CHAPTER XXIII 

 SUGAR PLANTS 



592. Introduction. The two leading sugar plants of the 

 world are the sugar beet and sugar cane. Sugar cane has 

 been cultivated for many centuries; the development of the 

 sugar-beet industry dates back little more than a hundred 

 years. The cultivation of sugar cane is confined to the 

 tropical and semitropical portions of the world; the sugar 

 beet is a plant which succeeds best in temperate climates. 

 At the present time, the world's production of sugar is about 

 equally divided between these two crops. For the year 

 1910-11, the production of cane sugar was 8,522,000 tons, 

 while that of beet sugar was 8,576,000 tons. 



THE SUGAR BEET 



593. History and Description. Reference has already 

 been made to the sugar beet in the chapter on root forage 

 crops; it is one of the several forms of Beta vulgaris, of which 

 the mangel is another. The sugar beet is a broad-leaved 

 plant with a long tap root. The upper part of this root and 

 the base of the stem are thickened; the root is broadest a 

 little below the crown and tapers very gradually, as shown 

 in Fig. 139. The flesh and skin of the sugar-beet root are 

 white ; the root grows almost entirely below the surface. A 

 good root weighs from 1 to \ l /% pounds, and contains about 

 20 per cent of solids, of which about four-fifths are sugar. 

 The plant is a biennial; seed is produced by storing the ronts 

 over winter and setting them out tho following spring. 



