CULTURE OF THE SUGAR BEET. 



73 



Other tests gave — 



Percentage of sugar in roots : 



"height of leaves per 100 pounds. 



15.4 58 



15.2 63 



14 1 52 



14.7 ... 62 



13.1 31 



13.8 26 



13.5 36 



12.4 25 



11.8 - 26 



These are the principal external characteristics which seem to have an 

 influence upon the composition and value of the beet, and for the de- 

 scription of the varieties finding- greater favor in France and most ex- 

 tensively grown we shall quote from the writing of Mons. H. Vilmorin. 



It is generally admitted that the saccharine richness of heets is inversely pro- 

 portional to their volume. Taken in a general way this proposition expresses 

 a truth, hut it is certain that selection judiciously applied may cause a varia- 

 tion of this relation, and enrich a given race of heets without diminishing either 

 the volume or the yield. It is in modifications of this kind that we should seek the 

 practical improvement of the heet, and the end proposed is to create, at different 

 degrees of the scale, races of beets uniting with a given yield the maximum saccharine 

 richness compatible with that yield. 



The search for a beet which shows at the same time a maximum of product and a 

 maximum of richness is a chimera, and the sooner its pursuit is relinquished the 

 more will disappointment and useless endeavor be avoided. In fact, high saccharine 

 richness is necessarily allied to a great abundance of leaves and rootlets, and beets 

 rich in rootlets and leaves cannot become voluminous without becoming deformed and 

 losing the external qualities of regularity and cleanliness which are in a great meas- 

 ure indispensable to a good race of sugar beets. 



Starting out, therefore, with the idea that the different circumstances in which the 

 manufacturer or the grower finds himself placed demand 

 different beets, let us examine the really known varieties ^\P'// 



and what they may become under the influence of skilfully x \mrf 



applied selection. 



The White Silesian sugar beet (Fig. 1), origin and point 

 of departure of all the other varieties, is still preferred above 

 all in a large part of Europe. It is a race of medium size, ^SBk ^ 

 almost entirely buried, with white skin, slightly wrinkled, 

 leaves rather spreading than erect. It is rich in sugar, gen- 

 erally containing 12 to 14 per cent. Its yield in good con- 

 ditions is about 20 tons per acre. It is perfectly adapted 

 to close culture, and does not require very deep soils. Cul- 

 tivated in France for some years, it has increased in volume, W^^* 

 and has come to yield easily 22 to 23 tons per acre. Xow 

 that there is a tendency to return to beets rich in sugar, the 

 acclimated ichite German beet is one of the varieties most 

 recommended. 



Of this there exist several sub-varieties, obtained by se- 

 lection. We cite among the most distinct the Magdeburg. 

 rather small, but long and very regular: the Breslau, shorter 

 and more swollen; the Imperial beet (Fig. 2), obtained by Yu.l.— White Silesian Beet. 

 Knauer, which is long, regularly tapering, having the form of a carrot, foliage light- 



