94 



walls of a sugar factory, regardless of the quality. Cousequeutly the 

 Ligher the ])erceutage of sugar iu beets, the lower was tlie tax upou a 

 pound of sugar. Small beets, .small crops, aud high sugar tests often 

 go hand in hand; hence such beets have been sought by purchas- 

 ers, aud the tendency has been to find profit more in the manage- 

 ment of sugar-houses than in operations of the farm. Seedsmen natur- 

 ally aimed to supply the existing demand. 



Improvement of varieties of the sugar-beet in Germany — Methods of 

 breeding. — The following notes, taken personally at the establishment 

 of Dippe Brothers, Quedlinburg, Prussia, will illustrate the extent of 

 the German beet-seed industry and will describe one of the methods of 

 breeding now in actual use. The establishment includes a farm of 5,700 

 acres, all of which is in the highest possible state of cultivation, and a 

 chemical laboratory,with room, equipment, and working force sufficient 

 to test the sugar content of many thousands of samples of beets iu a 

 comparatively short time. One quarter of the farm is devoted each 

 year to the sugar-beet. The beet in its natural condition is an annual, 

 but years of breeding and cultivation have so changed its nature, that 

 at present less than 3 per cent of pedigreed plants develop seed at the 

 close of the first season; that is, less than 3 per cent tend to revert to 

 the original type. Beets known technically as " mothers " are dug iu 

 the fall and stored during the winter ; if they are planted during the 

 spring they will produce seed during the following fall. 



Two radically different varieties are regarded with favor. One, the 

 Vilmorin, is of French, and the other, the Klein Wanzlebeu, of German 

 descent. A standard shape, size, and weight have been fixed as indica- 

 tive of the best development attained by each variety. When the beets 

 are dug in the fall, those which satisfy these standards are stored until 

 the following spring aud are then subjected to chemical analysis. Those 

 which come up to a given standard of sugar content are used for grow- 

 ing seed, the rest are rejected. The method* of obtaining samples of 

 individual beets for analysis is briefly as follows : By means of a special 

 instrument a circular hole is bored into each beet from its " tail " towards 

 its "head," and approximately half an ounce of pulp is thereby re- 

 moved. This is polarized for sugar. If the quantity found exceeds a 

 certain limit the hole in the beet is filled with moist aVdy and the beet is 

 then planted as a " mother," from which a stock of seed is to be 

 secured. 



In the fall of 1880, for example, 113.800 beets were selected aud each 

 one analyzed during March and April, 1687. About 00,000 fell below 

 the chemical standard. The remaining 54,000, which were found to be 

 above grade, were planted as " mothers." The seed from these 

 "mothers" was harvested in the fall of 1887 aud drilled in the spring 



* For detailed expLanations of methods see Bulletin No. 27 of the Division of Chem- 

 istry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, above referred to. 



