198 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Rural New Yorker No. 2 — Has been the standard commercial variety for many- 

 years, but owing to its inferior quality, other varieties are- fast taking its place. 



Sweet Home — Is of superior quality, but seems to lack in productiveness. 



White Brooks — Vines strong growers with a spreading habit and fairly pro- 

 ductive Tubers -v^'hite, of the Burbank type, and inclined to grow rough, which is 

 a serious objection from a commercial standpoint. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SUGAR BEETS IN 1903. 



C. D. SMITH, DIUECTOB. 

 Bulletin No. 215. 



SUMMARY. 



1. The variation in sugar content of adjacent beets in the same row grown from 

 the same seed under identical conditions, is so great as to make the gathering 

 of samples certain to accurately represent the whole plot, or a whole field, in per 

 cent of sugar, extremely difficult if not impossible. In the case reported in this 

 bulletin this difference in sugar content of adjacent beets amounted to over 3% in 

 one instance and frequently over 2%- Had the average sugar content of the plot 

 been estimated from every fifth beet it would have been more than 1% different from 

 the estimate made from the analysis of every sixth beet. It is unsafe therefore to 

 draw conclusions as to the estimated amount of sugar in a field of beets from the 

 analysis of ten or even twenty samples taken either at random or systematically 

 from the field. 



2. The shrinkage in weight of beets sent to the station by mail for analysis is 

 sufficient to make a gain of from 3% to 4:^2% in sugar content It is not safe 

 therefore, to judge of the sugar content of a field of beets by tests made at a dis- 

 tant laboratory unless careful record is made of the weights of the beets when 

 taken from the ground and upon arrival at the laboratory. 



3. Lifting the beets seems to prevent, in one instance, the change of composi- 

 tion of the beets so treated and leads to the probability that thus treating a field 

 of beets at the conclusion of a long hot, dry period and preceding rain will prevent 

 the usaal extreme decline in sugar content due to the second growth which takes 

 place when the tap root is left undisturbed. 



4. The weight of the tops and crowns constitute from 40% to 44% of the weight 

 of the topped roots; the crowns approximately 20% and the leaves the same. 



5. The farmer has but little control over the per cent of sugar in his beets. 

 If he grows them on undigested muck or apply nitrate of soda after the first of 

 July, he may increase the tonnage at the expense of the per cent of sugar, other- 

 wise he can Influence but little, if any, the quality of the crop. The richness in 

 sugar depends upon the season, the presence or absence of long periods of con- 

 tinuous sunshine, next upon the soil, the sandy loams giving richer beets in one 

 season and the clay loams on another, and finally upon the seed. The seed fur- 

 nished the farmer by the factory should be such as to be prepotent in three direc- 

 tions. It should produce a good tonnage; next, it should produce beets rich in 

 sugar under all ordinary circumstances, on good soil, with a normal season; next, 

 it should produce a crop of beets of uniform richness, that is, one beet should 

 not be rich and th^ next poor in sugar. The experiments reported in former bul- 

 letins and in this one show that the beet seed received at the average Michigan 

 factory does not fulfill all three of these conditions' Beet seed as sent out by the 

 factories is imported from a foreign country. It is supposed to be a product of 

 many generations of careful selection and scientific breeding. The abilty to pro- 

 duce beets of uniform excellence is not yet sufficiently fixed to warrant the expecta- 

 tion, that, where a field is sown to beet seed either imported or grown in America, 

 the beets will all, or the majority of the beets contain 15% of sugar or more. 



