108 THE SEED-GROWER. 



In Europe, the beet-sugar industry has been vastly 

 promoted by carefulness through selection in breeding 

 varieties that yield the greatest percentage of sugar. 

 As performed, a test is made of the beet roots selected 

 for seed by cutting out a small cylinder of the flesh, 

 and ascertaining by polarization the richness of sugar 

 content. The doing of this does not injure the root for 

 planting. 



The care that is taken in this testing may be imagined 

 when it is said that in one season a firm in Europe 

 tested nearly three million roots, from which number 

 about three thousand were selected for seed-growing 

 purposes, or about one root out of every one thousand 

 tested. 



The Blanche Ferry sweet pea was discovered some 

 years ago by a lady in northern New York in her gar- 

 den. She had noticed a particularly bright-colored 

 flower in a row of the old "Painted Lady." This plant 

 she selected and carefully saved its seeds, which were 

 sown next year. For about ten successive years she 

 continued to grow only this variety in her little garden, 

 always saving her seed from the best plants. Its beauty 

 was finally brought to the attention of a certain seeds- 

 man, who purchased a quantity of the seeds from which 

 a crop was produced, and the variety was then intro- 

 duced by him to the world as the Blanche Ferry. 



Darwin relates of selection, that Williamson, after 

 sowing, during several years, seeds of Anemone Cor- 

 onaria, found a plant with one additional petal. He 

 saved the seeds of this and by persevering in the same 

 course, obtained several varieties with six or seven rows 

 of petals. The single Scotch rose was doubled, and 

 yielded eight good varieties in nine or ten years. The 

 Canterbury Bell was doubled by careful selection in 

 four generations. 



