50 SUGAR-BEET SEED 



devoted exclusively to the production of beet seeds for domestic 

 use. 



" Another point to be considered is that by the importation 

 of foreign seeds there is danger of introducing those fungoid 

 and microbian diseases of beets which have produced such ravages 

 in Europe." 



Such high results did this seed yield that the Oxnard 

 Beet Sugar Company paid the Government 20 cents 

 per pound for all it would sell, or 50 per cent, more 

 than that company then paid for the best foreign 

 seed. 



With such flattering results, obtained under ad- 

 verse circumstances 25 years ago, it is fair to presume 

 that had this work been continued, the United States 

 now would be producing sugar-beet seed which would 

 yield beets materially superior to any now produced 

 in the world. 



In the political upheaval of 1892 Mr. Cleveland 

 became President, and when Sterling Morton assumed 

 the portfolio of Secretary of Agriculture he ordered 

 all Government experimental sugar work abandoned. 

 The Schuyler, Nebraska, and Sterling, Kansas, sugar- 

 beet stations closed their doors. The writer is in- 

 formed that the Medicine Lodge, Kansas, sorghum 

 plant, which had cost $20,000 to build, had a capacity 



