14 Breeding Plants and Animals. 



which through the expenditure of hundreds of thou- 

 sands of dollars, has created millions of added wealth. 

 The per cent of sugar in the juice of the common beet 

 has been increased from six to fifteen per cent, or 150 

 per cent increase of sugar, and the solids other than 

 sugar have been materially decreased, making the puri- 

 fication of the sugar less expensive. This breeding has 

 rendered it possible for growers of sugar t>eets to make 

 profits, for factories to conduct a paying business, and 

 for the people of the. world to enjoy sugar at a less 

 price. The growers of sugar beet seeds in Europe 

 have their work of breeding highly developed, but even 

 in sugar beets American plant breeders have an oppor- 

 tunity for profitable employment. We need varieties 

 adapted to numerous local conditions and the seeds can 

 best be bred under conditions similar to those where 

 the crops of sugar beets are to be grown. Eu- 

 ropean varieties, long bred for a climate with less sun- 

 shine, a moister atmosphere, cooler nights, and with 

 cooler soils with moisture nearer the surface, are hardly 

 adapted to our sunnier climate. What is wanted is 

 tonnage of sugar per acre and to get this we must 

 have larger yields of sugar beets than we now have 

 from European seeds. Our warm dry climate will usu- 

 ally give quality ; we must work more for size of roots. 

 Unlike Europe we can easier secure richness of juice 

 than size and yield. Factories have been so perfected 

 that high percentage of sugar and low percentage of 

 solids not sugar are not so essential as formerly. For 

 the farmer to secure more profit per acre he must in- 

 crease the yield of sugar per acre. Taking the best sug- 

 ar-yielding varieties now obtainable from Europe as his 

 foundation stock the scientific sugar beet seed grower 

 in this country needs to work for yields mainly through 

 somewhat increasing the size of the roots, keeping up, 

 however, and even increasing that of England. Only 

 part of this difference is attributable to the fact that 

 England has a wheat climate and America a corn cli- 

 mate. Part is due to the fact that for centuries Europe 



