EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 



307 



We have two kinds of sugar beets of such uniform excellence, and 

 character so fixed by long cultivation, that it would seem unnecessary for 

 the farmer to use other kinds in experimental trials. First in this class 

 is the well known German beet, Kleinwanzlebener. Three varieties of 

 this beet have been raised on the College farm this year, and a cut kindly 

 furnished by the Department of Agriculture, at Washington, D. G. (Fig. 

 1), fairly represents a typical specimen of one of them. 



The typical form of the sugar beet is a slim cone, well covered by the 

 soil during growth, and with fine, hair-like roots given off from opposite 

 sides. • 



Fig. 'I.— White Improved Vilmorin Sugar Beet, Wiley, Farmers' 

 Bulletin 52, United States Department of Agriculture. 



The other beet is the Vilmorin (Fig. 3), the favorite sugar beet in 

 France. This is a beet of high quality for manufacturing purposes. 

 In comparing these two varieties of beets with each other, a slight differ- 

 ence is found in favor of the Vilmorin, the average per cent of sugar in 

 1897 in three hundred and thirty-one samples of Kleinwanzlebener was 

 16.40, and in 81 samples of Vilmorin was 16.50, showing an average 

 difference of only one-tenth of a per cent this year. In the trials in 

 1891, the season being less favorable for sugar beet production, fifty- 

 eight samples of Kleinwanzlebener showed an average percentage of 

 sugar of 13.86, while forty-six samples of Vilmorin showed 14.22, a 

 difference of thirty-six hundredths of a per cent in favor of the Vilmorin. 

 The differences in the coefficient of purity between the two varieties in 

 the two years were equally trifling. No one will make a serious mistake 

 by planting either of these sugar beets. 



