Sugar Beets. 105 



Since the method of polarization was introduced the 

 progress of the sugar beet has been slow but continuous. 

 But it must not be concluded from this that the present 

 maximum could not have been reached in a few genera- 

 tions. At any rate we are not justified in deriving this 

 conclusion from the evidence at hand. Progress has 

 obviously been due to the steady improvement in meth- 

 ods of selection. This has consisted first in the inven- 

 tion of the boring cylinder which enables us to polarize 

 directly the beets to be selected; Vilmorin and his im- 

 mediate followers had to sacrifice the whole beet to their 

 chemical analysis, and then to select others, resembling 

 the best ones in specific gravity, for cultivation. And 

 secondly by employing larger and larger groups to 

 choose from, (in the best factories every year more than 

 100,000 beets). For it is evident that the larger number 

 there is to choose from, the greater chance is there of 

 finding desirable ones. 



Beets have been selected not merely with regard to 

 their saccharine contents but also with regard to their 

 external features. This takes place in the field at the 

 time of harvest, that is to say, before polarization. In 

 most factories about %o are thrown away in this process 

 and onl}^ %o saved. Breeders are of the opinion that on 

 the whole this %o includes plants inferior in respect to 

 their saccharine contents and that by this selection a 

 beneficial effect on the percentage of sugar itself is 

 brought about. -^ In this preliminary selection attention 

 is paid first to the leaves; the features dealt with being 

 their shape, their size and the angle which they make 

 with the zenith, as well as the general features which 

 control assimilation, transpiration and the non-retention 



*v. RiJMKER, Zuckerrilhensuchtung, p. 5. 



