SUGAR BEET SEED

History and Development

BY
TRUMAN G. PALMER

AUTHOR OF "SUGAR AT A GLANCE," "BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY
IN THE UNITED STATES," "CONCERNING SUGAR," ETC.

Since iqoz Executive Secretary American Beet Sugar Ass'n;

U. S. Beet Sugar Industry ; U. S. Sugar Manufacturers'

Association; Fellow of Royal Statistical Society , London;

Member Societt Technique et Chiutique de Sucrerie de

Belgique, Brussels; Academy of Political Science ;

National Institute of Social Sciences; A merican

Society of Political and Social Science , etc., etc.

FIRST EDITION

NEW YORK

JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.

LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL LIMITED

1918

Copyright, 1918

BY
TRUMAN G. PALMER

>•.,«

PRES9 OF

BRAUNWORTH & CO.

BOOK MANUFACTURERS

BROOKLYN. N. Y.

PREFACE

PERHAPS the greatest achievement in plant breed-
ing has been reached by those scientists who have
directed their study and applied their knowledge to the
amelioration of the sugar beet.

The main object sought in breeding sugar-beet seed
has differed from the objects sought in the development
of other seeds, in that neither the appearance nor the
flavor of the resultant plant or fruit has been the ob-
jective; even the increase in size has been of minor
importance. The main quest of the scientists who have
given their life studies to the amelioration of the beet,
has been to change the ratio of its chemical constitu-
ents by eliminating a portion of its other substances
and replacing them with sugar.

At the time the beet-sugar industry was established
in France by Napoleon Bonaparte, sugar was selling
at 30 cents per pound, but with the entrance of the
temperate zone as a competitor with the tropics in
the production of sugar, the price of that product began

377750

iv PREFACE

to decline and a lower cost of production became im-
perative, if the industry were to survive.

Prior to the war in Europe the price of sugar was
less than one-sixth of what it was when the beet-sugar
industry was first established and, although great im-
provements have been made both in field work and in
factory processes, the ability of the industry to produce
sugar at present prices is due to the painstaking efforts
of scientific seed breeders who have quadrupled the
original sugar content of the beets. However valuable
have been the results of study in other lines of devel-
opment, it must be conceded that the quality of sugar-
beet seed is the keystone of the arch upon which rests
an industry that annually provides the world with
one-half of its total supply of sugar.

So important seemed the objective sought by the
seed breeders, that for many years the experiments
were conducted with the utmost secrecy, and even yet,
the growers' methods are treated as trade secrets.
The result is a dearth of literature relating to this
subject.

The observations made in the following pages are
based upon information obtained in 1908, 1910, and
1911, while visiting sugar-beet seed farms in Europe.
For information and courtesies extended on these

PREFACE V

trips, the author wishes to express his thanks and high
appreciation to Dr. Lewis S. Ware of Paris, author of
"Sugar Beet Seed"; M. Philippe de Vilmorin, of
Vilmorin, Andrieux & Co., sugar-beet seed growers,
Paris; Mr. Ernst Giesecke, Director Clerc and Captain
Troje of Rabbethge & Giesecke, sugar-beet seed growers,
Kleinwanzleben, Germany; Mr. J. P. Dud ok van
Heel, of Kuhn & Co., sugar-beet seed growers, Naar-
den, Holland; Mr. M. Ritter von Wohanka, Dr. H.
Briem and Mr. K. Rossam, of Wohanka & Co., sugar-
beet seed growers, Prague and Yenc, Bohemia. The
author also wishes to thank the following, who have
reviewed portions of his manuscript: Dr. Harvey W.
Wiley, who supervised the raising of the first com-
mercial sugar-beet seed grown in America; Dr. Hans
Mendelsohn, who for several years past has been in
charge of extensive sugar-beet seed operations in Colo-
rado, Nebraska, and Montana; Dr. C. 0. Townsend,
director of the sugar-beet seed experiments conducted
by the United States Department of Agriculture, and
Mr. W. K. Winterhalter, who manages large sugar-
beet seed farms in Idaho.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PACI

INTRODUCTION ix

OBJECTIVES AND PROBLEMS e i

BREEDING NEW TYPES 5

SUPER-ELITE, ELITE, AND COMMERCIAL SUGAR-BEET SEED. 8

TIME REQUIRED IN WHICH TO PRODUCE SUGAR-BEET SEED. 10

DISTRICTS WHERE GROWN 1 1

SOIL AND FERTILIZATION 12

PLANTING SUPER-ELITE SEED FOR GROWING "MOTHER

BEETS" 15

FIRST PHYSICAL SELECTION 17

SECOND PHYSICAL SELECTION „ 19

FIRST CHEMICAL SELECTION 21

SECOND CHEMICAL SELECTION 25

PLANTING AND CULTIVATING SELECTED "MOTHER BEETS ".. 26

PLANTING "ELITE " SEED 29

GERMINATION TESTS 30

HARVESTING, THRESHING AND CLEANING SUGAR-BEET SEED 32

PURCHASERS' GUARANTEE 37

AMERICAN-GROWN SUGAR-BEET SEED 46

STATE OF WASHINGTON SUGAR-BEET SEED FARM 51

SEED GROWING IN CALIFORNIA 60

SEED GROWING IN UTAH AND IDAHO 61

SUGAR-BEET SEED EXPERIMENTS IN SOUTH DAKOTA 62

SINGLE -GERM BEET BALLS 68

SUGAR-BEET SEED SITUATION IN 1914, 1915 AND 1916 84

IMPORTANCE OF DOMESTIC SUGAR-BEET SEED PRODUCTION. . 89

WORLD PRODUCTION OF SUGAR-BEET SEED 97

UNITED STATES PRODUCTION OF SUGAR-BEET SEED 109

STATISTICAL TABLES 115

vii

INTRODUCTION

THE sugar beet is one of the most scientifically bred
plants in the world. Other plants are bred for bulk
or beauty or flavor, but the sugar beet is bred for its
chemical constituents; not for the plant itself, but for
its resultant product, sugar, which, by the aid of the
light, is gathered wholly from the atmosphere at the
under, outer edges of the leaves and from there is car-
ried through the leaf and leaf-stalks and deposited in
the root.

Beginning with a little scraggy, irregular-shaped
plant which weighed but a few ounces, and in France
yielded, only 5.89 tons per acre in 1812, the botanical
wizards have developed a large, regular-shaped, one
and one-half to two pound root which in Germany,
the greatest beet-sugar producing country, yields an
average of about 14 tons per acre from 1,300,000 acres.
More important even than the increase in size has
been the increase in sugar content. Originally contain-
ing but 4 to 5 per cent, of sugar, of which Achard in

ix

X INTRODUCTION

1812 was able to recover 2.27 per cent., beets now con-
tain 1 6 to 20 per cent, of sugar, 85 per cent, of which is
recoverable. As a result of the increase of both ton-
nage and sugar content, Germany now harvests as
much sugar from one acre as Achard harvested from
17 acres.

These results have been accomplished by the appli-
cation of the most painstaking, patient, scientific labor,
which for generations has been devoted to the breeding
of sugar-beet seed and by the application of improved
agricultural and manufacturing methods.

Botanists have succeeded in modifying almost every
characteristic which the beet possessed at the outset,
even to its habit of seeding and perpetuating its species.
Originally an annual, as are many of the wild beets
to-day, it sent up its seed stalks and produced its seed
the year it was planted, but the early botanists trained
it to devote all of its energies the first year to develop-
ing its root and to delay its reproductive labors until
the following season.

To cause it to produce seed, the root is dug in the
fall and laid away where it will neither freeze nor heat
and when replanted in the fields the following spring
it sends up its seed stalks; the seed is ready to harvest
in the autumn.

>

INTRODUCTION Xi

A few obstinate plants occasionally revert to the former
habits of the race, and these are useless for breeding
purposes, but with the great mass of them the biennial
seeding characteristic has become fixed. That it still
has a high regard for its ancestry is evidenced by the
fact that if by chance the seed from an annual beet
be planted, it produces an enormous proportion of
annuals, which are of inferior value even for factory
purposes.

As an annual, it ceased to grow and to gather sugar
by the middle of the season and, to feed and nourish its
seed stalks and seed, it began to use up the sugar it
already had gathered. The result was that when
autumn came, the exhausted fibrous roots contained but
little sugar; the only valuable portion was the seed.
Due to the skill of the plant wizards, it now devotes
all its energies the first year to developing a large hand-
some root and storing it with sugar, the gathering
of which continues to the harvest time, storing sugar
even after the root has ceased to grow.

The well-shaped, high sugar content beets which are
destined for breeding purposes the following year, if
they measure up to the fixed standards, are known
as " mother beets." They are dug in the fall, siloed
and examined during the winter and planted the fol-

xii INTRODUCTION

tewing spring, when they put forth their seed-stalks
and yield their seed in the autumn, a year and a half
from the time the seed originally was planted.

As an annual, little or no opportunity was given to
the botanist, and none to the chemist, to study the
characteristics of the beet, for the growth of the root
is impeded if tampered with during the growing season.
Having been trained to defer its seeding until the second
year, the botanists and chemists are given a free rein
and a golden opportunity to examine with the utmost
minuteness every physical and chemical property of
both the inside and outside of the root, before determin-
ing whether or not to replant it the next spring and
allow it to go to seed.

As a result, both the weight and sugar content of
the beet have been increased several hundred per.jfent.,
and so valuable has it become for sugar-making purpHD-
that it supplies one-half the sugar of the world, an
economic blessing to the people who consume sugar
and wish to purchase it as cheaply as possible.

But the change in the habit of seeding is only one of
many changes which have been effected in the character
of this plant. Indeed, scarcely an original characteristic
has been left it, aside from the fact that it still grows
with its leaves in the air and its root in the ground. .

INTRODUCTION xiii

During the last century, the botanists have not only
changed the color of the neck of the beet from red to
rose, from rose to gray, from gray to green and from
green to white, but they have changed the color of the
beet itself from red to white, back to red and finally
back to white, its present color.

They trained it to bury itself and grow entirely be-
neath the surface of the soil. They then changed their
minds and trained it to grow as much above as be-
neath the soil. Finally they led it back and caused it
to grow entirely beneath the surface with only the
leaves and crown exposed to the air.

The texture of its skin and of the root itself has under-
gone a marked change, as has also the proportion of
sugar to the other solids in the root.

The number of its leaves, their shape, their veins,
their shade, their position and the length of their
stalks, all have been modified by the botanist.

As to shape, they have been made to outdo all
the acts of a contortionist, having assumed no
less than eleven different shapes in a little over a
half century, as will be noted from the following
illustration, reproduced from Dr. Lewis S. Ware's
"Sugar Beet Seed."

To-day, pivoting or slender shapes are used exclu-

XIV

INTRODUCTION

Olive.

Large Neck,

Small Neck.

Short.

Pivoting. Slender. Forked

TYPES OP BEETS

From " Sugar Beet Seed," by Dr. Lewis S. Ware, Orange Judd Co.,

Publishers.

INTRODUCTION XV

sively for factory purposes, though some of the other
shapes still are used for stock beets.

In bringing the sugar beet to its present degree of
perfection, the study has been the quicksand in which
have been buried more promising hopes and theories
than have gone down with scores of other plant studies.
But in working out every known theory concerning
each characteristic of this pliable plant, the chaff has
been separated from the wheat and the sugar beet has
become one of the valuable crops of the world.

SUGAR-BEET SEED

Its History and Development

OBJECTIVES AND PROBLEMS

Beta Vulgaris is one of many hundred varieties of
the family to which the sugar beet belongs and it is
identified botanically with the ordinary garden beet.
It is known to have existed and to have been used
for food since the time of the Romans, but through
special selection and culture during recent years, various
characteristics, such as shape, size, color, texture, and
the character of the foliage have become fixed.

No special interest was centered in the beet until
the publication in 1747 of Marggraf's pamphlet, in
which he set forth his discovery that the beet contained
a small quantity of true cane sugar, of which he had
succeeded in recovering a quantity of crystals.

In 1799, Achard, a pupil of Marggraf, presented to

. •
SUGAR:BEET SEED

the King of Prussia a few pounds of sugar which he had
succeeded in producing from beets, with the result
that in 1801, the King financed for him the erection of
a small factory in Silesia, the first beet-sugar factory
in the world. Of all the beets experimented with by
Achard, the White Silesian gave the best results and
this variety has been used for breeding purposes by
seed growers throughout Europe.

Vilmorin, of France, originated the idea of selecting
beets according to quality and therefore is the father
of modern beet breeding. At an early date, he com-
menced growing beets by selection, but it was not
in til 1830 that his work assumed real proportions,
after which the improvement was rapid and soon was
taken up at Quedlinburg, in the Province of Saxony,
Germany.

Vilmorin 's first method of selection was by specific
gravity, a method which had been in use in Germany
for testing potatoes. Whole beets were dipped in a
salt solution of certain strength. The beets which
floated were rejected, while the heavier beets, which
sank in the brine, were selected, it being presumed that
they were universally higher in sugar content.

Although it later was found that the specific gravity
of the beet was not correlated to the percentage of

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 3

sugar in' the beet, Vilmorin made such progress in
increasing the sugar content of the beet, that in 1837
the " Vilmorin Original" seed sold at 25 to 75 cents
per pound, as compared with 6| cents for Quedlinburg
seed. In 1850 he published his pamphlet on increas-
ing the sugar content of the beet, and in 1856 he began
to breed by selection and to take note of the texture
of the skin. It was then that, for the first time, the
question of creating a new variety was discussed.

Meanwhile, the polariscope had been invented, by
which the sugar content of the beets could be tested
with mathematical precision. This instrument in its
present form was built by Ventske, who pointed out the
use of the instrument for seed beet selection in 1851,
after which Vilmorin adopted it, followed by Rabbethge
& Giesecke in 1862.

In 1859 Rabbethge & Giesecke established a sugar-
beet seed farm at Klein Wanzleben, near Magdeburg,
which since has grown to be the most extensive sugar-
beet seed enterprise in the world, comprising 13,000
acres in Germany and Russia and employing several
million dollars of capital. The following year, 1860,
this firm commenced to breed a new type of beet which
has been strictly adhered to ever since, and to-day
the standard brands of beet seed of the world are a

4 SUGAR-BEET SEED

combination of the "Vilmorin Original" and the German
" Klein Wanzleben." *

* All the great plant breeders who have devoted their lives
to the amelioration of the beet seem to have contented them-
selves with breeding from some variety of the garden beet, of
whose early ancestry or origin they know nothing. Ages before,
the garden beet was bred up from the wild beet, and the early
selections of the wild plant may or may not have been the best
from which to breed for sugar-making purposes. It seems strange
that, so far as appears, no attempt has been made to breed sugar
beets from some of the numberless varieties which grow on the
shores of the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas. Dr. Townsend,
Pathologist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, has made
some preliminary experiments in this direction and has secured
some remarkable results, securing fairly good-sized, well-shaped
beets the first generation, which yielded 14 per cent, of sugar.

The European breeders labored for several decades before they
succeeded in bringing the garden beet up to 14 per cent, sugar,
and it is possible that from some of the wild varieties a yield
will be obtained which will astonish the world.

Another surprise may come from seed grown in Alaska, some
sections of which have a summer warmth which corresponds
with that of Washington, D. C. The vegetables thfcre produced
are of a very superior quality. As the leaves of the. beet gather
sugar from the atmosphere by the aid of the light^ it seems
reasonable to suppose that in a latitude where in the growing
season, the light is continuous, the extra quantity of light may ma-
terially increase the quantity of sugar which the leaves will gather.
Experiments with sugar-beet seed soon will be made in Alaska.

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

BREEDING NEW TYPES

The process of breeding new types of sugar beets
usually is as follows: Some one variation from the usual
is noted in an individual beet or in a family of beets.
These beets then are photographed and the seed from
each " mother" or the outcome of a group of .." mothers"
is kept separate and grown separately for successive
generations. The selected " mother" first is planted,
her seed is sown and the resultant roots are selected,
all which differ from the original "mother" being thrown
out. By modifying the variations in sugar content,
size, shape, leaves, etc., a new family or strain is created,
the characteristics of which will be transmitted through
several generations, thus attaining one of the main
objects, which is constancy. Oftentimes, after the
expenditure of years of effort, the accidental introduction
of one poor seed beet spoils a whole family.

Nor can the painstaking work cease after the char-
acteristics of a family have become fixed, for while the
beet has a tendency to resemble its parent, it may revert
at any time and resemble some early ancestor. Any
departure from the regular yearly methods of selection
and regeneration will cause it to revert to a lower form

6 SUGAR-BEET SEED

and, to maintain the purity of the blood, it is con-
stantly interbred with new standard varieties.

The work is infinite and must be continued year after
year, generation after generation, and century after
century, so long as beets continue to be grown for
their sugar product.

Beets resemble the human species, in that the best
results are to be obtained neither by breeding too
closely as with the marriage of cousins, nor by inter-
mingling races. Knauer maintained that all existing
varieties of sugar beets came from one of five starting
points: ist, Belgian; 2d, Quedlinburg; 3d, Silesian;
4th, Siberian; 5th, Imperial beet.

The problem in beet-seed culture is to breed a seed
which will produce beets that not only will be satis-
factory in sugar content and tonnage, but which will
give like or better results from year to year. In the
early stages of the work, this quality was lacking;
sugar factories could not depend upon either tonnage
or sugar content.

European beets have been tested running 20 and
even 22 per cent, sugar, but experiments in breeding
made with these very high testing beets have resulted
in comparatively inferior roots. Inasmuch as when the
approximate state of perfection has been reached in

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 7

plant breeding, an increased tendency to revert appears,
the invariably discouraging results secured from breed-
ing these extraordinarily high sugar content beets
have led many to believe that, so far as Europe is con-
cerned, the limit of perfection has been reached in
breeding sugar-beet seed by methods heretofore used
and that the most that can be accomplished by these
methods is to reach and maintain the high standard
which has been reached by the leading growers.

Some seed growers have attempted to produce a
different seed for each character of soil, as well as for
different climates, but except where the difference in
soil or climate is marked, these efforts have not met
with success.

At one time, claims were made that certain seeds would
mature a month earlier than other seeds; these claims
were found to be fallacious. Some leading seed growers
of the world market three varieties of seed: one which
is high in sugar and low in tonnage, one which is high
in tonnage and low in sugar, and one which is moderately
high in both sugar and tonnage. But so closely do
all the brands of any grower approximate his other
brands that when the supply of one runs short, it is
surmised that orders for it are filled by substituting
his other brands.

8 SUGAR-BEET SEED

While there are and always will be great differences in
expertness, there are no secrets in the breeding of
sugar-beet seed. The conditions which cause vari-
tions are known, as are also the meaning of the various
characteristics of the foliage and of the beet itself.
A proper appreciation of the importance of these con-
ditions and characteristics, coupled with methodical,
careful attention, will bring results which will differ
only because of the degree of expertness of those en-
gaged in the work, and a knowledge of essential facts
which only can be ascertained after years of systematic
work.

SUPER-ELITE, ELITE, AND COMMERCIAL SUGAR-
BEET SEED

Sugar-beet seed is divided into three classes : super-
elite, elite, and commercial. Both the elite and super-
elite seed are the seed obtained from laboratory mother
beets which have successfully passed every physical
and chemical examination to which they have been
subjected. The seed from those mothers which were
truest to type and yielded the highest results in their
various examinations is kept separate from all other
seed and is used for breeding purposes. This is known
as " super-elite " seed and is never sold. It is priceless.

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 9

Whatever value has been acquired by years of patient
scientific work on the part of the seed grower is repre-
sented by this super-elite seed, which easily might
be worth $250 to $1000 per pound.

The balance of the seed from the original laboratory
mother beets, all of which had to pass the various exam-
inations successfully, but which tested slightly lower
in some characteristic than did the mothers whose
seed was selected to be used for breeding purposes, is
known a^ '" elite" seed. This elite seed is used to grow
a crop ,<p stecklinge" mothers, or " stick" mothers,
so named because of the fact that the seed being planted
alid allowed to grow thickly, the beets grow long and
slender, and these " stecklinge" mothers could be planted
by pressing a pointed stick into the well-prepared
ground, and after removing the stick the beet could be
inserted in the hole.

Commercial beet seed is the product of the "steck-
ling" mothers, thus commercial beets are two removes
from the original laboratory beets, which are their
grandmothers.

10 SUGAR-BEET SEED

TIME REQUIRED IN WHICH TO PRODUCE
SUGAR-BEET SEED

Starting with a certain strain of seed from which to
breed, five years of painstaking, scientific work are
required before the resultant crop of commercial beets
is harvested.

First Year. Say that in the spring of 1916, the orig-
inal selected and pedigreed super-elite seed is planted.
In the fall, those of the beets which pass the physical
selection of both foliage and root and a chemical test
of the root, are siloed or placed in cellars for the winter,
where they are kept from frost and from heating.
These are known as " mother beets."

Second Year. In the spring of 1917, these mothers
are uncovered and, after passing a second chemical test,
are planted in the field and in the fall yield a crop of
elite and super-elite seed. As the super-elite seed is
withdrawn and used for breeding future generations of
elite and super-elite seed, it does not continue in this
calculation.

Third Year. In the spring of 1918, the " elite" seed
is planted closely in order to grow a crop of long thin
beets called "steckling," which are gathered in the
fall and preserved in siloes until the next spring.

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 11

Fourth Year. In the spring of 1919, the "steckling"
are planted and in the fall they produce a crop of com-
mercial seed which can be planted in the spring of 1920,
producing beets from which sugar is extracted in the
fall of that year, five years from the time the scientific
work began.

DISTRICTS WHERE GROWN

The territory which is adapted to the production of
sugar-beet seed is much more restricted than is that
which is adapted to the production of commercial sugar
beets. Climatic and soil conditions which may be excel-
lent for the production of factory beets, more often than
not are unsuited for the production of sugar-beet seed.

Germany produces more sugar-beet seed than does
any other country and practically all of it is grown
in the Province of Saxony, where the best sugar-beet
seed land sells at from $600 to $1000 an acre. Russia,
the next largest producer of seed, has two important seed
districts, one in Poland, one about Kieff. Nearly all
of the French seed is produced in the Departments of
Nord and Aisne; the Austrian seed is produced in the
Provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. Smaller quan-
tities are produced in Italy, The Netherlands, and
Brabant, Belgium. In the United States, considerable

12 SUGAR-BEET SEED

quantities of beet seed are produced in Utah, Idaho,
Montana, and Colorado, and a small quantity in Mich-
igan.

But even where soil and climatic conditions are
favorable, only a small portion of the land can be de-
voted to growing sugar-beet seed. The flower is not
a self-fertilizer, but is rich in pollen and is fertilized
from the pollen of other neighboring beet flowers.
As the pollen is carried great distances by the wind and
the plant suffers from atavism, beet-seed farms must
be widely separated, else hybrid beets result. It is
not safe to have breeding fields located within a half a
mile of each other, as one low-grade beet going to seed
in the midst of selected seed beets will so affect its
neighbors as to destroy the value of the surrounding
seed for a considerable area.

SOIL AND FERTILIZATION

Even where climatic conditions are favorable, it
was thought at one time that this highly organized
plant would not yield as good results on flat land as
on hill sides, especially those with a southern ex-
posure, but in recent years it has seemed to do equally
well on flat as on hilly ground.

As to soil, the mother beet is most exacting, both as

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 13

to character and richness, for it can supply but one-
tenth of the potassic and lime salts which are needed
for the seed; the balance is drawn from the soil.

By scientific fertilizing, inferior soils frequently are
brought to such a state of productiveness that this
discriminating plant will thrive, but until such time is
reached, only the richer, and sometimes irregular sec-
tions of a field are devoted to mother beets, and the
poorer portions are devoted to other crops.

As the rows of beets are made to run around oblong,
triangular and irregularly shaped patches of inferior
soil, the fields have the appearance of having been
planted in a very haphazard manner, but when one
examines the soil map, he discovers that the field is
planted in exact conformity with the map.

Simply to "fertilize" the soil does not meet the re-
quirements. It must be " scientifically fertilized," else
the resultant seeds are more subject to the attack of
parasites and micro-mushroom ravages.

In order to develop the plants as quickly as possible,
the soils are provided with ample quantities of phos-
phoric acid, potash, nitrogen, lime and magnesia. On
the seed farm of M. Legras, in Aisne, France, as noted
by Dr. Ware, were many different kinds and qualities
of soil, all of which eventually were brought to a state

14 SUGAR-BEET SEED

of perfection by scientific fertilization and intense culti-
vation. Since raising his soils to the desired state,
M. Legras annually uses nearly 3500 tons of fertilizer
on his 75o-acre farm. The amount of study, research
and scientific experimentation which has been devoted
to this work readily can be understood by noting the
kinds and proportions of fertilizer M. Legras uses, which
are as follows:

Per Cent.

1 760 tons of barnyard manure 50 . 58

950 ' ' defecation scums from beet-sugar factory 27 . 30

220 " leaves and necks of beets 6.32

161 " woolen waste 4 . 63

108 ' ' furnace slag 3 . 10

60 " oilcake 1.72

60 ' ' phosphate 1.72

52 " sodic nitrate i . 50

30 " fish guano o . 86

24 potassic chloride o . 69

21 " double phosphate potassium and magnesia 0.60

15 ' ' sulphate of ammonia o . 43

10 ' ' dried blood 0.29

9 ' ' super-phosphate 0.26

3480 " 100.00

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 15

PLANTING SUPER-ELITE SEED FOR GROWING
"MOTHER BEETS"

Sandy loam soils offer the least physical and chem-
ical obstacles for developing uniform beets, true to
type, and hence are preferred to the heavier clay soils.
The soils of the fields used for growing the selected
super-elite seed are placed in excellent chemical and
physical condition. They are fertilized scientifically
and worked thoroughly to great depth until the best
garden conditions have been attained.

To avoid errors resulting from local conditions, field
trials of selected strains of beet seed, to be planted
for the purpose of breeding " mother beets," are con-
ducted on more than one farm, and oftentimes in more
than one section of the country.

Ten or twelve pounds of the super-elite seed is re-
quired for each acre. It is planted by hand or by drills
and covered to a depth of f of an inch. As there still
is a diversity of opinion regarding the most desirable size
of mothers, and as the closer they grow the less size they
attain, the spacing varies from 8X8 to 12X12 inches.

The spacing demands experience and cannot be con-
ducted by ordinary field workers. The cultivating and

16

SUGAR-BEET SEED

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 17

hoeing is frequent and thorough until such time as
further field work would injure the leaves.

Any roots which miss or show degeneracy either are
replaced by other beets specially grown for this pur-
pose, or by turnips, in order that all will receive a like
amount of nourishment. If at harvest time any
vacant spaces are found, the surrounding beets are
weighed and 50 per cent, of their weight is deducted,
as it has been shown by careful experiments that they
increase to that extent by reason of being isolated.

FIRST PHYSICAL SELECTION

Having planted super-elite seed in the spring and grown
the beets to maturity, in October the first physical se-
lection, which has to do with the foliage, is made. The
expert, and he must be a trained and discriminating
expert who has devoted years to the work, goes slowly
through the field, row by row, placing a stake beside
each beet the leaves and crown of which meet his
approbation. It may be one in twenty-five, or one in
a hundred — he misses none which reach the standard;
he stakes none which are not up to standard.

As by the aid of the light, the sugar is gathered from
the atmosphere by the outer under edges of the leaves
and from there is carried down and stored in the root,

18 SUGAR-BEET SEED

the leaves play an important part in the elaboration of
sugar and no detail is too small for consideration.

Beets with very small or deformed or badly-shaped
leaves are not selected for mothers. Oblong leaves
indicate higher sugar content than round leaves and
pointed leaves always are low in sugar.

If the leaf has a large nerve in the center, without
intersecting nerves, the beet is low in sugar. Three
central nerves and partially developed cross nerves are
what is desired. The wrinkles on the leaves indi-
cate sugar — the greater the number the higher the
sugar content. Dark, rather than light-green leaves
are sought; reddish leaves indicate a beet of poor
quality. The texture and fringes and the length of the
leaf stalks all have a meaning to the expeit who is
breeding to create or perpetuate an individual type.
Outspreading leaves indicate more sugar than upright
leaves where the sun cannot reach their surfaces as
readily, but if the leaves lie too flat, they will be broken
off with the cultivator and thus cease to perform their
function of gathering sugar.

The percentage of sugar increases with the number
of leaf-circles, of which there should be not less than
eight. One of Pellet's observations, made with Vil-
morin seed, was as follows:

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 19

Number of Per Cent. Sugar

Leaves. in Beet.

42 15-7

39 14-8

3i 13-8

23 12.2

IQ II.7

The size of the crown of the beet also is noted, for it
must be neither too large not too pinched.

It required generations of study and experimentation
to be able to read these and numerous other signs
which indicate the breeding qualities desired of a
beet, but now they are as an open book to the trained
eye of the expert who stakes the, beets whose foliage
and crown meet his approbation.

SECOND PHYSICAL SELECTION

Having passed their first physical selection, the
beets which are staked and are destined for "mothers"
are carefully dug, when the roots themselves are
examined as carefully as were the leaves. They must
be of good size and length; not too short or their
radicles will not draw sufficient moisture and nourish-
ment from the soil; not too long and slender or they
will lose their tips when plowed out. If the taper
begins near the top, the tonnage will be low; they

20 SUGAR-BEET SEED

must be of good size for a considerable distance below
their point of greatest diameter.

The texture and color of their skin are important
considerations; the tougher the skin, the richer is
the beet in sugar.

Two spiral depressions always should extend from
the neck down, filled with a hairy growth, as the hairs
aid in extracting from the soil the maximum amount
of plant food.

They should be as regular as though made in a
mold. Irregular shaped beets are not easily cleaned,
the adhering dirt dulls the beet knives, hence the slicing
is poorly done, the cossettes do not give satisfaction
in the diffusion battery, and owing to the dirt the
juices are impure.

The beets which pass the second physical selection
are tagged with a card bearing a number and printed
form upon which each mark of the pedigree and qualities
can be noted in detail, and each beet is photographed.

The leaves are removed, weighed and the weight
is noted; the beets selected are carefully laid away.
The other beets are dug and used for making sugar.
In November and December a further physical exam-
ination is made of the beets which have been selected
for mothers. After passing through an automatic

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 21

washer, they are spread in a slightly warmed room
to dry and to afford convenient study of shapes,
color and texture of skin.

Beets which fail to meet every requirement are
sliced and used for sugar. Those which are selected
are weighed on a self-registering scale, after which
they are carefully laid away.

Carefully as were made the selections in the field,
but 5 to 8 per cent, of the beets which are staked in
the field ever pass these subsequent examinations
and reach the chemical laboratory, in which a large
percentage of those which have met the physical
requirements are rejected.

FIRST CHEMICAL SELECTION

As when medicine fails and the human patient is
placed upon the surgeon's operating table, so these
Adonis-like beets which have had every part of their
exteriors examined with microscopic thoroughness
now must have their interiors opened, examined and
analyzed, for the physical points of the outside are
but indications of what the interiors contain, the latter
being the chief consideration.

The composition of the beet should be uniform,

22 SUGAR-BEET SEED

as that facilitates the manipulation of the juices in
factory treatment. When sent to the laboratory,
each beet has a vertical hole drilled into it reaching
to the center, and the extracted pulp is weighed and
divided into not less than three samples, each of
which is analyzed. The laboratory tests give the
per cent, of sugar in the beet and in the juice, the
dry extract of the juice and the purity coefficient or
solid substances other than sugar.* To prevent de-

* In the juices of the beet are many salts, or solids, in
solution. The solids, other than sugar, are called impurities
and these impurities act as a resistant to the process of extracting
the sugar. As the sugar and other solids are made in the field
and not in the factory, it is important to know the proportion
between sugar and total solid substances and to breed for higher
sugar content. If a beet contains 18 per cent, of solid substances,

N 16X100
of which 1 6 per cent, is sugar, then — - — = purity coefficient

Io

= 88.8. Not less than 80 per cent, of the solid substances should
be sugar. In 1915 the average purity coefficient of beets grown
in California was 82.65; Colorado, 84.84; Idaho, 87.14; Michi-
gan, 84.08; Utah, 85.06. In Germany, the purity coefficient
rarely falls below 87 and frequently exceeds 90, and therefore
from a given grade of beets showing a like polarization, the
extraction of sugar per ton of beets is greater in Germany than
in the United States. In a technical article in "The Beet Sugar
Gazette" of July, 1901, the writer states the effect of impurities

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

23

terioration, the holes made by the rasp are filled
with clay or sprayed or sprinkled with charcoal.

In one establishment, 60 people make as many as
10,000 analyses every twenty-four hours. To avoid
injury, the beets which pass this examination and
are destined for breeding are carried in specially-
constructed baskets, cleaned of any adhering dirt
and laid in rooms on portable tables, usually 50 beets
to a table, where they are examined a second and
sometimes a third time, for checking purposes; the
selection labors continuing through January, Febru-
ary, and March.

on the extraction which can be secured from a 12 per cent, beet
to be as follows:

YIELD.

Molasses.

Sugar.

12

70.0

5.12

6.00

12

72.5

4-45

6.67

12

75-o

3-82

7.29

12

77-5

3-25

7.87

12

80.0

2.70

8.42

12

82.5

2.19

8-93

12

85.0

1.70

9.42

12

87-S

1.24

9.88

12

90.0

0.80

10.32

Footnote continued on page 24,

24

SUGAR-BEET SEED

All roots grown from any one sample of seed and
which prove to be not as uniformly high in sugar
content and purity as were the original beets from
which the seed was raised are discarded. Less than
one-half of one per cent, of the roots tested are found
to be suitable for breeding purposes.

After this chemical selection of a breeding family,
the beets which meet the requirements are inspected
by the botanist and sugar content and purity are con-
sidered in connection with shape and other external
qualities. Then they are laid away in siloes or cellars
which protect them from heating and freezing, and
in the spring they receive their final test.

The same writer gave the following progress in the improve-
ment of the beet in The Netherlands:

Years.

Sugar.

Purity.

1892-93

11.88

84.60

1893-94

12.69

85.30

1894-95

12.12

85.0

1895-96

13-79

87.2

1896-97

13.24

87.4

1897-98

14-33

87.9

1898-99

I5-I3

87.8

1899-1900

14-65

87-3

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 25

SECOND CHEMICAL SELECTION

Although having had their every exterior and in-
terior characteristic examined with persistent minute-
ness, some growers submit these wounded, battle-
scarred " mothers " to still further mutilation and
examination the following spring, before they are per-
mitted to reproduce.

As they are taken from the silo in the spring, a
second sample is taken from a hole bored diagonally
through the center of the root and tested in the po-
lariscope to determine the quantity of sugar lost during
the winter. If the loss does not exceed a given amount,
the " mother " receives her diploma and when the
season opens is planted for seed.

Before planting, every observation, test, and meas-
urement which has been made of the mothers by the
botanists and by the chemists in their various exam-
inations is carefully written up in their individual
pedigrees, which are attached to the photographs
for use and reference in after years when breeding
new families, in order to be sure that the physical
and chemical characteristics are retained.

One large concern which claims to have the records
and photographs of each and every mother beet it

26

SUGAR-BEET SEED

has planted during the past 25 years produced from
their vaults almost instantly the complete detailed
record and the photograph of
every number of mother beet

M ^

§ called for.

p/j o

g *

a 3 PLANTING AND CULTIVATING

£ O '

2 § 1

SELECTED "MOTHER BEETS"

i

>W |<H

g 3 & Still handled carefully to avoid

E o o injury, the "mother beets" are con-

| § § veyed to the fields, where they are

% % planted by hand 3X3 feet, each

g O C/2

o £ .2 having an area of 9 square feet

j from which to draw its susten-

p ance. That they need all this
space can be seen from the accom-

Tg panying illustration, reproduced

| from Dr. Lewis S. Ware's "Sugar

I Beet Seed."

| The radicles of a "mother beet "

5 frequently extend for a distance

g of three feet in every direction

PH

and thus when planted only three

slf.

15 i"

feet apart, the roots interlace and

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 27

draw nutriment from every cubic inch of soil to a
depth of several feet.

These " mother beets," which have passed every
scientific examination to which they can be subjected
by the botanist and the chemist, are of great value.
Not only are they carefully guarded from theft, but
to secure .the maximum amount of mature seed from
a given quantity of mothers, wherever practical the
' 'mothers" are dismembered and planted in several places.

Nine square feet of soil only will nourish a certain
number of seed stalks. A large " mother " sends up
a great number of seed stalks and forms more seed
than can be matured. Suppressing a portion of the
stalks was tried, but the efforts were futile, and so,
except where the "mothers" are small, they are dis-
membered.

Where the "mothers" are small, a whole one is planted
in each three-foot square, but where the mothers are
large and have a great number of leaf eyes, they are
sliced vertically, sometimes into as many as twenty
pieces, care being exercised to see that each segment
contains a sufficient number of leaf eyes to furnish
the requisite number of seed stalks. The wounds
are dressed with an antiseptic and one segment is
planted in a place. Thus one mother may be made

28 SUGAR-BEET SEED

to produce several times the amount of seed which
it would produce if planted in one place. Because of
liability to attack by insects and disease, mothers
never follow a crop of beets.

After planting, the '"mothers" are cultivated every
few days until the foliage becomes so luxuriant as to
prevent further field work. The seed stalks frequently
are five feet high.

The seed ripens in the autumn, but the seed on all
the seed stalks of one beet does not ripen at the same
time; thus it is necessary to go through the fields
several times, selecting and cutting the stalks on which
the seed is ripe.

The stalks of the " mothers" which have been selected
to produce super-elite seed with which to perpetuate
the breeding, are tagged with the corresponding num-
bers which had been assigned to their " mothers" and
after they have been dried, the seed of each mother is
removed from the stalk and placed in a separate bag
bearing the number of the "mother." After the seed
is harvested the mother roots are removed from the
field to prevent breeding insects.

The balance of the seed from the original selected
laboratory mothers is known as " elite" seed and is
estimated to cost from $4 to $10 per pound to produce.

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 29

A 1916 shipment to the United States of 50 bags of
elite seed (no Ib. per bag) was insured for $50,000,
or nearly $10 per pound. Elite seed is never used
for producing a crop of commercial seed, but to grow
a crop of long slender " mothers," called "steckling,"
which, in turn, produce the seed of commerce. Thus
commercial beets are not the children, but the grand-
children of the " mothers. "

PLANTING "ELITE" SEED

" Elite" seed for the production of "steckling" is
drilled in rows usually 16 inches apart, using 10 to
12 pounds of seed per acre.

The plants sometimes are thinned to one inch
apart in the rows and are cultivated the same as are
commercial beets. The roots grow deep in the ground,
but only to one or one and one-half inches in size and
weigh from two to ten ounces.

The dwarfing of the diameter of the roots, caused
by growing closely in the rows, hastens their ripening,
thus affording a longer time for hardening, prior
to harvesting, in consequence of which they keep
better through the winter.

Before harvesting, all the roots which throw up any

30 SUGAR-BEET SEED

seed stalks are removed. One acre of "s tedding"
will produce enough beets to plant many acres for
seed. It is customary to defoliate, or remove the
leaves, of the "steckling," after which they are care-
fully siloed in pits from 15 inches to 3 feet deep, by
3 to 4 feet wide, where they are protected from heating
or freezing by soil covering of the required depth.

GERMINATION TESTS

As soon as any of the seed has ripened, the ger-
mination tests are begun. Of each average sample
of seed, two tests are made for determining its ger-
minating power. To make this test, the seed fre-
quently is soaked from six to fifteen hours in sterilized
water in a room of 68 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, after
which it is pressed into a germination bed.

One method of testing is as follows: Germination
beds are made of sand, to which moisture is added to
the extent of 60 per cent, of its water-holding capacity.
Deep plates are partially filled with saturated, sterilized
sand, and with an instrument resembling a pill machine,
100 indentations are made in the sand of each plate.
One beet ball is dropped into each indentation, and
the sand is smoothed over them. Over each pan is

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 31

placed a glass cover on which is recorded the kind
of seed, together with the date of planting and the
weight of the filled receptacle, after which it is placed
in a room which is kept at a temperature of 70° F.

For checking purposes, all tests are made in dupli-
cate. The plates are weighed daily and sufficient
weight of water is added to renew the loss by evap-
oration.

The germination rooms are kept at an even, exact
temperature during the day, sometimes slightly raised
at night. After having been placed in the germina-
tion bed, the balls which have germinated are counted
and noted daily, and the germs are removed. After
removing the germs these balls are sometimes placed
in another germination bed. Those which have not
germinated remain in the original bed.

At the end of seven days, 70 per cent, of the re-
quired number of germs must have germinated, and
the total required number must have germinated by
the end of fourteen days.

32 SUGAR-BEET SEED

HARVESTING, THRESHING AND CLEANING
SUGAR-BEET SEED

As with the seed from selected mother beets, the
seed which grows from the steckling ripens unevenly,
that on some stalks being ripe while on other stalks
from the same beet the seed is quite green. This
necessitates going over the fields several times.

As the stalks are cut, they are stacked in bundles
to dry, after which they are threshed with an ordinary
threshing machine in which the speed of the cylinder
has been reduced. The seed then is conveyed to
storage warehouses. The weight of seed and stalks
per acre runs from two to six thousand pounds, which
yields from 1200 to 2500 pounds of seed. In Ger-
many the yield is 1600 to 1800 pounds; in Russia,
1200 to 1400 pounds.

In the warehouses the seed is passed over vibrat-
ing sieves to remove the dirt, weed seed, and very
small beet-seed balls, and through winnowing machines,
or fanning mills to remove the dust, blossoms, and
light, undeveloped seed. Ordinarily, it is an easy
matter to remove all but a small fraction of i per
cent, of the inert matter, but as the "Magdeburger
Normen," under which the seed is sold, allows. 3 per

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

33

34 SUGAR-BEET SEED

cent, of dirt to be sold as seed, the grower usually
regulates the cleaning so as to leave in the seed i\
per cent, of dirt, thus complying with the fixed stand-
ard and getting paid a good price for a considerable
quantity of dirt.

After being cleaned, the seed is carried by ma-
chinery over stalk-pickers, inclined endless belts of
cloth, from which the seed rolls away and to which
the remaining seed stalks cling and are carried to a
chute.

After the seed has been cleaned, it is tested for
moisture, which, under the " Magdeburger Normen"
must not exceed 15 per cent, of the weight of the
seed. If the moisture exceeds 15 per cent., the seed
is dried, usually by artificial dryers, and again the
grower is careful not to remove any more moisture than
is necessary to comply with the fixed standard. With
the moisture below 15 per cent., the seed will keep
for five years.

The " Magdeburger Normen" fixes a standard for
germinating power and any seed which does not reach
this standard can be thrown back on the grower.
If old seed falls below the standard fixed, to render
such seed salable, it is blended with seed of higher
germinating power, after which it is packed in double

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

35

36

SUGAR-BEET SEED

If

PH o
O u

> a

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 37

5^ bushel bags, containing no pounds, and stored
for shipment.

PURCHASERS' GUARANTEE

The standard fixed for sugar-beet seed is known as
the "Magdeburger Normen" and seed growers gen-
erally guarantee their seed to be up to this standard,
which is as follows :

(1) Dry substance, 85 per cent., that is, not over 15 per cent,
moisture. If over 15 per cent, and not exceeding 17 per cent,
moisture, deduction in price must be made for the missing dry
substance. If over 1 7 per cent, moisture, seed can be rejected.

(2) Seed shall be 96 per cent, pure, that is, 96 per cent, of seed
balls which will not pass through a 2-mm. slit sieve, but seed of
94.5 per cent, purity is furnishable if the purity below 96 per cent.
is allowed for at its proportion of the purchase price. If less
than 94.5 per cent, pure, seed can be rejected.

(3) Germination power must be, per kilogram (2.2 lb.):

(a) In case of large seed-ball seed, 60,000 germs;

(b) In case of medium seed-ball seed, 65,000 germs;

(c) In case of small seed-ball seed, 70,000 germs.

At least 70 per cent, of the required germs must have germi-
nated within seven days.

The germination from 100 seed-balls within fourteen days
must be not less than:

(a) In case of large seed-ball seed 80 seed-balls;
(6) In case of medium seed-ball seed 75 seed-balls;
(c} In case of small seed-ball seed 70 seed-balls.

38 SUGAR-BEET SEED

By large seed-balls is meant seed which contains not more
than 40 seed-balls per gram; medium, 41 to 50 balls; small,
51 or more seed-balls per gram. One hundred seed-balls should
give not less than 125 sprouts in seven days and 150 sprouts in
fourteen days.

It will be observed from the above that no guar-
antee is made covering either the sugar content, purity
or tonnage which can be expected from the seed.
For these results, the purchaser must rely upon the
reputation of the seed grower and upon his experience
with the various brands of seed which have been planted
upon the character of soil where his factory is located.

Laxity on the part of a grower means a variation
in the results which can be obtained from his seed;
even a slight decrease may cause a loss of many thou-
sands of dollars to a factory.

The average yield of beets in the United Stales is
about 10 tons per acre, and to grow this acre of beets,
20 pounds of seed is used, or 200,000 pounds to plant
10,000 acres. A difference of i cent per pound in
the price of the seed would amount to 20 cents per
acre or $2000 on 10,000 acres. But when difference
in price means even a slight lowering in the quality
of seed, an apparent saving of $2000 would in reality
mean a material loss.

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 39

ISOLATED SUGAR-BEET SEED

Seed beet covered with wire cage and tall muslin bag to give ample
room for growth of seed stems and prevent overcrowding of racemes.

40 SUGAR-BEET SEED

The variation in results secured from two good,
but varying brands of seed might easily amount to
i per cent, in the sugar content of the beets or 200
pounds of sugar per acre, 85 per cent, of which, or 170
pounds per acre, is recoverable in the factory. Calcu-
lating the value of this sugar at 4 cents per pound, the
loss in sugar would amount to $6.70 per acre or $67,000
on 10,000 acres, a net loss of $65,000 on the transaction.

The lower tonnage yield of the inferior seed easily
might amount to one ton per acre; a loss to the farmers
of $57,000, thus incurring a total loss of $112,000,
offset only by a saving of $2000 on the price of seed.

At 4 cents a pound for sugar, a seed which pro-
duces a beet containing one extra per cent, of sugar is
worth 33^ cents per pound more than is the inferior
seed. Such being the case, it is easy to understand
why many of the great botanists, physiologists and
chemists have devoted their lives to the amelioration
of the sugar beet, and why sugar factories do not try
to save money by purchasing any but what is rep-
resented to be the highest grade of seed.

In quality, the purchasers of beet seed may be
deceived. The harvest may be poor, or the grower
may be careless, or worse.

Words of warning emanating from authentic sources

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 41

have not been infrequent. In Monthly Consular
Report No. 218, November, 1898, American Consul,
Henry W. Diedrich, then stationed at Magdeburg,
Germany, said in part:

" If I may express an opinion, based on my personal observation,
it is that some of our beet growers should insist more than they
have upon getting none but the best of seed, no matter what the
price may be. * * * The first-class sugar factories of Europe
buy none but the very best seed, grown from high-grade indi-
vidual 'mother' beets, to distribute among the beet growers;
thus not only maintaining the standard of their sugar beets
as to quality and quantity, but also putting themselves in a
position to compete in all markets of the world. This first-class
seed is sold and delivered by the growers on board cars in the
Prussian province of Saxony at from 8 to 10 cents per pound,
which is a moderate price, considering the fact that it takes at
least four years to get it into the market.

" There is also a second-class seed offered for sale in this country
at from 5 to 6 cents per pound. This is commonly called the
'nachzuchtsamen,' being a seed produced not from the mother
beets, but from the first-class seed mentioned above. This
inferior grade, however, is not used by first-class sugar men
in Germany, France, Holland, and Belgium, but most of it goes
to Austria, Russia, and the United States. And this is the
reason why I deem it my duty to call attention to the importance
of getting only the very best seed obtainable."

After studying the question for years, Mr. J. E.

42 SUGAR-BEET SEED

W. Tracey, Sugar Beet Expert of the United States
Department of Agriculture, said in " Progress of the
Beet-Sugar Industry in the United States" in 1902:

" The beet-sugar industry in now so well established in the
United States that it would be poor policy to depend longer on
imported seed, there being always a possibility that by failure
of the crop, or for reasons political or owing to trade disturbances,
the supply of seed may be cut off. Even if this possibility is
regarded as remote, it is nevertheless true that American beet-
sugar factories will never attain their maximum profit until there
is beet seed especially produced to meet American conditions
of soil and climate."

The following year the Secretary of Agriculture
sent Mr. Tracey to Europe, where he spent five months
on sugar-beet seed farms. The 1904 Year Book of
the Department of Agriculture contained an article
by Mr. Tracey on the " Disadvantage of Relying
upon Foreign-grown Seed." Mr. Tracey said in part:

" While there are careful and painstaking growers in France
and Germany, where the great bulk of the sugar-beet seed used
in this country is produced, there are many who are not only
careless in their methods but dishonest in their practice in handling
sugar-beet seed. They pose as growers and claim to make ex-
tensive analyses every year of individual roots, whereas in reality
they simply buy seed where they can do so most advantageously,
regardless of its quality. A large proportion of the seed used

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 43

in the United States is furnished by such dealers, while the
better class of German growers, who, through fifteen or twenty
generations of plants, have conducted most careful field and
experimental trials and annually spend thousands of dollars
in testing individual roots and making records and photographs
of them, sell but very little seed here. This is largely due to
the lack of interest and failure on the part of the American seed-
buyers in investigating the methods and establishments of those
from whom they secure seed.

" The information one generally secures from sugar-beet seed
growers, not only as to their own business, but as to that of
their associates as well, is frequently unreliable. Exaggeration
is very common, and it is frequently impossible for an outsider
to reconcile the results of his own observations with the state-
ments made, both in conversation and in print. Seed which is
sold as having been grown in the most careful and scientific
manner is often actually the cheapest and poorest grade of seed
procurable. It consists of both new and old seed, which has been
grown under widely different conditions of soil and climate, and
is mixed together by specially constructed machinery. It is
explained that the different lots of seed are mixed to insure
an evenness both in the germination of the seed and in the quality
of the crop. The absurdity of mixing all kinds and grades of
seed to produce uniformity in the crop is evident.

" It is generally admitted that the sugar beet, being one of
our most highly bred plants, is very susceptible to the influence
of both climatic and soil conditions; hence seed should be used
which was produced under the most favorable conditions for
the production of beets best suited to each particular locality.

44 SUGAR-BEET SEED

The best seed imported is raised for the most part under very
similar climatic and other conditions, but it is sown here in
America under all conditions and in all soils, in New York and
Michigan, Nebraska and Washington, and in the arid and semi-
arid regions of Utah and California. No single strain can be
the best for all of these varied localities. We can never expect
to secure the best results in our sugar-beet industry when we
have such conditions in the seed branch of the business.

IMPORTANCE OF GROWING SUGAR-BEET SEED AT
HOME

" It is absolutely essential to success that we secure the best
quality of seed, and past experience has conclusively shown
that we cannot depend upon doing so from abroad. We must
raise it ourselves, and in such a careful, scientific manner that
it will not only be of the best quality, but will have such char-
acteristics as will make it adapted to the particular needs and
requirements of the locality where it is to be sown. Seed raised
on a particular soil and under certain climatic conditions may
not be best suited for planting in like soils and under similar cli-
matic conditions; in fact, very often it is not. Seed from com-
paratively poor soil may do best on rich soils, or that raised
in the East may do best when sown in the West. Only study
and personal experience on the part of each factory manager
can determine what seed is best suited for the conditions in his
region.

" For several years efforts have been made to raise seed on
a commercial scale in various sections of the United States,
particularly in the States of Michigan, Nebraska, Utah, Colo-

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 45

rado, and Washington, but not until recently has any serious
attempt been made to raise it from pedigreed roots, or in accord-
ance with the scientific methods found to give the best results.

EXCELLENCE OF AMERICAN-GROWN SEED

" During the last three years the Department of Agriculture
has been conducting extensive experiments in testing American-
grown seed in comparison with the best grade of imported seed
procurable. These experiments have shown a marked difference
in sugar content, purity, and yield, and in these qualities the
American-grown seed compared most favorably with the im-
ported. This is remarkable, as the American-grown seed was
grown by seedsmen who had little knowledge and made little
use of the scientific methods practiced in Germany. If it is
said that the superiority of American-grown seed in these trials
was due to the fact that the imported European seed was of
inferior grades, then it is high time we gave up depending upon
Europe for our supply, as every effort was made to secure for
these comparative tests the best grades of seed procurable in
Europe, and the prices paid were as high as those paid by the
most critical factories there. If it be said that the soil and
natural conditions were responsible for the superiority of the
American-grown seed, it makes more evident the desirability
of growing our own seed and emphasizes the importance of our
doing it according to strictly scientific methods."

As a result of the above and other warnings, Ameri-
can purchasers of sugar-beet seed have become. more
discriminating from year to year and gradually they

46 SUGAR-BEET SEED

have weeded out the poorer brands of seed. This
discrimination is reflected in the extraction of sugar
per ton of beets, which has increased from 11.59 Per
cent, in 1903 to 14.21 per cent, in 1915, an increase
of 2.62 per cent, or 22.6 per cent, more sugar extracted
from each ton of beets sliced. The tons of beets per
acre also have increased and, whereas the yield of
sugar per acre was 1984 pounds in 1903, in 1915 it
was 2870 pounds per acre, an increase of 44.6 per
cent. These results are due in part to better seed,
in part to better agricultural methods, and in part
to better factory results.

AMERICAN-GROWN SUGAR-BEET SEED

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Sugar-beet Seed Experiment Station in Nebraska

For a number of years sugar-beet seed has been
grown to a limited extent in the United States, and
most of the seed here produced has been superior to
the best imported seed.

The earliest recorded attempt to produce sugar-
beet seed in the United States was made by the United
States Department of Agriculture at Schuyler, Ne-
braska, where the Department established a .sugar-

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 47

beet seed Experiment Station in 1890. This station,
the sorghum stations in Kansas and the cane-sugar
station in Florida were established by the Depart-
ment of Agriculture at the instance of Dr. Harvey
W. Wiley, who was Chief Chemist of the Department
from 1883 to 1912. Dr. Wiley's interest in the pro-
duction of sugar began while he was studying at Berlin,
and for thirty years he not only has been an enthu-
siastic champion of the idea of the home production
of sugar, but his work and his writings have con-
tributed more to the establishment of the present
American beet-sugar industry than have those of
any other scientist.

The Schuyler station, as well as all other sugar
work of the Department, was under the direction of
Dr. Wiley. The work at Schuyler was under the
immediate supervision of Dr. Walter Maxwell, Dr.
Wiley's assistant.

The station was not supplied with highly-developed,
carefully-grown, expensive " elite" seed, such as is
universally used in Europe for breeding sugar-beet
seed. The best with which it had to operate was
ordinary European commercial seed such as is used
for growing factory beets.

In 1891 and 1892 small quantities of seed were

48 SUGAR-BEET SEED

produced and in order to determine its relative quality;
it was planted in plots at the station, alongside of
other plots which were planted with the best foreign
seed, of the same and other brands. The soil and
the care given the different plots were identical.

It was found that the climatic conditions at Schuyler
were not favorable for the production of sugar-beet
seed, but notwithstanding this, the lack of high-grade
seed from which to breed and the lack of experience
in sugar-beet seed production, the beets produced
from the home-grown seed out-ranked in every respect
those produced from the best foreign seed.

The results obtained are recorded in Bulletins No.
39 and 52 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture,
which were prepared and written at that time. The
following comment by Dr. Wiley concerning the
results obtained at the Schuyler station are from
the Department of Agriculture Farmer's Bulletin No.
52, 1897:

" In the experiments conducted at the station at Schuyler
during the season of 1893 a comparison of the beets grown from
domestic and imported seeds was made. The plants from the
native-grown seed seemed to have a higher vitality and to
be better suited to the climatic conditions of the locality than
those grown from imported seeds. They showed during the
growing season a more abundant foliage and a better. develop-

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 49

ment of roots. The higher vitality and quality of the beets grown
from domestic seed illustrate in a forcible degree the advisa-
bility of the production of our beet-seed at home. Even granting
that seeds produced in foreign countries have the same high
qualities, it must be admitted that their vitality is in danger
of being very much diminished during shipment to this country.
The moist air of the holds of the ships in which they are trans-
ported often produces moldiness and incipient germination, which
tend to greatly diminish their value. Not only did the beets
produced from the home-grown seed have a higher percentage
of sugar, but they also afforded a higher yield per acre, as deter-
mined in the experiments at Schuyler. The mean tonnage per
acre from the home-grown seed was 21.1 and from the imported
seed, 17.9 The mean pounds of sugar produced per acre from
the home-grown seed was 5891 and from the imported seed
5185. This shows an increase of about 12 per cent, in the actual
quantity of sugar per acre when domestic seed was used. These
data should be carefullly studied by all those who are interested
in the production of beet sugar in this country. Perhaps the
time has not yet come for the inception of such a work, but it
is evident that it will not be long before there will be a demand
.for the establishment in this country of a plantation or plan-
tations devoted exclusively to the production of beet seeds on
the most approved scientific principles.

" The quantity of seed required to plant an acre is about 15
pounds. The approximate number of acres planted to beets
in this country during the past season was 30,000, requiring
450,000 pounds of seed. It is evident that there is already
an opportunity for the active operation of a large plantation

50 SUGAR-BEET SEED

devoted exclusively to the production of beet seeds for domestic
use.

" Another point to be considered is that by the importation
of foreign seeds there is danger of introducing those fungoid
and microbian diseases of beets which have produced such ravages
in Europe."

Such high results did this seed yield that the Oxnard
Beet Sugar Company paid the Government 20 cents
per pound for all it would sell, or 50 per cent, more
than that company then paid for the best foreign
seed.

With such flattering results, obtained under ad-
verse circumstances 25 years ago, it is fair to presume
that had this work been continued, the United States
now would be producing sugar-beet seed which would
yield beets materially superior to any now produced
in the world.

In the political upheaval of 1892 Mr. Cleveland
became President, and when Sterling Morton assumed
the portfolio of Secretary of Agriculture he ordered
all Government experimental sugar work abandoned.
The Schuyler, Nebraska, and Sterling, Kansas, sugar-
beet stations closed their doors. The writer is in-
formed that the Medicine Lodge, Kansas, sorghum
plant, which had cost $20,000 to build, had a capacity

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 51

of 20 tons per day and was extracting 230 pounds of
sugar per ton of sorghum, was sold for $1800. The
Runnymede, Florida, cane-sugar mill, which had cost
$18.000 to erect and was about to have steam turned
on for the first time, was sold for $2000. The beets
which had been planted in the newly-established
California station rotted in the ground.

With the abandonment of this work and the abolition
of the sugar bounty, the Government turned its back
on all that pertained to the development of a home
sugar industry.

STATE OF WASHINGTON SUGAR-BEET SEED
FARM

With the return of the Republicans to power in
1896 and the appointment of James Wilson as Sec-
retary of Agriculture, the Government renewed its
beet-seed and other sugar investigation work, paying
especial attention to seed developments in Utah,
Michigan and New York, at all of which places good
results were obtained.

The number of beet-sugar factories rapidly in-
creased and with the erection of a factory at Waverly,
Washington, Mr. E. H. Morrison, who owned an

52 SUGAR-BEET SEED

8oo-acre farm in that vicinity, began growing several
hundred acres of beets for the factory.

Morrison had been growing vegetable seed for a
number of years and in 1899 he siloed some mother
beets of several different varieties. In 1900 he pro-
duced a few hundred pounds of beet seed. The re-
sults obtained from the various brands of seed experi-
mented with, indicated that the Klein Wanzleben
Original would bring the best results, and on this
variety Morrison concentrated his work. As with
the Government experiments in Nebraska ten years
before, Morrison had no high-priced, pedigreed elite
seed to breed from, but began his work with ordinary
commercial seed.

In order to encourage the enterprise, the Depart-
ment of Agriculture purchased, tested, and distributed
considerable quantities of the Morrison seed. The
results secured were flattering. Morrison increased
his plantings and in 1903 produced 35 tons of seed,
and siloed a million " mothers " to be planted the fol-
lowing spring.

To determine the relative germinating value of
foreign and domestic seed, the Department of Agri-
culture tested 9 brands of foreign and 4 brands of
domestic seed. Among the foreign seed tested was

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

53

Dippe, Vilmorin, Rabbethge & Giesecke, Schreiber,
and Breustedt. The tests of domestic seed were
Morrison, grown in the State of Washington; Utah
Sugar Company, grown in Utah; Agnew, grown in
California, and Alma Sugar Company, grown in Mich-
igan.

Some of the domestic seeds tested fell below some
of the foreign brands, but the Washington seed showed
a materially higher germinating power than did the
best foreign seed. The average results secured from
the 9 brands of foreign seed and from the Washington
seed were as follows:

Nine
Brands
Foreign
Seed.

Washing-
ton Seed.

Supe-
riority of
Washing-
ton Seed.

Per Cent.

Number of sprouts in 6 days

I50-4

198.5

31-9

Number of sprouts in 14 days

166.7

203.0

21.8

Average per cent, of balls developing
sprouts in 6 days

7O 3

06 =;

?7 •?

Average per cent, of balls developing
sprouts in 14 days.

76 2

07 ^

28 o

Total average number of sprouts

from 2\ lb. seed, in 6 days

70,973

96,800

36.4

Total average number of sprouts

from 2\ lb. seed, in 14 days

78,175

98,600

26.1

54 SUGAR-BEET SEED

The sugar content of the Washington beets, as shown
by 185 tests made by the State Agricultural College at
Pullman, Washington, October 10, 1903, was as follows:

Below 1 8% 8 beets, average sugar in beet 17 . 26%
18-19 I5 18.48

19-20 52 19-38

20-21 53 20.30

21-22 39 21.22

22-23 l6 22.22

23-24 I 23.00

24- I 24.00

Total 185 20.21%

162 Beets average 21 .69%

no Beets average 22.15%

The Department of Agriculture purchased 5 tons
of the Washington seed at 10 cents per pound, but
Morrison was unable to induce the sugar factories to
purchase any portion of the balance at that price.

Morrison appealed to Secretary of Agriculture Wil-
son, declaring he could not afford to sell his seed at
less than 10 cents per pound and that he would let
his mother beets rot in the silo, rather than continue
the work if he could not find a market for his product.

In appealing to the writer to interest himself in
the placing of the Washington seed, Secretary of
Agriculture Wilson wrote, in part, as follows, on
February 17, 1904:

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 55

" The report of the scientist which I have had on the sugar-
beet seed farms of Europe for five months and the experiments
which have been made in this country in producing sugar-beet
seed show the imperative necessity of producing our seed in this
country at the earliest practicable moment. In the mean time
the greatest care should be exercised in the selection of foreign-
grown seed in order that a much larger proportion of our sowings
will be of the best quality such as is used exclusively by Euro-
pean beet growers.

" The seed question is the very heart of the industry, the founda-
tion upon which depends success or failure, for without good seed
no combination of propitious conditions can bring success either
to the farmer or the manufacturer.

" We have been co-operating to some extent with Mr. Mor-
rison of the State of Washington, who has a seed farm several
hundred acres in extent. Our experiments show that with
equal attention to the scientific details we can produce at home
a seed far superior to the best European seed. Last year this
Department purchased a quantity of the Washington seed, this
seed being produced from mothers selected from factory beets
which averaged 19 per cent, sugar, the original seeds being also
home-grown. This seed was distributed among sugar-beet
farmers and wherever we have been able to secure comparative
tests it has given excellent results, its great vitality being specially
marked. This year we shall send out several tons of the 1903 crop.

" I have asked Congress for a special appropriation for con-
ducting scientific sugar-beet seed work and in case Mr. Morrison
continues his efforts, have arranged that the seed scientists of
this Department take entire charge of the scientific work on his

56 SUGAR-BEET SEED

farm. By utilizing the science of two continents to develop
a definite, fixed strain of highly bred American beets, I am con-
vinced that they will be higher in germinating power, vitality and
tonnage and several per cent, higher in sugar content and purity
than the best beets grown from foreign seed. By centralizing
our efforts for the present in one favorable locality we will accom-
plish results most quickly, when other seed growers can take up
the work and perpetuate the strain, raising any quantity desired.

" * * * In sugar-beet seed the market is confined to the fifty
or more factories which your association represents and without
their co-operation in furnishing a market for the seed produced,
the present plans cannot be carried out.

« * * * The higner germinating power and extreme vitality of
sprouts and beets from American-grown seed will insure an
earlier stand, a more vigorous growth and hence a higher ton-
nage. This also promotes immunity from diseases and re-
sistance to damage by insects and drouth. Furthermore, 25
per cent, less seed can be used and still secure a better stand than
with imported seed. Another feature is that where good and
poor seed is not thoroughly mixed, it sometimes occurs that
a considerable part of or the whole of a row does not germinate,
thus resulting in severe loss to the farmer. With American-
grown seed this risk would be entirely eliminated.

" You can perform no more valuable service to the members
of your association than in calling their attention to the true
condition of the sugar-beet seed business and pointing out the
remedy for it."

As the result of much writing and the issuance of

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 57

40 pages of mimeographed matter, the writer finally
succeeded in placing the 30 tons of seed among
factories located in Nebraska, Minnesota, Colorado,
Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and New York, at 8.8 cents
per pound, and the seed was planted in the spring
of 1904. So superior were the results obtained that
from that time on, Morrison increased his acreage
and had no trouble in disposing of all the seed he
raised.

The Department of Agriculture established a station
on the Morrison farm in 1905 and took entire charge of
the scientific work, which was carried on under the
direct charge of Mr. Reed, under the direction of
Mr. J. E. W. Tracey, Assistant Superintendent of
Testing Gardens, Department of Agriculture. Again
it appeared that the sugar factories of the United
States soon would be supplied with higher grade seed
than any other factories in the world.

But the fruit boom struck eastern Washington in
1911, the boomers offered Morrison more for his
land than it was worth for growing seed, he sold his
farm and the Government abandoned its station. As
had been the case with the Nebraska experiments of
ten years before, the benefits of the advance which
had been made were lost.

58

SUGAR-BEET SEED

That the Washington seed was constant and con-
tinued to yield superior results is shown by the Gov-
ernment records for six years, as embodied in the
following tables from "Progress of the Beet Sugar
Industry in the United States" in 1909, issued by
the Department of Agriculture:

TABLE I.— RELATIVE PERFORMANCE OF SUGAR-BEET
VARIETIES FOR THE ENTIRE SIX- YEAR PERIOD
COVERED BY THE TESTS

ARRANGED BY STATIONS.

ARRANGED BY YEARS.

Designation

Sugar.

Sugar.

of Variety

Roots

Standing

Roots

Standing

Tested.

Tons

of

Tons

of

per

Per

Lbs.

Variety

per

Per

Lbs.

Variety

acre.

Cent.

per

Tested.

acre.

Cent.

per

Tested.

acre.

acre.

Morrison. . . .

15.26

16.69

5,on

I

13 40

16.53

4,325

I

Original .

14 14

17 41

4,847

2

12 4Q

17 14

4,2O6

2

Breustedt . . .

T- - n
14.20

/ T"O

16.64

*rl VT^/

4,664

4

*ry

12. 69

/ ' T"

16.36

T"J w

4,078

3

Mette

I4-38

16.48

4,675

3

12.56

16.31

4,007

6

Schreiber. . . .

13-95

16.95

4,632

6

12.17

17.03

4,041

4

Braune

14.40

16-34

4,635

5

12.74

16.15

4,031

5

Heine

13-87

16.89

4,608

7

11.98

16.70

3,894

9

Utah

13.88

16.78

4,597

8

12.09

16. 70

3,962

7

Hcerning. . . .

14-37

16.25

4,547

9

12.51

16.15

3,9H

8

Jaensch

13-79

16-55

4,506

10

H-93

16.44

3,839

II

Dippe

13-43

16.85

4,452

1 1

11.86

16.67

3,864

10

Kuhn

12.88

17.12

4,333

12

ii 54

16.87

3,821

12

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

59

TABLE XL— RELATIVE STANDING, BY STATIONS AND
BY YEARS, OF SUGAR-BEET VARIETIES TESTED
FOR ALL YEARS

ARRANGED BY STATIONS.

Colorado, Ft.
Collins
3 Years.

Michigan, East
Lansing
5 Years.

Michigan,
Holland
6 Years.

New York,
Geneva
6 Years.

d

_O

5-!3

c 3

a£

gro
O

a

n!
bo •

S|

J

5-*
p

Washington,
Fairfield
6 Years.

All Stations.

Morrison

I

5
9

2

8
6
7
4
3

10

ii

12

4

2

5
ii

i
6
3
9

12
10

8

7

3

5

7

10

4
9
ii

12

2

8
6

I

3

2

9
4

5

10

7

12

8
6
ii

I
2

9

5*

10

4
8

5*
ii

3

7

12

2
I

3

7

12

5
4
6

9

10

ii

8

I
2

8
5
3

12
11

4
6

7
9
10

I
2

4
3
6

5
7
8

9

10

ii

12

Origind

Breustedt
Mette

Schreiber. , . .

Braune

Heine

Utah

Hoerning. . . .

Jaensch

Diooe.

Kuhn. .

Designation of
Variety Tested.

ARRANGED BY YEARS.

1904

1905

1906

1907

1908

1909

All Yrs.

Morrison

I

7

i

I

2

6

I

Original

T.

i

2

4.

I

-j

2

Breustedt

Q

2

5

2

6

8

'I

Mette

IO

12

4

6

4

e

6

Schreiber

2

6

6

12

3

2

4

Braune

4

4

9

3

7

7

«;

Heine

6

s:

7

II

0

0

Q

Utah

7

IO

K

8

4.

7

Hoernirg

II

10

3

7

10

12

8

Jaensch

12

13

8

8

ii

I

II

Dippe

5

i

ii

10

12

IO

10

Kuhn

8

ii

12

9

5

11

12

* The Mette and the Utah varieties have the same relative standing at
Union, Oregon.

60 SUGAR-BEET SEED

SEED GROWING IN CALIFORNIA

Some years ago J. B. Agnew & Company, of Agnew,
California, near San Francisco, produced commercial
seed for several seasons, but the enterprise did not
meet with success and was abandoned. C. C. Morse
& Company also gave the work a thorough test, but
were unable to produce seed successfully. At Oxnard,
in southern California, the American Beet Sugar
Company conducted extensive experiments in seed
growing for a number of years, but finally gave up
the effort.

The main trouble in California is that such a large
percentage of the mother beet seed is liable to go to
seed the first year. While some years but 5 per cent,
of the seed would develop seed stalks the first season,
other years, under identical cultural conditions, 80
per cent, would develop seed stalks the first year.
This inconsistency is attributed to the average uni-
form temperature, which does not insure a complete
check of the selected mother beets during the winter.

To overcome this difficulty, specially constructed
siloes for the mothers were prepared and the mothers
were planted at various dates, but the effort did. not

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 61

succeed. Nevertheless, experiments still are being
conducted in that state, both by sugar companies and
by the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

SEED GROWING IN UTAH AND IDAHO

In 1899 the Utah Sugar Company began experi-
menting with sugar-beet seed culture at Lehi, and since
has planted from 5 to 20 acres to mother beets yearly.
Since 1907 this company also has grown from 10
to 30 acres yearly at Sugar City, Idaho. Originally,
the work was conducted by Mr. C. A. Granger, sub-
sequently under Mr. Mark Austin, Agricultural Super-
intendent of the company. The quality of the seed
was excellent; the main difficulty experienced was in
keeping the mother beets through the winter. Large
sums of money were expended in trying to make the
enterprise a success, but it was not until 1912, when
Mr. W. K. Winterhalter, who represented the Russian
sugar-beet seed firm of Buszczynski & Lazynski,
became associated with the enterprise, that the work
assumed commercial proportions, since which time the
production has been greatly increased, now amounting
to 10,000 to 15,000 bags annually.

62 SUGAR-BEET SEED

In both sugar content and germination, the results
secured from this seed are equal to those obtained
from the best imported seed.

SUGAR BEET SEED EXPERIMENTS IN SOUTH
DAKOTA

The Agricultural Experiment Station of South
Dakota, in which state no beet-sugar factory has as yet
been erected, has been experimenting with sugar beet
culture since 1888 and with the development of Amer-
ican strains of sugar beet seed, since 1891. In a bulle-
tin,* which reviews the work of the station since 1888,
it is stated that they found no pure strains of commer-
cial seed that would give uniform tonnage or percentages
of sugar, but that on the contrary, beets grown from the
best varieties of seed gave beets which "differed from
one another by 10 per cent sugar in the beet." There
was also a great difference in the purity of the beet and
in the tonnage yield per acre.

By making selections the average sugar content of

* Sugar Beet Culture in South Dakota. Results to Date,
Bulletin No. 142, by James H. Shepard, Chemist, Department of
Chemistry, Agricultural Experiment Station, South Dakota
State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Brookings, S. D.,
January, 1913.

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 63

the beet was raised 3 per cent in the first generation
produced from Dakota seed, and in later selections,
while all beets were rejected which did not analyze
higher in sugar than did the highest- at the beginning
of the experiments, and higher than the average of all
the commercial beets grown in the United States, the
rejections amounted to but 3.4 per cent of the beets
tested. No rows of beets in which every beet was tested
averaged less than 20 per cent sugar, the highest aver-
age for any row was 21.5 per cent and the highest
individual beet tested, contained 25.4 per cent sugar.

It is obvious that if by selection, the poorer quality
of seed which we are using be eliminated, and from the
superior types of foreign elite seed, strains of high ton-
nage, high sugar content and high purity beets be bred,
the reduction in the farmers cost of producing beets
and the factory cost of producing sugar would be mate-
rially reduced. In fact, even with our high wage rates,
it might so revolutionize costs as to make this the cheap-
est beet-sugar producing country in the world.

The following from South Dakota, Bulletin No. 142,
indicates the results which may be attained by beginning
at the foundation and breeding pure American strains of
sugar beet seed:

64 SUGAR-BEET SEED

"This year (1891) also saw the beginning of raising sugar beet
seed from analyzed mother beets. A small quantity of seed from
several varieties was grown. When planted the next year the
beets grown gave a promising increase over the mothers planted
for seed. In some instances 3 per cent more sugar was found.
Thus by selection a 15 per cent beet was raised to 18 per cent.
This is mentioned here, since this small beginning has borne fruit
in the splendid achievements of the present time. . . .

"The object of the new work was to breed up strains of sugar
beets in which the individuals should give uniformly high sugar
percentages, while the beets should be large enough to make a
profitable tonnage for the farmer.

"The first year of this work in co-operation with the Bureau of
Plant Industry (U. S. Department of Agriculture), Dr. Townsend
secured 26 different varieties of sugar beet and stock beet seeds.
The sugar beet seed was from the best American and foreign
growers who were furnishing our factories with commercial seed.

"Each variety was planted and when ripe the variety was har-
vested and the beets, after a thorough sorting for shape, type and
size, were siloed in a cool cellar. Later they were all brought
to the laboratory and each beet was analyzed separately. Any
sugar beet that failed to have 15 per cent sugar in the beet this
year was rejected. This severe culling process left good beets
of proper form and size with at least a good commercial per cent
of sugar. Some varieties were thrown out entirely. And of the
beets saved in the field in some varieties the number of rejected
beets were small, in others it amounted to as much as 20 per cent.

"We were unable at this time to cull closer than this. But
some varieties gave one or two beets out of the whole number
analyzed that went up to 20 per cent sugar in the beet, and one
gave 24.8 per cent sugar. These few best ones were planted sep-
arately and sacked so they self-fertilized, thus giving us the begin-
nings of new strains.

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 65

"But one thing became immediately apparent, and that was
that there were no pure strains of sugar beet seed in the country
that would give uniform percentages among the individuals of
any variety. In even the best varieties individuals were found
that differed from one another by 10 per cent sugar in the beet.
The enormous waste that would ensue from using such seed may
be readily imagined. The poor beets cost just as much to grow
as the good ones and they reduced the profits of both farmer and
manufacturer. . . .

"In 1908, 21 more varieties of seed were secured and treated
as the first 26. . . . The number rejected on a 15 per cent basis
ranged all the way from 50 per cent to 100 per cent. In 1909 we
were busy propagating and testing out not only the main lots of
beets and seed grown during the past two years, but owing to an
early freeze in October we were able to give the first 26 varieties
grown as severe a culling as we had given the seeds planted the
previous year. . . . The culling was most severe, the rejects often
constituted over half the beets analyzed. But this has proven a
blessing in disguise. But we commenced to see for the first time
that we had made substantial gains in reducing the variation
between individuals of the same strain. The variation of 10 per
cent had been reduced in most cases to 5 per cent or 6 per cent.
In only a very few cases did it rise to 8 per cent, while in some
cases it had dropped to 3 per cent or 4 per cent. The mother
beets averaged about 15 per cent sugar in the beet.

"In 1910 we continued the work, analyzing, selecting, and test-
ing out the new strains of mothers and seed we had grown. . . .
Upwards of 4000 beets were analyzed and classified. Up to this
time that work has borne no fruit. But when we came to select
our mother beets after analysis we made the satisfactory dis-
covery that the individual variation between beets of the same
variety was rapidly disappearing. On the basis of 15 per cent the
rejects had dwindled down to an average of only 3.4 per cent for

66 SUGAR-BEET SEED

all varieties. The lowest per cent rejected on account of low
sugar content was 0.9 per cent, and the highest was 7.0 per cent.
When we consider that when these same strains at their last
selection required the rejection of around 50 per cent and over,
it needs no erudition to discover the remarkable progress made.
Also we made the largest number of individual analyses this
year that has been made in this work. This year the mother
beets averaged over 17 per cent sugar in the beet. This fact
marked another distinct advance in our quest for a high and uni-
form percentage of sugar.

"For 1911, owing to the fact that we now had some very good
strains well on their way toward our ideals, other phases of the
work are undertaken. ... In analyzing beets for mothers we
were able to reject all under 18 per cent sugar in the beet this year.
Here is a mighty advance. With this high standard the reject
per cent was low, running around 10 per cent or under. In no
variety did the per cent sugar in the beet as determined by a
composite analysis in which every beet in the row was analyzed
fall below 20 per cent. The highest average was 21.5 per cent;
even the rejects averaged well over 15 per cent.

"We have been looking all these years for a sugar beet
that will give 25 per cent sugar in the beet. And this year
we not only found several that were that high but we surely
caught a big one, 25.4 per cent. Perhaps they grow richer. We
do not know.

"As for tonnage, the different varieties gave from 20 to 24
tons per acre. Owing to the great interest at this time there is
appended a table giving a summary of the results secured along
commercial lines during 1911 and 1912. The table is self-explan-
atory. The pounds of sugar per acre were calculated by weighing
the topped beets. Then this weight was multiplied by the per
cent sugar in the beet. In factory practice around 4 per cent of
the sugar in the beet is not recovered as sugar. Some of it goes

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

67

to molasses. The molasses is worked up into alcohol and other
valuable products.

TABLE i
VARIETY TESTS or SUGAR BEETS FOR 1911

*d

V3 <L>

i!

"1

&

tr5

i

i

fc

6<

o>^r

CQ g
d<

W *.S

II
P

pi

•c

JIJ

jll

"^ M £J

35

5

248

267

19.6

17.1

88

16.3

31,015

4,550

40

7

368

354

19.6

17.0

87

16.2

26,515

3,865

42

6

288

297

19.8

17.6

89

16.7

32,016

4,812

43

6

326

307

20.4

17.9

89

17.0

32,894

5,031

44

6

317

303

20.3

17.9

88

17.0

32,665

4,797

VARIETY TESTS FOR 1912

35

Width
of
Row.

:
142

H5

24.0

21 .0

88

20. o

46,379

8,532

18

42

18

158

112

24.4

22.0

90

20.9

45,173

8,497

43

18

146

118

24-5

22.0

88

20.9

47,593

8,962

44

18

138

101

25-4

22.6

89

21.5

40,737

7,782

i8S

18

120

106

25-6

23.2

Qi

22.0

42,753

8,653

2lS

18

132

106

24.6

22.0

89

20.9

42,753

8,025

SDi

18

143

in

24.2

21.4

88

20.3

44,766

8,268

"Our rejects from the mother beet analyses will give a higher
per cent than the average of all the commercial beets grown in

68 SUGAR-BEET SEED

this country. California has the highest per cent sugar in the beet
of any state where they are grown commercially, 18.54 per cent
while her tonnage is 10.72."

SINGLE-GERM BEET BALLS

In forming beet seed nature seems to have been
perverse, in that while she compels us to plant several
seeds in a place and thus starts the beetlets in cluster,
they cannot be grown to advantage in clusters. We
plant four kernels of corn in a hill, but the beet re-
quires that its nearest neighbor shall be 8 inches
removed. The several peas which grow in a pod
easily are separated and can be planted singly, but the
several beet-seed germs which grow in a beet-ball
cannot be separated.

The ball in which beet seed is incased is a hard,
woody, fibrous substance and was placed there by
nature for the purpose of allowing moisture, etc., to
enter by osmosis in proper proportions so as to reg-
ulate the germination of the plant.

These balls contain from i to 7 distinct seeds or
germs, with an average germination of 3^ plants
per ball. The consequence is that in order to leave
but one plant every eight inches in the row, when

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

69

DEVELOPING SINGLE-GERM BEET SEED

Plant that has been covered with muslin bags upon a frame of wire
netting. Many of the racemes have grown through the meshes of the
netting.

70 SUGAR-BEET SEED

the plants appear above the ground and show their
third leaf, all superfluous plants must be pulled up,
care being exercised that the remaining plants be
injured as little as possible. At best, the shock is
so severe that the remaining plants wither and lie
flat on the ground for several hours after being thinned.
In addition to the injury to the plants, thinning is a
slow, expensive, back-aching task which must be done
by hand.

Several years ago it was proposed to plant the
beet-balls in paper tubes in a seed-bed, thin them while
the tubes still were on trays, convey the trays to the
field and plant the tubes, much as tobacco plants
are planted. Because of the attendant expense, this
method never passed the experimental stage.

Then a machine was invented which twisted up
beet-balls, one in a place, at given distances within
a continuous narrow roll of paper, which could be
unwound from a field implement which made a trench,
laid the paper roll and covered it with earth as the
machine was drawn across the field. But the inventor
overlooked the fact that each beet-ball contained
several germs, hence his proposed method did not
obviate the necessity of thinning on hands and knees.

About the same time, a German seed grower tried

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

71

4 j.

TYPE OF SEED BEET READY TO HARVEST

72 SUGAR-BEET SEED

to obviate the necessity of thinning, by passing the
seed-balls through a grater and cracking them into
several parts. Some of this cracked seed was placed
on the American market, but did not give satisfactory
results. The drawbacks to this method were both
numerous and serious. Some of the seed germs were
destroyed in the cracking machine. Others were ex-
posed and the function of the beet-ball to regulate
the germination was destroyed. The oxalates in the
beet-ball did not perform their function of protecting
the young plant from its micro-enemies. And finally,
unless a large portion of the germs were ruined, it was
impossible so to crack the balls but that many of the
pieces contained more than one germ and the field
had to be thinned as usual.

With these experiments in mind, the writer cracked
open and examined thousands of beet-seed balls and
finally concluded that the only manner in which
the desired result might be attained would be to breed
a single-germ beet-ball. If the botanists could change
the whole nature of the beet's seeding habit and induce
it to become a biennial instead of an annual, why
could they not change its habit of growing more than
one seed in a ball.

The value of such a seed scarcely could be measured

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

73

X

74 SUGAR-BEET SEED

in dollars. Not only was the thinning expensive, but
careful German experiments had shown that unless
beets were thinned at exactly the right time, the loss
in tonnage, due to the injury to the remaining beetlet
by reason of pulling up the superfluous plants, was
very great. One German experiment conducted on
four plots of ground where all conditions of seed, soil
and care, except the time of thinning, were the same,
had given the following results :

Plot No. i, thinned at the right time, yielded 15 tons of beets.

2, " one week later, 13! " " "

3, " still one week later 10 " " "

4, ' ' still another week later 7 " " "

Now if the very womb of the seed germ could be so
changed as to contain but one germ instead of several,
a single seed could be planted in a place, the cost of
the hand work of thinning could be saved and the
tonnage would be increased from 25 to 40 per cent.,
for beets rarely, if ever, are thinned at just the right
moment. Even when they are, the shock caused
by removing the intertwined roots is severe. With
but one beetlet growing in a place, they would be
entirely free from shock.

To insure a good stand, the beet-balls could be

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

75

BEET-SEED STEM
Mounted on board 21X42 inches.

76 SUGAR-BEET SEED

dropped in the rows, one inch or two inches apart and
the superfluous plants could be removed with a hoe
at the farmers' leisure, without injury to the remaining
plants. To insure sufficient power to break through
a crusted surface in sections where showers were
likely and the soil was caked, oats could be drilled in
with the beet seed, or the crust could be broken with
the proper agricultural implements.

Inasmuch as the average yield in the United States
is but 10 tons per acre, while a perfect stand of 2-pound
beets planted in rows 18 inches apart and thinned to
8 inches, would yield 43 tons per acre, the chance for
materially increasing the tonnage is very great.

The suggestion met with no encouragement from
sugar men; they did not believe it possible to breed
a single-germ beet-ball. But the moment the writer
broached the subject to Secretary of Agriculture Wilson,
he became enthusiastic over it, declaring that it not
only was possible, but probable, and within twenty-
four hours, a bevy of Department clerks was at work
sorting out single-germ beet-balls from commercial
seed.

The only mark on beet-balls which indicates the
presence of seed is an almost imperceptible flattening
directly over each seed pocket. The entire surface

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

77

DEVELOPING SINGLE-GERM BEET SEED
Two extremely diverse terminals of seed stems,

78 SUGAR-BEET SEED

of each little beet-ball had to be examined minutely.
From between 400,000 and 500,000 beet-balls
4000 singles were secured, the exact proportion
of singles being 0.98 of one per cent, of the balls
examined.

The writer had reasoned that because of the fact
that the ball which enclosed a single was more than
one-half the size of that enclosing a double, and that
of a double was more than two-thirds the size of a
three-germ ball, the less the number of seeds a ball
contained, the larger would be their breakfast. His
boyhood recollection was that the sow that raised the
smallest litter, raised the biggest pigs, but he was
told that his reasoning could not be applied to sugar-
beet seed and that vitality would have to be bred into
the plants after the single germ characteristic should
have become fixed.

This was in the early spring of 1903, and in due
course the singles were planted on the Arlington
Experimental Farm of the Department of Agriculture,
near Washington. The germination was favorable,
and contrary to the predictions of the botanists, the
vitality cf the plants was abnormally high, the highest
of any sugar-beet seed ever grown by the Department.
At the close of the season about 1000 beets grown from

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

79

the single-germ seed were selected and siloed for
the next season's planting.

In the spring of 1904 the single-germ " mothers"
were shipped by express and by post, to Lehi, Utah.

DEVELOPING SINGLE-CLRM SUGAR-BEET SEED

Flower stalks possessing only single flowers, covered with paper bags to
prevent cross pollination

Drs. C. O. Townsend and E. C. Rittue, Pathologist
and Assistant Pathologist, Department of Agriculture,
had been placed in direct charge of the work and upon
arrival of the mothers they were planted 3X3 feet.

80

SUGAR-BEET SEED

Sugar Beet Root System

6 IN.

12m.

18m.

24m.

30.K.I-

K \

ROOT SYSTEM OF COMMERCIAL SUGAR BEETS

It is estimated that one ton of fibrous roots per acre remains in the
ground after the main root has been harvested.

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 81

Only two of the plants set out failed to live and less
than i per cent, failed to produce seed stalks.

Fifty of the plants which possessed the highest
number of single flowers were selected for pollination
purposes. In. the work of pollination, single flowers
were covered with paper bags in order to protect them
from the pollen of other beet-flowers, a ndthe branches
which bore multiple flowers were removed. While open-
ing the flowers with a needle or scalpel in order to cross-
fertilize them, a tent was erected to surround both
plant and operator and protect the flowers at such times
against stray pollen that might be floating in the air.

After the flowers were treated and covered with
paper bags, the entire plant was covered with a cloth
bag in order that the paper bags might not be blown
off. Each plant was carefully examined from time
to time to remove the superfluous growth that was
forced from the nodes as a result of the excessive trim-
ming due to removing the branches which bore multiple
flowers. As soon as the seed had set, the paper bags
were removed, but the cloth bags remained over the
plants until the seed ripened.

The seed ripened in August and that from each of
the pollinated plants, and the other plants which
showed the .greatest number of singles, was gathered

82

SUGAR-BEET SEED

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 83

separately. Owing to the method of pollination, it
was impossible to determine what proportion of the
seed-balls of the pollinated plants were single. Of
the other plants, the highest, or number 51, yielded 25
per cent, single-germ balls and the next 10 averaged
17 per cent, singles.

In 1905 the best plant yielded slightly over 50 per
cent, singles, two plants yielded between 49 and 50
per cent., several exceeded 40 per cent, and many ex-
ceeded 30 per cent.

The third generation yielded about the same as the
second. In the fourth generation some of the plants
yielded 60 to 70 per cent, singles, two produced as high
as 80 per cent, and one produced 85 per cent, singles.
The very high plants proved to be weaklings and
eventually died without producing further results.

The work was interrupted during 1913 and 1914, but
fortunately, samples of nearly all the seed which had
shown promising results in 1912 have been saved.
The best plants with which the Department now is
working yielded 60 to 70 per cent, singles.

In addition to the production of single-germ plants,
the Department is conducting with this experiment
a number of investigations in regard to weight and
quality of seed, as well as in regard to the quality

84 SUGAR-BEET SEED

of roots produced from singles as compared with those
produced from multiple germ seeds.

No doubt is expressed but that the single germ
characteristic will become fixed, but as to how soon
and as to how much of a tendency there will be to
revert, only can be determined by further investi-
gations and the lapse of time.

NOTE. For further details of this work, see "Single-Germ
Beet-Balls and Other Suggestions for Improving Sugar-Beet
Culture," by Truman G. Palmer, in "Progress of the Beet-Sugar
Industry" in 1902, U. S. Department of Agriculture; "The
Development of Single-germ Beet Seed," by C. O. Townsend
and E. C. Rittue, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin
No. 73, 1905; "Progress of the Beet-Sugar Industry" in 1908,
U. S. Department of Agriculture.

SUGAR-BEET SEED SITUATION IN 1914, 1915
AND 1916

The present annual seed requirements of American
beet-sugar companies are about 150,000 bags of no
pounds each, practically all of which is imported from
Europe, mostly from Germany. During the last 5 pre-
war years these imports amounted to nearly 60,000,000
pounds, for which there was paid about $4,500,000.
The bulk of this seed was supplied by one Austrian

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 85

and five German growers, with whom advance con-
tracts were placed for several years for a given quantity
of seed per year, to be delivered as required and paid
for in the usual course of business. With the out-
break of war in Europe, all was changed and ever
since August, 1914, the question cf securing an ade-
quate supply of sugar-beet seed has been the uppermost
thought in the minds of domestic beet-sugar producers.
It was a particularly unfortunate time to be cut off
from the usual seed supply, as seed stocks in this country
never before had been so low. The average New York
wholesale price of granulated sugar for the year 1913
had dropped to 4.278 cents per pound, the lowest in
history, and in that year Congress had provided that
the import duty on foreign sugar should be abolished
May i, 1916, which would still further lower the price
of the product. Discouraged at the gloomy outlook,
company managements had allowed their seed supply
to decline and when war was declared and the price
of sugar immediately began to recover, some beet
sugar companies did not have a bag of seed on hand
for their 1915 planting, others had only a small supply,
only a few were well provided. The quantity of home-
grown seed was negligible and without seed the fac-
tories would remain idle.

86 SUGAR-BEET SEED

It at once became impossible for American beet-sugar
companies to secure shipments of seed without first
depositing the money in Rotterdam against bills of
lading. To secure the seed, it became necessary for
the American beet-sugar producers to send two of
their number to Rotterdam, prepared to disburse
some $800,000 to the various growers, as the seed
arrived, and to arrange for its shipment to the United
States. Shipping facilities and other complications
were such that several months' effort of the committee
was required in order to secure sufficient seed for the

1915 planting.

In 1915 the quantity of German seed desired for

1916 planting in the United States amounted in value
to 3,500.000 marks, and the German Government
having placed an embargo on the export of sugar-beet
seed, notified its growers that the only condition upon
which the seed could be exported was that the United
States first should land foodstuffs or cotton at a Ger-
man port, to the value of the seed to be exported.

As Great Britain had blockaded German ports and
would not recede from her position, the seed situa-
tion with American beet-sugar factories became still
more acute and from that time until late in 1917, the
executive officer of the industry's national association,

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 87

together with his staff of office assistants, devoted their
time incessantly to the work of securing a sufficient
supply of seed to operate the American factories.

With every nation to be dealt with plunged into war,
diplomatic relations strained, commercial operations up-
set, transportation facilities in a chaotic condition and
devoted almost exclusively to conveying troops and
munitions of war, the maze of red tape which was en-
countered both in Washington and in foreign capitals
in securing export permits, the proper preparation and
filing of indemnity bonds guaranteeing that the seed
would not be reexported, the securing of British safe
sea permits and latterly the securing of ocean bottoms
in which to ship the seed from Russia was all but
endless.

A meager 15,000 bags was secured from Germany
"as a special consideration to the United States."
Germany designated the companies and the quantity
of seed which each should receive. Although this
seed was furnished under the then existing contracts
at 8 cents per pound, in such desperate need of seed
were some American companies which did not par-
ticipate in the distribution, that they paid their more
fortunate competitors as high as $65 a bag for their
surplus seed. It appearing that no more seed could

88 SUGAR-BEET SEED

be secured from either Germany or Austria, a
trusted agent was dispatched to Russia. When
the Russian seed growers learned of the situation,
the price of Russian seed immediately rose to
three times its usual value and most of the
growers demanded full payment for the seed before
leaving their shipping stations, which are located in
the vicinity of Kieff. Although these stations are
6000 miles from the port of Vladivostok, with
which they were connected by a single-track rail-
way which already was congested with war munition
freight and often was closed for weeks to commercial
freights, American sugar factories assumed the risk
and forwarded a million and a half dollars to Russia
without any positive assurance that the seed could
be brought out. After months of negotiations and
vexatious delays, the seed began to move and all of
it reached this country within a year from the time
it was purchased.

The desperate quest for seed brought to mind more
vividly than ever before the absolute dependence of
the domestic beet-sugar industry on foreign countries.
This resulted in the production of an increased amount
of home-grown seed in 1915, the planting of a con-
siderable area in 1916 and the formation of plans to

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 89

increase the production from year to year, with the
view of eventually making the industry independent
of foreign countries for its seed supply.

IMPORTANCE OF DOMESTIC SUGAR-BEET SEED
PRODUCTION

The increasing and now vital importance of pro-
ducing in the United States the sugar-beet seed for its
domestic requirements is recognized by the U. S.
Department of Agriculture and by Congress, as is
evidenced by the fact that the appropriation bill of
the Department of Agriculture now carries an annual
appropriation of $10,000 for experimental work with
sugar-beet seed.

The views of the Department are set forth quite
fully in the Department's 1916 Year Book by Dr.
C. O. Townsend, Pathologist in Charge of Sugar-
Beet Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, from
which the following extracts are reproduced:

Owing to the disturbed agricultural and trade conditions in
Europe since August, 1914, the importance of developing an
American beet-seed industry of sufficient magnitude to meet our
requirements has become imperative. The united efforts of the
Department of Agriculture and the Department of State, co-

90 SUGAR-BEET SEED

operating with the beet-sugar companies, after encountering
many difficulties succeeded in securing sufficient beet seed, with
the surplus then on hand, to meet the planting requirements in
1915; but the combined efforts of those agencies failed to secure
sufficient seed to meet the requirements in 1916, with the result
that thousands of farmers were deprived of the benefits of this
crop, a number of mills were idle, and consequently the capital
invested, amounting to several million dollars, was unproductive.

The present seed requirements of the beet-sugar industry in
this country are annually not less than 150,000 sacks of 1 10 pounds
each. In order to insure this quantity of seed it would be neces-
sary to have not less than 16,000 acres devoted to seed pro-
duction; less than one-fourth of this acreage was harvested in
1916. Seven new mills were erected during 1916 and plans
are under way for a still larger number in 1917. Assuming the
average capacity of these mills to be 1000 tons of roots a day,
which is approximately correct, each new mill will require 10,000
acres of beets for a normal run. To plant 10,000 acres of beets,
200,000 pounds of seed, the product of approximately 200 acres
of land, would be required for each mill, not considering the
necessary replanting. It is apparent, therefore, that the present
acreage in seed will do little more than care for the possible ex-
pansion of the beet-sugar industry and that the quantity of
seed which must be imported will remain approximately the
same as heretofore.

The beet-sugar industry in the United States is composed of
three distinct branches, namely, beet-seed production, sugar-
beet growing, and beet-sugar extraction and refining. They are
so linked that each is dependent upon the others, not only for

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 91

its complete success, but for its existence. Without seed the
sugar-beet industry, in which more than 70,000 American farmers
are directly interested, could not exist, and without beets the
84 beet-sugar mills now standing, with an invested capital of
more than $100,000,000, would be idle. The beet-seed industry
is, of course, the foundation upon which sugar-beet growing and
beet-sugar extraction rests. Because of its fundamental char-
acter, it is surprising that sugar-beet seed production in this
country has not received more general and more earnest atten-
tion in the past. The two primary causes that have operated
against the development of the sugar-beet seed industry in this
country were (i) the fact that a sufficient quantity of seed to
meet our requirements was easily obtainable from European
countries at a reasonable price and (2) the prevailing idea that
conditions in this country, from the standpoint either of labor
cost or of climate, would not permit the successful development
of the seed industry in the United States. Recent experiences,
however, have shown the folly of depending upon foreign coun-
tries for our beet-seed supply, while experiments extending
over many years have proved the falsity of the opinion relative
to labor and climatic conditions.

PROGRESS IN AMERICAN SUGAR-BEET SEED PRODUCTION

The earliest efforts toward sugar-beet culture in this country,
in 1830, were made with seed brought from Europe. When the
first permanent beet-sugar mill was established in America,
in 1879, European seed was used to produce the raw material,
and even at the present time, with nearly 80 mills in operation,

92 SUGAR-BEET SEED

requiring upward of 750,000 acres of beets to insure satisfactory
runs, farmers are still depending upon foreign countries for the
major portion of their seed. It is true, efforts have been made
in certain quarters for many years to produce sugar-beet seed
in this country, but prior to 1914 they were largely experimental.
The first carefully planned effort to grow sugar-beet seed in the
United States was made at Schuyler, Neb., in 1891. These ex-
periments were continued for several years under the direction
of Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, at that time chief of the Bureau of
Chemistry of the United States Department of Agriculture.
The results with this seed, in comparison with imported vari-
eties, showed that the American-grown seed had a higher vitality
and that the roots produced from this seed possessed a higher
sugar content and gave heavier yield than any of the imported
varieties tested.

For a number of years the United States Department of Agri-
culture conducted experiments in sugar-beet seed growing at
Fairfield, Wash., with results similar to those obtained at Schuyler,
Neb., with reference to both the vitality of the seed and the quality
,and weight of roots produced. For many years several sugar
companies have grown small quantities of commercial sugar-
beet seed, and within the past year two of these beet-sugar
companies have greatly increased their beet -seed acreage. In
some cases the roots used for this purpose have been produced
from the commercial imported seed, while in other instances
special seed was used. The results of these tests have been
successful from the standpoint of germination of the seed and
the yield and quality of the roots produced. While .there is
abundant proof, therefore, that sugar-beet seed satisfactory in

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 93

every particular can be grown in this country, few, if any, dis-
tinct American strains of sugar beets have been established and
used for commercial beet-seed production. All experience in
breeding and selection in this and in other lines would indicate
that such strains when properly established and thoroughly
acclimated if generally used for beet producton will yield even
better results than have been obtained in the experiments already
carried out. * * *

PRESENT PROBLEMS

As a result of existing conditions surrounding the sugar-beet
seed situation in this country two problems are confronting
the beet growers and sugar producers at this time, namely, the
production of a sufficient quantity of seed to meet the present
planting requirements and the establishment in this country
of a permanent beet-seed industry which shall meet our future
needs. These requirements relate not only to the quantity of
seed necessary to plant the desired acreage, but also to the qual-
ity of the seed and the quantity and quality of the roots which
this seed is capable of producing.

*******

See Farmers' Bulletin No. 52, 1897, by Dr. H. W. Wiley.

TYPES OF SUGAR BEETS

It is a startling fact that there are in this country no dis-
tinct types of commercial sugar beets. If, for example, a field
of a given variety of wheat is examined it will be noted that
practically every plant bears a striking resemblance to every

94 SUGAR-BEET SEED

other plant in the field, but this is not true of the sugar beet.
In any commercial sugar-beet field from Michigan to California,
without regard to the name of the so-called variety, can be found
from 6 to 20 or more distinct types of beets. Their distinction
may be based upon shape, texture, habit of growth, color, and
other characters of the leaf, as well as upon shape, texture, quality,
etc., of the root. In fact, scarcely two beets growing side by side
in the same field have closely related external characters of leaf
or root, and the quality of the roots varies in both sugar and
purity.

Equally wide variations may be found in the beet-seed fields,
especially with reference to habit of growth and yield of seed.
It would appear, therefore, that these so-called strains are badly
mixed in the process of growth and production or that many
strains or varieties are mixed before the seed is sacked. It would
seem, however, from the large number of wide variations in
the individual beets produced from commercial seed, that the
mixed strains or varieties appearing in commercial fields are due
more to the method of growth than to artificial mixing. It
may be, and probably is, necessary to have mixed strains, tfr
crosses, in order to combine in one plant all the desirable qual-
ities of weight, sugar, and purity. It would seem, however,
that little progress can be made in the development of desirable
strains of beets until the present mixed varieties are separated
into their component strains and the desirable strains recom-
bined in their proper relation. It is no more reasonable to sup-
pose that such a mixture of the present types of sugar beets will
give the best results in yield and quality of roots than it is to
assume that the highest results in live-stock production can be

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 95

reached with mixed breeds of animals. How quickly the Duroc-
Jersey or Poland China hog is recognized! Farmers might have
gone on raising "razor backs" and thought they were producing
pork if these and other distinct types of hogs had not been
developed.

It is true that there are some good cows in a mixed herd and
not all pure breeds are of equal value. Likewise, there are good
sugar beets in these mixtures that are now called by distinct names
and not all individuals of a pure type will be of equal value,
but the average in both quality and yield is far below the limit
of possibilities, and the highest plane of development of the
sugar beet will not be reached until distinct strains or types
are produced and fixed, so that they will come true from year
to year. It will then be possible to work with the individual
beet as the unit upon which the quality and yield of roots may
be based, with a reasonable expectation that material and per-
manent improvement in quality and yield of roots may be pro-
duced by eliminating the poorer and less desirable individuals.
It is not probable that in these pure strains the highest develop-
ment of both size and quality will be found in any one strain.
but it is necessary first to have the pure strains and to know
definitely the characters they possess and are capable of trans-
mitting before the necessary steps can be taken to produce by
crossing the permanent types in which the roots shall possess
the desired qualities of sugar, purity, and yield. At the same
time this line of work should develop seed-producing plants of
uniform type, with reference to both habit of growth of seed
stalks and date of maturity of seed. The development of uni-
form types is of vital importance not only with reference to the

96 SUGAR-BEET SEED

yield and quality of roots and seed, but also with reference to the
cost of production. The first step, therefore, in the develop-
ment of a permanent beet-seed industry in this country lies
in the direction of the development of true types with reference
to both seed beets and seed production.

CONCLUSIONS

The highest development of the beet-sugar industry in the
United States depends upon the establishment of an American
beet-seed industry capable of meeting the requirements of the
American sugar-beet grower and the beet-sugar producer.

Our experience thus far indicates that American sugar-beet
seed is usually superior in germination and capable of producing
larger and better roots than the imported seed.

Our soil and climatic conditions, extending over large areas,
favor the production of sugar-beet seed in sufficient quantity
to meet all future requirements.

Well-defined strains of sugar beets of high yield and quality
are essential to the development of a satisfactory seed industry.
Enough has been done to prove that by careful and painstaking
work such strains can be produced.

No intelligent study of cultural methods in the production of
sugar beets or of problems involving a comparison of varieties
can be made until uniform and fixed varieties with which to
work are available.

The production of strains having roots of uniform size and habit
of growth and capable of yielding seed stalks uniform in habit

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 97

and growth and maturity should make possible improved cul-
tural methods, especially in the planting of the roots and in the
harvesting of the seed, that will reduce greatly the cost of pro-
duction.

WORLD PRODUCTION OF SUGAR-BEET SEED

The twenty million tons of sugar annually produced
in the world is derived about equally from sugar-beets
and from sugar-cane. The cane itself provides the
tops and stalks with which to replant or extend the
cane area, but beet seed of the best quality can not be
produced in many of the sugar-beet areas of the
world, and without such seed, no country can pro-
duce beet sugar at a profit.

To produce the 10,000,000 tons of beet-sugar, 20
countries have invested upwards of one billion dollars
in the erection of 1350 beet-sugar factories, the first
requisite for the successful operation of which is an
adequate supply of high grade sugar-beet seed, without
which failure would be certain.

That the production and control of most of this
seed is vested in less than a dozen wealthy seed growers,
some of whom employ $20,000,000 in their seed-
growing operations, all of whom are located in the
Province of Saxony, the total area of which is less than

98 SUGAR-BEET SEED

that of three counties in the State of Ohio, is a fact
of more than ordinary significance.

The production of one-half of the world's sugar is
dependent upon the dicta of a small group of men
in one country and upon the favorable or unfavorable
weather conditions which prevail over a few square
miles of territory. If for any reason this handful of
growers should decline to furnish seed, or should a
succession of unfavorable seasons ensue, the beet-
sugar industry of the world would be prostrated and
the world would be compelled to reduce its consump-
tion of sugar until seed could be produced elsewhere.

Instances are not lacking where great manufacturing
industries are more or less dependent upon foreign
countries for some portion of their raw material, but
for the production of a great food necessity to be
dependent upon so few men and so small an area
is without a parallel.

Selection in plant life dates back thousands of years,
but Vilmorin originated new and valuable methods
of selection, as a result of which the French seed for
many years was the best in the world; as late as
1837 Vilmorin's seed sold at 25 to 75 cents per pound
when seed grown in Germany sold at 6j cents per
pound.

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 99

As the beet-sugar industry began to spread from
France to Germany and other countries, they com-
menced to grow sugar-beet seed, but Germany soon
put forth such efforts to produce this primary essen-

P. Louis LEVEQUE DE VILMORIN
First to devise methods for increasing the sugar content of the beet.

tial to the industry that growers of other countries
soon were driven from the markets of the world and
Germany secured a practical monopoly of the busi-
ness. France, Holland, and Austria still export small

100

SUGAR-BEET SEED

11

3

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 101

quantities of native seed, but most of their domestic
requirements are imported from Germany.

For some years Russian seed growers have pro-
duced most of the seed for Russia's domestic sowings,
and recently, a small quantity for export. As soon
as the Germans realized that seed of as high a quality
as that produced in Germany could be produced in
certain sections of a few of the governments of south-
western Russia where both land and labor were ex-
ceedingly cheap, the leading German seed growers
proceeded to acquire large holdings of the choicest
lands in those sections where they established exten-
sive seed farms. The scientific work is done in Ger-
many, where all the selections and tests are made
with which to produce elite seed, which latter is shipped
to Russia and sowed for the commercial crop; this is
harvested and shipped to Germany and marketed
from there, either as Russian or as German-grown
seed.

Germany and Russia furnish the seed for 90 per
cent, of all the beet sugar produced in the world;
69 per cent, of the world crop is from German-grown
seed; 78 per cent, of all the beet sugar produced out-
side of Russia and Germany is from German-grown
seed.

102

SUGAR-BEET SEED

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 103

Throughout the world about 6,000,000 acres are
devoted to sugar beets. Based en an average sowing
of 20 pounds of seed per acre in the United States and
Canada, 30 pounds in Russia and 25 pounds in all
other countries, 1,430,000 bags, or 78,650 tons of sugar-
beet seed are required annually, the value of which
at the usual pre-war price of 85 cents per pound,
is $14,000,000. Since the beginning of the war in
Europe the cost of seed, laid down in the United States
has risen from $9.35 to $25.00 per bag of no pounds.

The normal sugar-beet seed crop of Germany is
621,000 bags, of Russia 660,000 bags, a total of 1,281,000
bags for the two countries, or 90 per cent, of the total
production of all countries. While Russia does not
produce as much sugar as does Germany, its sugar-
beet area exceeds that of Germany by nearly a half
million acres and Russia sows 20 per cent, more seed
to the acre. As a result, most of the seed grown in
Russia is required for domestic sowing.

Not including the seed sown in Germany and Russia,
the annual seed requirements of the world amount
to about 600,000 bags, of which 470,000 bags or 78
per cent, is supplied by Germany from its domestic
product and from the 200,000 bags it grows in, or
purchases and imports from Russia.

104 SUGAR-BEET SEED

Before the war in Europe most of the American
requirements of sugar-beet seed were purchased in
Germany. After the outbreak of hostilities American
factories failed to secure an adequate supply of seed
from Germany and turned to Russia, with the result
that in 1916, 175,000 bags were secured, most of
which was sowed in the spring of 1917. For the 1918
planting, only domestic and Russian seed is available.

At the present time the beet-sugar world outside of
the Central Powers and contiguous neutral countries
is relying solely upon Russia for its imports of sugar-
beet seed.

Assuming that the German control of Russian seed
production does not extend beyond the German im-
ports of Russian seed, the dependence of the world
upon German seed in 1913 was as follows:

Tons.
Sugar produced in Germany, from German

grown seed 3,003,768

Sugar produced in other countries from German

grown seed 3,793,365

Total sugar produced from German grown seed 6,797,133
Sugar produced in Russia, from Russian

grown seed 1,918,443

Sugar produced by seed, other than German

and Russian .". 1,067,924

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

105

106

SUGAR-BEET SEED

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ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

107

108

SUGAR-BEET SEED

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 109

UNITED STATES PRODUCTION OF SUGAR-BEET

SEED

For several years past, sugar-beet seed has been
produced in the United States from imported elite
seed and even from the seed of commercial beets,
which is equal in every other respect and higher in
germinating power than imported seed. The higher
germinating power of American seed is accounted for
by the fact that it is freshly grown, whereas, in Europe,
the seed frequently is a mixture of old and new crops.

Because of the high price of American farm labor
the cost of production is greater in the United States
than in Russia, where most of the field work is done
by women who work in the fields from daylight to
dark for an average wage of 17 \ cents per day, and
in Germany, where they receive 28^ cents per day.
But because of the higher germinating power of Amer-
ican seed, an equally good stand of beets can be se-
cured with less seed per acre and the saving in the
quantity of seed sown will offset a portion of the
increased cost per pound.

Since the difficulty arose in obtaining foreign seed,
several American beet-sugar manufacturers have ex-

110 SUGAR-BEET SEED

tended their seed sowings and the members of the
United States Sugar Manufacturers' Association, who
produce 95 per cent, of all domestic beet-sugar,
have formed a cooperative seed-growing company
with a cash capital of $300,000; this company has
leased a large area of farming land and is now
operating extensive seed farms in the State of Idaho.
At a cost of $50,000, the company secured in Europe
50 bags of pedigreed " elite" seed which was planted
in the spring of 1916. This company also planted
several thousand tons of mothers, selected from the
best commercial beets growing in the State of Idaho.

The Great Western Sugar Company of Denver,
Colorado, has been experimenting in sugar-beet seed
growing since 1910. Since the beginning of the war
in Europe this company has greatly increased its
output of seed, which is grown in Colorado, Montana
and Nebraska.

A number of the Michigan sugar companies have be-
gun to raise seed, and are now devoting several hundred
acres to this crop. California sugar companies also
are devoting some acreage to seed production. As a
result of these efforts nearly one-fifth of the seed for
the 1918 United States sowings will be raised at home.

A large portion of the seed which the cooperative

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 111

seed company is producing in Idaho is grown from
the highest pedigreed European " elite" seed, which
is imported at a cost of $7.00 to $10.00 per pound.
It represents the result of the highest skill of the
European sugar-beet seed growers; has passed all
the searching physical and chemical examinations and
is equal to the elite seed which the European growers
themselves plant for producing their commercial seed
in Germany and Russia. The Great Western Sugar
Company also is importing "elite" seed for some of
its plantings. In other cases, selections of mothers
are made from beets grown from commercial seed.

However, whether produced from commercial seed
or from imported " elite" seed, the effort to grow
sugar-beet seed in America is as yet little more than
an elemental proposition, for unless the greatest care
and attention be given each year to selections, the
quality of the beets soon begins to deteriorate, when
a new start must be made from freshly imported seed.
The character of the seed which we now purchase
from Europe indicates that commercialism is sadly
interfering with their science in seed production. It
has been demonstrated that both elite and com-
mercial foreign seed are mixtures of different varieties
of seed or are grown where they cross pollinate with

112 SUGAR-BEET SEED

other types of seed grown in nearby fields. In any
commercial field of beets in this country there can be
found from six to twenty distinct types of beets,
varying in shape, texture, habit of growth, color,
sugar content, purity, etc It is found that when
these beets are classified according to type and planted
for seed, they reproduce true to the type of the
mother. Inasmuch as some types yield better results
than do others, it necessarily follows that the highest
general results only can be secured by beginning at
the very foundation and producing our own elite seed.
As well expect to secure satisfactory results by mix-
ing the breed of Jersey, Holstein and Durham cattle
instead of breeding them separately and building up
each breed, as to expect to secure maximum results
in beet culture from a mixture of types of beets.
Starting with the best elite seed to be had, the result-
ant beets must be separated and classified according
to type, the best types must be improved by selection
and cross breeding from year to year, and from these
constantly improving and highly developed types,
produce our commercial seed. Instead of deteriorat-
ing when planted in this country and allowed to re-
produce, the new crop of seed frequently has produced
richer beets than were the mothers from which they

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 113

sprung. That the effort to improve the beet is worth
while, is shown by the fact that if from the 6j million
tons of sugar beets produced by American farmers
last year, an increased sugar extraction of i per cent
had been secured, we would have produced 125,000,000
more pounds of sugar, worth $9,000,000 at present
wholesale prices.

Not until America ceases to depend upon Europe for
the scientific work which produces the elite seed which
we import, and builds up distinctly American strains
of seed, will domestic sugar-beet seed production free
itself from the domination of Europe and assume the
appearance of a real American industry, thereby
relieving the domestic beet-sugar industry from de-
pendence upon Germany for its existence.

To secure the highest results, sugar-beet seed cul-
ture requires the most fertile lands which are to be
had, as well as years of most careful and scientific
fertilization and working. Such lands in the vicinity
of Magdeburg are held at as high as $1000 per acre.

Unless precedent established by nearly a century's
experience in Europe counts for naught, to establish
the sugar-beet seed industry in the United States
means the investment of hundreds of thousands of
dollars in single-unit farms, each covering several

114 SUGAR-BEET SEED

thousand acres, and the carrying on of general farming
operations in order properly to rotate and build up
the soil. Vast areas of suitable land are to be had
in the United States at a fraction of the value of lands
which are used for this purpose in Europe. On these
farms thousands of dollars must be expended in
laboratories and laboratory equipment, in storage
warehouses and in the multitude of other necessary
buildings and machinery. To operate these farms suc-
cessfully means the creation of organizations comprising
both executive and scientific ability of the highest
degree.

Given the proper quantity and quality of land,
the equipment and the organization, strains of sugar-
beet seed will be developed in the United States which
will surpass the best strains in Europe. The cost per
pound to produce will be higher than in Europe, but
the extra cost will be largely offset by the superior
quality of the seed, not to mention the benefits the
country will derive from the establishment of a new
scientific industry and the freeing of the domestic
beet-sugar industry from dependence upon Europe.

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

115

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Roumania
Russia in Europ
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Russia to Germa

116

SUGAR-BEET SEED

VALUE OF EXPORTS OF SUGAR-BEET SEED FROM
GERMANY TO VARIOUS COUNTRIES, AND FROM
RUSSIA INTO GERMANY

From Auswartiger Handel, Statistik des Deutschen Reichs

1907

1908

1909

1910

1911

1912

Dollars

Dollars

Dollars

Dollars

Dollars

Dollars

Belgium.

192,780

140,420

339,150

391,272

456,960

359,142

Bulgaria

4-998

9,758

11,900

Denmark

66,640

35,700

72,590

108,052

105,910

118,048

France

403,i72

329,868

528,360

676,872

749,700

766,360

Italy

98,294

108,766

104,006

H4.478

223,958

154-700

Netherlands

107,338

95,438

143.514

211,106

188,020

203,728

Austria-Hungary. . .

1,215,942

869,652

1,680,756

1,560,090

2,647,274

1,529,864

Roumania

37,842

35,462

76,160

69,258

77.H2

76.874

Russia in Europe. . .

526,456

340,102

785,638

425,306

418,404

307,972

Sweden

122,332

85,204

200,634

170,646

148,036

74,732

Servia

27,846

6,426

19,278

11,900

Spain

112,098

65,926

44.982

69,020

193,970

192,304

Canada

11,900

United States

522,886

416,262

733,278

462,672

727,566

751,128

Total

3,405,780

2,522,800

4,748,814

4,270,196

5,965,946

4,558,652

Russia to Germany.

462,196

340,102

328,440

480,522

1.140,258

2,960,006

ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

117

VALUE PER FOUND OF EXPORTS OF SUGAR-BEET
SEED FROM GERMANY TO VARIOUS COUNTRIES,
AND FROM RUSSIA INTO GERMANY

From Auswartiger Handel, Statistik des Deutschen Reichs

1907

1908

1909

1910

191 1

1912

Cents

Cents

Cents

Cents

Cents

Cents

per Ib.

per Ib.

per Ib.

per Ib.

per Ib.

per Ib.

Belgium

s • 96

4- 75

8.74

8 . 93 -

8 . 30

12 . OQ

Bulgaria.

7.66

7 -48

10 . 95

Denmark

5-63

4-74

9-79

9-37

7.66

10.67

France

6.25

5.40

7. 19

9-45

8.72

II .56

Italy

5-79

5-4°

8.76

8.06

9-17

10.63

Netherlands

S./8

5-39

6.54

6.46

8.77

ii . 14

Austria-Hungary . . .

5-34

4-75

7-73

8.50

8.57

ii .58

Roumania

5.84

4-75

9.60

8.24

8.08

17-64

Russia in Europe .. .

5.56

5-i8

9.23

10. O2

9.63

11-54

Sweden

5 • 74

4 • 76

10 . 80

9.01

7 • 70

8.83

Servia

9.88

9.08

6.37

6.40

Spain

6.24

5-39

7-95

9-77

9.46

13 13

Canada

7.28

United States

6.25

5-40

7-31

7.28

7-46

9.07

Average

5 . 7 1

5 • °5

8 . 01

8.55

8.47

11.07

Russia to Germany.

5.6i

5.i8

4-54

8.63

4.86

18-35

118

SUGAR-BEET SEED

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120

SUGAR-BEET SEED

FRANCE

SUGAR-BEET SEED
Excerpt from Die Deutsche Zuckerindustrie, Ap. 14, 1916, p. 41

IMPORTS.

EXPORTS.

1916

iQiS

1914

1913

1916

1915

1914

1913

Bags

20

Bags
44.400

Bags
93,800

Bags
86,020

Bags
900

Bags
5,58o

Bags

49,720

Bags
30,420

EXPORTS OF RUSSIAN SUGAR-BEET SEED INTO
GERMANY, 1907 TO 1913 INCLUSIVE

Years.

Bags.

U. S. Pounds.

Total Value
in Dollars.

Value in
Cents per Ib.

1907

74.684

8,232,417

462,196

5.61

1908

59,542

6,563,315

340,102

5.18

1909

65,690

7,241,009

328,440

4-54

1910

50,484

5,564,851

480,522

8.63

191 1 *

212,950

23,473,479

1,140,258

4.86

1912

146,322

16,129,074

2,960,006

I8.3S

1913

208,658

23,000,371

Total

818,330

90,204,516

5,711,524

Average Value

6.33

* Severe drouth in Germany.

EXPORTS OF RUSSIAN SUGAR-BEET SEED INTO
AUSTRIA

Year.

Bags.

Total Value
in Dollars.

U. S. Pounds.

Value in
Cents per Ib.

1909

16,316

87,346

1,798,513

4.86

Russia. Excerpted from Ausw&rtige Handel, Statistik des Deutschen Reichs,
Vol. 197, p. 18, for 1907 and 1908. Vol. 231, for 1909, P- S (20-6).
For 1910, 1911, and 1912, Vol. 260, p. 8.

For 1913, Month issue of Ausw&rtige Handel, December, 1913, p. 12.
Austria. Excerpted from Statistik des Deutschen Recihs, issued in 1910, p. 5.

THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW

AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS

WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN
THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY
WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH
DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY
OVERDUE.

13 193

JUN I 1960

MAR 27 1936

APR 281 19$

HECOL.O

^fHT

LD 21-100m-7,'33

.3777

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