After the beets are plowed out they are topped or cut off by hand and
the tops are fed to stock, for which purpose they are worth $3.00 per
acre. They are topped just below the crown and the factories require
that they be so topped as to remove any portion which grew above the
ground, as such portion of the beet contains but a small percentage of
sugar. The beet will grow in length, and, if as a result of shallow
plowing or coming in contact with a rock it cannot grow downward, it
will grow upward and out of the ground, thus necessitating a deeper
topping and consequent loss to the farmer.]
[Illustration: DUMPING CARS AT FACTORY WITH HYDRAULIC JACK.
Beets arriving at the factory by rail from receiving stations either
are stored in bins until needed or are floated directly to the beet
washers. If to be used at once, they are dumped, as shown above, and
slide directly into a cement flume filled with warm water, which has
been pumped to its upper end, and is flowing in the direction of the
beet end of the factory. In whatever manner they may be received, they
first are weighed, and as they are dumped, a basket is held under them
to catch a fair sample of both beets and the loose dirt, which the
car or wagon contains. These samples, properly tagged, are conveyed
to the beet laboratory, where they are washed, and trimmed if not
properly topped, and the difference in the weight of the sample beets
as received and their weight when washed is called the “tare.” Whatever
percentage this amounts to is applied to and deducted from the weight
of the car or wagon load. A sample of these beets then is tested by the
polariscope for its sugar content and its purity; farmers often being
paid a stipulated price per ton for a beet of a given sugar content and
25 to 33¹⁄₃ cents per ton additional for each extra degree of sugar
which they contain. The tare rooms and the beet-testing laboratories
are open to any one, and in some localities the farmers’ associations
employ experts to tare and analyze each sample of beets.]
[Illustration: MILLIONS OF BUSHELS OF BEETS