622 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



lighter-colored leaves, which are beautifully undulating or scalloped 

 about the edges. Coming from a cross in which the Improved Vil- 

 morin entered largely, the Klein wanzlebener is to-day a fixed variety 

 and is equally well produced in France and Germany. It succeeds 

 in soil of an alluvial nature and average richness and on level pla- 

 teaus. In soils very rich in humus it ripens poorly and loses much 

 of its richness. Like the Improved Vilmorin, toward the end of the 

 growing season its leaves are completely spread. Under those condi- 

 tions of culture where the Improved Vilmorin gives from 12 to 16 

 tons per acre, the Kleinwanzlebener gives from 14 to 18 tons; and 

 from these beets 13 to 18 per cent of sugar can be obtained. 



The Vilmorin is the result of thirty-five years of methodic and 

 persevering selection based upon the lines to be indicated hereafter. 

 In regard to its preservation, it is recognized that it holds its sugar 

 content as well as any other variety. In those factories in Germany 

 and France in which sugar is manufactured from the Improved 

 Vilmorin in connection with other varieties it is the custom to reserve 

 this variety for the end of the season and to work up the less reliable 

 beets at an earlier date. It is also said to resist better than any other 

 variety the unfavorable influence of certain characters of soil and 

 of certain manures. In black soils, rich in organic matter, it gives 

 great results, while most other varieties of beets become watery or 

 saline in excess. Excessive quantities of nitrogenous fertilizers, which 

 are carefully excluded from ordinary varieties, can be applied with 

 safety to the Improved Vilmorin; a great number of experiments 

 have shown that this can be done without serious deterioration in 

 the quality of the beet and with a considerable increase in weight. 

 However, experiments with Kleinwanzlebener beets show that they 

 are also susceptible to the influence of such fertilizers, as is shown 

 by a gain in tonnage when fertilized. From thousands of analyses 

 it has been established that about 16 per cent of sugar can be obtained 

 with the Vilmorin and that under favorable conditions from 12 to 

 16 tons per acre can be raised. In this country considerable quan- 

 tities of beet seed have been grown at Fairfield, Wash., and also by 

 the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company in Utah and Idaho chiefly, in the 

 latter case, for its own use. In California and Michigan also some 

 seed is produced. 



Within the last six years the Department of Agriculture has been 

 doing considerable work in endeavoring to develop a strain of beets 

 bearing single-germ seed balls and in growing seed better adapted 

 to the requirements of this country. Considerable progress has been 

 made along these lines. The farmer growing beets for a factory 

 does not have to consider these points to any great extent, as the fac- 

 tories buy the seed and then furnish it to their growers. It is of 

 prime importance that the factory purchase the best seed, and they 

 are better able to judge as to the kind of seed desired and to test its 

 vitality. (F. B. 52 Revision 1910.) 



Moisture Conditions. Although conditions of temperature 

 must be taken into consideration in selecting sites for beet-sugar fac- 

 tories, those of rainfall must also be studied. The sugar beet requires 



