The Sugar-Beet Plant 31 



cell to cell and are distributed independent of the amount 

 of sucrose present. 



FACTORS AFFECTING PERCENTAGE OF SUGAR 



The amount of sugar contained in the beet is of the 

 highest importance to the manufacturer of beet-sugar. 

 The same expense is attached to handling the beets and 

 running them through the mill if they contain 10 per cent 

 sugar as if they contain 20 per cent. The expense of 

 refining and handling the larger quantity of sugar is only 

 slightly greater in the latter case, whereas the returns 

 would be almost double. Beets low in sugar cannot be 

 handled at a profit ; the life of the industry depends on 

 getting roots sufficiently rich in sugar to justify its ex- 

 traction. 



A number of factors modify the amount of sugar pres- 

 ent. Probably the most important of these is the breed- 

 ing, or heredity, of the strain. When Marggraf first ex- 

 tracted sugar from beets in 1747 the amount of sugar 

 contained was low, but a hundred and fifty years of care- 

 ful breeding has increased the amount by several times. 

 One reason why the beet-sugar industry was not able to 

 continue after protection was removed following the 

 downfall of Napoleon was that strains of beets were not 

 available with a sufficiently high sugar-content. Only 

 after better varieties were developed in Germany was it 

 possible to extract sugar from the beet at a profit. 



The commercial strains now on the market differ widely 

 in the amount of sugar they produce under the same 

 climatic and soil conditions. It is necessary to continue 



