124 BEET-ROOT SUGAR AND 



As soon as the beets are up, thorough cultivation 

 and weeding must be persistently followed. The beets 

 should be earthed up with the double mould-board 

 plough and the hoe, the poorest and weakest flower- 

 stalks removed, and as the seed begins to form, the 

 tips of the stalks should be pinched off. Harvesting is 

 done before the extremities of the seed-bearing branches 

 turn brown. The stalks are cut off near to the ground, 

 bound into small sheaves, containing eight or ten 

 stalks, and kept until they are dry in a sunny and airy 

 place. As soon as the stalks are well dried, the seed 

 is thrashed out, dry, hot weather being more favorable 

 for the operation. It is then winnowed and spread two 

 or three inches deep on a dry and sunny spot, and occa- 

 sionally stirred. When perfectly dry, it is put into 

 sacks, not over a foot wide, and two and a half feet long, 

 with labels attached, to describe the kind of the seed 

 and the date of its production. The sacks are then 

 suspended by cords in a dry, airy loft, in such manner 

 that they do not touch each other, and are inaccessi- 

 ble to rats, which are very fond of the seed. Seed 

 thus saved retains its germinating power for several 

 years. In fact, seed only a year old should not be 

 sown, as it produces beets more liable to " go to seed " 

 than those obtained from old seed. 



In some parts of Germany, after the seed-beets are 

 taken from the pits in which they have been kept 

 through the winter, they are subjected to a test, by 

 which those only having the greatest specific gravity 

 are retained for planting. The beets are all thrown 

 into water, and the earth carefully washed from them ; 

 those which float are rejected, and the rest are reserved 



