The root crops And related Products 325 



wurzel. The root is broadest a short distance beyond 

 the rounded crown, and from this point tapers gradually 

 to the tip. The flesh and stem of the beet are white. 

 The sugar content varies from 5 to 20 per cent, 15 per cent 

 being considered a good sugar content, and the crop is 

 usually not profitable when the percentage of sugar falls 

 below this amount. There can be found no more striking 

 example of the possibilities 

 of crop improvement by the 

 method of selection, than is 

 afforded by the increased 

 sugar content of the beet ac- 

 complished by this method. 

 When the German chemist 

 determined the sugar content 

 of the beet in the middle of 

 the eighteenth century it con- 

 tained less than 6 per cent of 

 sugar. Since that time, by 

 the selection of plants for high 

 sugar content, many crops 

 now yield from 15 to 20 per 

 cent. 



335. Production. — The 

 world's average annual pro- 

 duction of beet sugar for the years 1907-1911 was 6700 

 thousand tons. Of this amount Germany's annual pro- 

 duction was slightly more than 2 million tons, or almost 

 one-third of the world's production ; Russia, during the 

 same period, producing approximately 1400 thousand tons, 

 and Austria-Hungary 1250 thousand tons, the total pro- 

 duction of these three countries being more than two- 

 thirds that of the entire world. The average annual pro- 



FiG. 119. — A sugar beet. 



