66 THE SUGAR BEET. 



number of farmers cannot understand the importance 

 of cultivating. The yield per acre in all cases, it is true, 

 is much less than with those just mentioned, but the 

 percentage of sugar is greater, hence a sort of com- 

 pensation. Those that have grown beets in America 

 frequently argue that with the ruta-baga^ or the mangel 

 wurzel the percentage of each in sugar is less, but the 

 yield greater, and, all calculations made, more sugar 

 can be obtained from a given area than with the finer 

 quality (where the roots are small). Even if this were 

 true for feeding purposes it is absurd when the manu- 

 facturer's interest is at stake, as it is generally forgot- 

 ten that the amount of water is greater, and the foreign 

 substance also. The first must be evaporated and the 

 second gotten rid of, as the elements other than sugar 

 (when in great quantities, as those that we have grown 

 in the United States) have a chemical action, changing 

 this into glucose or non-cry stallizable sugar. 



In Europe also it is frequently impossible to con- 

 vince the farmer of these facts. This being the case, 

 contracts are made where given seeds are to be planted. 

 But even then frauds occur, and it is found that the 

 only possible plan to obtain good results is for the 

 manufacturer to sow the seeds after the ground has 

 been tilled by the farmer for that purpose. As may 

 be imagined, here a most difficult problem presents 

 itself: this consists in giving satisfaction to both in- 



' This is a Swedish turnip, and contains seldom over two per cent, of sugar. 



