OTHER USEFUL PLANTS 91 



France, who had learned that the beet produces 

 a sugar chemically identical with that of the. 

 sugar cane, to make inquiry as to whether it 

 might not be possible to grow the beet on a com- 

 mercial scale, and extract its sugar in competi- 

 tion with the product of the cane. 



For a long time the attempt was not attended 

 with great success. But it was finally demon- 

 strated that the sugar beet, even in its then un- 

 developed form, could be made available as a 

 supplier of sugar on a commercial scale, and then 

 the attempt began to be made to develop vari- 

 eties of beet having a larger sugar content. 



It is said that the beets at first used contained 

 only about six per cent of sugar. 



But by most careful scientific selection through 

 a series of generations it has proved possible to 

 increase the sugar content of the beet, just as the 

 length of fiber of the cotton boll was increased, 

 merely by paying heed generation after genera- 

 tion to the individual plants that showed the best 

 qualities, and saving the seed of these plants 

 only for the raising of future crops. 



Year by year the sugar content of the best 

 varieties of beets was increased until from 6 per 

 cent it had advanced to 20 per cent, and in the 

 case of some individual beets even to 35 per 

 cent; and in a few cases as high as 36 per cent 



