288 THE FORAGE AND FIBER CROPS IN AMERICA 



to 1850 the selection of sugar beets was by external characters 

 alone, but there seems to be good evidence to believe that some 

 progress was made in increasing the sugar content. In France, 

 from 1805 to 1815, the sugar extracted was reported to be 3 per 

 cent., in 1829 5 per cent., while in 1904 it was 11.5 per cent. 

 The content of sugar in the juice of sugar beets is reported to 

 have been about n per cent, in 1860, about 12 per cent, in 1870-2, 

 and about 14 per cent, in 1885, and 16 to 17 per cent, in 1904, 

 with individual roots as high as 25 per cent. 



Having selected a number of roots possessing the desired 

 external characters, a core of the root is extracted by means 

 of a "trier" inserted in a slanting direction from the shoulder. 

 The juice of the core is then analyzed and the roots which show 

 the desired percentage of sugar are retained for producing seed. 

 Immediately after coring, the hole may be filled with charcoal, 

 clay, or cotton batting dipped in formalin to prevent infection of 

 diseases. Different varieties or strains should be planted sepa- 

 rately, as the beet probably cross-pollinates rather freely. 



362. History. Manjgraff, of Austria, in 1747 demonstrated 

 that beets contain crystallizable sugar, and Archard, of Berlin, 

 in 1797 announced that sugar could be extracted from them. The 

 first factory was erected in Silesia in 1805 ; but it was not until 

 1825 in France, and 1835 in Germany that the manufacture of 

 sugar from beets became an established industry. Fifty years 

 later three million tons of sugar were manufactured annually 

 in Europe. In recent years about one-half the sugar produced 

 in the world comes from beets. The principal beet sugar pro- 

 ducing countries are Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, and 

 Russia. 



More or less continuous attempts in the production of sugar 

 from beets have been made in various sections of the coun- 

 try since 1863. The total annual production is about 200,000 

 tons, chiefly in California, Colorado, Michigan, and Utah. 

 In this country the economical production of the beets is the 





