72 SUGAR-BEET SEED 



to obviate the necessity of thinning, by passing the 

 seed-balls through a grater and cracking them into 

 several parts. Some of this cracked seed was placed 

 on the American market, but did not give satisfactory 

 results. The drawbacks to this method were both 

 numerous and serious. Some of the seed germs were 

 destroyed in the cracking machine. Others were ex- 

 posed and the function of the beet-ball to regulate 

 the germination was destroyed. The oxalates in the 

 beet-ball did not perform their function of protecting 

 the young plant from its micro-enemies. And finally, 

 unless a large portion of the germs were ruined, it was 

 impossible so to crack the balls but that many of the 

 pieces contained more than one germ and the field 

 had to be thinned as usual. 



With these experiments in mind, the writer cracked 

 open and examined thousands of beet-seed balls and 

 finally concluded that the only manner in which 

 the desired result might be attained would be to breed 

 a single-germ beet-ball. If the botanists could change 

 the whole nature of the beet's seeding habit and induce 

 it to become a biennial instead of an annual, why 

 could they not change its habit of growing more than 

 one seed in a ball. 



The value of such a seed scarcely could be measured 



