BEET. 21 
to 25 pounds of seed per acre. By broad rows there is 
a greater crop of roots per acre, as two or three roots 
may be grown side by side. The seedlings are thinned 
to 1 inch apart in the row; this close thinning dwarfs 
the roots and causes the earlier ripening and hardening 
before frost previously alluded to. 
When taken up for winter storage, the small roots 
are carefully sorted over, all being rejected which dis- 
play any impurity as to type. These small roots are 
planted out the same distance apart as for large roots. 
In growing small roots of Sugar beet seed, the course 
is in the first year to select for seed a dozen large roots 
which have best stood a test made from a great number 
of large roots by chemical analysis of the properties of 
each root. These roots are planted next Spring and 
should yield about one pound of seed to each root. 
The seed from each root is then saved separately, each 
lot being numbered 1, 2, 8, 4, &c. The next spring 
these seeds are sown in separate fields to produce small 
roots (sowing thinly, etc., as directed above), the fields 
being numbered to correspond respectively with the 
various lots of seed. A small sample of each lot of 
seed is also sown in separate rows to produce large 
roots for chemical test as before. Then in accordance 
with the result of the tests made from these large roots, 
the different lots of small roots produced in the fields 
are accepted or rejected, those lots of course being re- 
jected whose large roots failed to stand the test. The 
small roots in the fields accepted are then dug up and 
wintered over in silos, to be planted out in due course 
next spring for production of commercial seed. 
Wintering Roots.—Storing of roots over winter is 
done in pits or silos, made 12 feet or more long, 
18 inches deep, 3 feet wide, being covered with six 
