10 



Nearly all the samples received were from distant States, requiring for 

 packages of this kind from three to eight days in the mails. Although 

 the beets were in most cases well wrapped according to direction, our 

 experiments have shown that they must have lost a considerable quantity 

 of moisture by evaporation during their long transit. The data, there- 

 fore, showiug the content of sugar in the juice would be uniformly too 

 high for normal beets. It is estimated that not less than 10 to 15 per 

 cent should in general be subtracted from the yield of sugar to express 

 the normal percentage of sugar in the beets as originally harvested. 



On account of the great number of samples received it was imprac- 

 ticable to determine the content of sugar directly in the beet pulp, 

 either by cold instantaneous diffusion or by alcohol extraction. Re- 

 course was had to the simpler method of calculating the quantity of 

 sugar in the beet from the percentage of sugar found in the juice. This 

 quantity was obtained by multiplying the percentage of sugar in the 

 juice by 95 on the assumption that the beet contained 95 per cent of 

 juice and 5 per cent of pulp. It is possible that, for the reasons above 

 mentioned, this result is also too high, inasmuch as the beets having 

 dried out would probably contain a larger percentage of pulp than that 

 mentioned. At any rate the numbers give for all practical purposes 

 the percentage of sugar which the beets contained and it was not 

 intended that the analyses should be scientifically accurate. The com- 

 parisons among the beets received from different parts of the country 

 must be considered just, with the exceptions before noted that some of 

 them being longer in transit than others would suffer a greater loss of 

 water. For this reason it would be expected that beets received from 

 Washington and Oregon would show an apparently higher content of 

 sugar than beets of equal original richness received from Maryland or 

 Virginia. 



The work of the Department has certainly resulted in great good in 

 interesting people in all parts of the country in the problem of sugar- 

 beet culture. The Secretary of Agriculture has, however, decided not 

 to make as large a distribution of sugar-beet seed in the manner 

 practiced during the past two years, but to concentrate his efforts in 

 the development of a sugar-beet station, in which practical illustrations 

 can be given of the very best methods of sugar-beet culture and the 

 selection of mothers for the production of a high grade of seed. 



In arranging the analyses of the samples of beets which have been sent 

 in, they have been collected together by States an din the States by coun- 

 ties. The counties have been arranged alphabetically and all the samples 

 from each county considered together and an average of the data from 

 each county has been obtained. The averages for the States are made 

 by samples, which gives the mean composition of all the beets in the State. 

 In regard to the data by States it must be remembered that they can not 

 be taken to represent actually the possibilities of each State in the 

 growth of sugar beets. In the first place, the results of a single year 



