32 SUGAR-BEET SEED 



HARVESTING, THRESHING AND CLEANING 

 SUGAR-BEET SEED 



As with the seed from selected mother beets, the 

 seed which grows from the steckling ripens unevenly, 

 that on some stalks being ripe while on other stalks 

 from the same beet the seed is quite green. This 

 necessitates going over the fields several times. 



As the stalks are cut, they are stacked in bundles 

 to dry, after which they are threshed with an ordinary 

 threshing machine in which the speed of the cylinder 

 has been reduced. The seed then is conveyed to 

 storage warehouses. The weight of seed and stalks 

 per acre runs from two to six thousand pounds, which 

 yields from 1200 to 2500 pounds of seed. In Ger- 

 many the yield is 1600 to 1800 pounds; in Russia, 

 1200 to 1400 pounds. 



In the warehouses the seed is passed over vibrat- 

 ing sieves to remove the dirt, weed seed, and very 

 small beet-seed balls, and through winnowing machines, 

 or fanning mills to remove the dust, blossoms, and 

 light, undeveloped seed. Ordinarily, it is an easy 

 matter to remove all but a small fraction of i per 

 cent, of the inert matter, but as the "Magdeburger 

 Normen," under which the seed is sold, allows. 3 per 



