92 THE SUGAR BEET. 



root ; these representing the older leaves, we may con- 

 clude that they have furnished the larger portion of the 

 saccharine elements.^ These facts being known, we 

 consider that the quality of beets for sugar manufac- 

 ture improves with the number and weight of its leaves. 

 A series of experiments made by the writer and others^ 

 will be sufficient to demonstrate the seriousness of this 

 hypothesis. 



The roots which we analyzed gave the following 

 results ; — 



Saccharine i>ercentage For 100 lbs. of beets 



in the root. weight of leaves. 



15.0 55 lbs. 



14.8 *. 53 " 



14.T 5T " 



14.3 52 " 



14.0 50 " 



13.7 45 " 



12.0 41 " 



Such being the case, we made sevei-al new tests, and 

 found that it not only held good for a given weight of 

 roots, but for each one in particular. 



• See " Study of the Sugar Beet." 



2 Experiments by Champignon and Pellett : — 



1st. 



2d. 



( Grams vilmorin ameliorfee 

 ■I Simon Legrand 

 [ Ordinary 

 f Ordinary seed 

 I Ordinary eulture , 



For 100 k. of root Sugar per cent. 



(224 lbs. ) . in the root. 

 . 50" of leaves. 14.5 



. 33 " 13.3 



. 20 " 11.8 



• . 52 " 13.2 



.28 " 11.8 



