Sugar Beet.

Progress, Volume I, Issue II, 1 September 1906, Page 311

Sugar Beet.

Mr. B. C. Aston is preparing a report on sugar beet for the N.Z. Minister of Agriculture He recommends that the department should undertake trials in several districts with various classes of fertilisers, according to locality. As far as climate is concerned, he does not see why sugar beet could not be grown anywhere in New Zealand, provided the soil is favourable The Waikato lias the advantage of a large amount of sunlight, and a soil of medium texture and rather free from saline ingredients. Sugar beet absorbs salt and alkalies very readily, for it was originally a seaside plant, and those substances prevent the crystallisation of sugar ; one per cent of salt will prevent the crystallising of five per cent of sugar. Another use of the sugar beet is for taking alkalies from land, and this was being done wth some success in America. Beets will grow vigorously in salty soils where nothing else will thrive and thus the ingredients, poisonous to other plants, may be gradually removed. Land of this class is comprised in the Maniototo plain between Taien and Naseby. This is the bed of an ancient lake, which left salty deposits when it dried up. Sugar beet could be grown to clear the soil, and the roots, while they effected valuable scavenging would be serviceable as feed for cattle.