ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 65 



"But one thing became immediately apparent, and that was 

 that there were no pure strains of sugar beet seed in the country 

 that would give uniform percentages among the individuals of 

 any variety. In even the best varieties individuals were found 

 that differed from one another by 10 per cent sugar in the beet. 

 The enormous waste that would ensue from using such seed may 

 be readily imagined. The poor beets cost just as much to grow 

 as the good ones and they reduced the profits of both farmer and 

 manufacturer. . . . 



"In 1908, 21 more varieties of seed were secured and treated 

 as the first 26. . . . The number rejected on a 15 per cent basis 

 ranged all the way from 50 per cent to 100 per cent. In 1909 we 

 were busy propagating and testing out not only the main lots of 

 beets and seed grown during the past two years, but owing to an 

 early freeze in October we were able to give the first 26 varieties 

 grown as severe a culling as we had given the seeds planted the 

 previous year. . . . The culling was most severe, the rejects often 

 constituted over half the beets analyzed. But this has proven a 

 blessing in disguise. But we commenced to see for the first time 

 that we had made substantial gains in reducing the variation 

 between individuals of the same strain. The variation of 10 per 

 cent had been reduced in most cases to 5 per cent or 6 per cent. 

 In only a very few cases did it rise to 8 per cent, while in some 

 cases it had dropped to 3 per cent or 4 per cent. The mother 

 beets averaged about 15 per cent sugar in the beet. 



"In 1910 we continued the work, analyzing, selecting, and test- 

 ing out the new strains of mothers and seed we had grown. . . . 

 Upwards of 4000 beets were analyzed and classified. Up to this 

 time that work has borne no fruit. But when we came to select 

 our mother beets after analysis we made the satisfactory dis- 

 covery that the individual variation between beets of the same 

 variety was rapidly disappearing. On the basis of 15 per cent the 

 rejects had dwindled down to an average of only 3.4 per cent for 



