100 YEARS OLD... AND THE BEET GOES ON

摘要

The Cantley sugar beet factory is celebrating its centenary. David Richardson, who's been involved with the crop all his life, recalls how growing beet has changed over the decades - and considers where now for a crop that remains critical to many arable farmers' fortunes. When I look back at the amount of back-breaking work the sugar beet crop required when I was a boy, I sometimes wonder why it became so popular. In those days, it kept thousands of men employed, though workers were only paid a fewpounds a week. Yields of 24.7t/ha (10t/ acre) of clean beet were seen as satisfactory, with sugar percentages often not much more than 15°o - although the standard by which we were paid was 16° o, as ir is still today.