PREFACE 



PERHAPS the greatest achievement in plant breed- 

 ing has been reached by those scientists who have 

 directed their study and applied their knowledge to the 

 amelioration of the sugar beet. 



The main object sought in breeding sugar-beet seed 

 has differed from the objects sought in the development 

 of other seeds, in that neither the appearance nor the 

 flavor of the resultant plant or fruit has been the ob- 

 jective; even the increase in size has been of minor 

 importance. The main quest of the scientists who have 

 given their life studies to the amelioration of the beet, 

 has been to change the ratio of its chemical constitu- 

 ents by eliminating a portion of its other substances 

 and replacing them with sugar. 



At the time the beet-sugar industry was established 

 in France by Napoleon Bonaparte, sugar was selling 

 at 30 cents per pound, but with the entrance of the 

 temperate zone as a competitor with the tropics in 

 the production of sugar, the price of that product began 



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