weather had become cool. Had the early part of the season been wet enough to secure a growth of the beets it is hardly probable that they would have shown the high content of sugar which they did. The splendid results obtained at Medicine Lodge in the working of sorghum cane would seem to indicate the course which the sugar industry should follow in that locality. Everything indicates that the culture of sorghum sugar will prove a success while there is little to encourage the further development of the beet-sugar industry in that locality.

ANALYSES OF BEETS AT MEDICINE LODGE.

The following analyses show the character of the beets examined at Medicine Lodge during the months of November and December, 1890. As has been stated, the character of the season at Medicine Lodge was peculiar. On September 25 the beet crop was a total failure. Owing to the extremely dry summer the beets had not grown and were but little larger than a cigar. After that date copious rains with other favorable climatic conditions induced a rapid growth and produced by November a smal! crop of beets of exceptional richness in respect of sugar content. The data will illustrate in full the character of the juice of the beets. The general data of the season precede the details in the tables.