32 The Sugar-Beet in America 



a rigid selection in order to keep the beets up to as high 

 a production of sugar as possible. With no crop are the 

 requirements more exacting. 



Climatic conditions affect very much the amount of 

 sugar stored in beets. Seed out of the same bag may one 

 year produce beets having but 14 per cent sugar, and 

 another year 18 per cent. Some of the factors entering 

 into seasonal effects may be controlled ; others cannot. 

 Moisture, which greatly affects not only the yield but also 

 the quality of the beets, may be controlled by irrigation. 

 This is discussed more fully in Chapter X. 



Many attempts have been made to point out correla- 

 tions between the shape of beet and its sugar-content, 

 but these have not been very successful. If there were 

 correlations of this kind it would save a great deal of 

 chemical work in selecting beets with a high sugar-content. 



RELATION OF SIZE OF BEET TO SUGAR-CONTENT 



The relation between size and percentage of sugar has 

 long been a subject of study. Observations have shown 

 that often very large beets are low in sugar and the small 

 ones high. In order to determine the exact correlation 

 between these two factors the Utah Experiment Station ^ 

 made tests extending over several years and including 

 nearly seven thousand individual beets. The results of 

 that test are summarized in Table II, which shows the 

 number of beets of each weight and sugar-content. A 

 definite negative correlation is shown, although it is not 



' Harris, F. S., and Hogenson, J. C, "Some Correlations in 

 Sugar-Beets," Genetics, Vol. I, July, 1916, pp. 334-347. 



