BEQUIREMENTS OF SUGAK BEET SEED. 27 



As the financial returns of a sugar factory depend 

 very largely upon the quality of btets furnished b}' the 

 farmers, it is in justice to the grower that he have at 

 his disposal those varieties of seed that will give the 

 most encouraging results. It is a disgraceful fact that 

 many beet-seed dealers have furnished on several occa- 

 sions, and continue the practice, seed that either would 

 not germinate or else is a mixture of fresh and old 

 seed, or, again, of a quality other than that ordered, 

 the buyer being misled by the label on the bag. It 

 has frequently happened that the demand has been 

 greater than the supply, and without hesitation the 

 difficulty has been met by dishonest methods of pur- 

 chasing from some other seed grower the requisite 

 amount, and mixing this seed, obtained elsewhere, with 

 the kind delivered under the name of the seller. 



From what has just been said, the first question 

 to be considered when purchasing beet seed is the sci- 

 entific methods of selection adopted by the grower, 

 and the next questions which are of equal importance, 

 is to determine whether all seed sold under a grower's 

 name is or is not actually produced by him, whether 

 it has the age claimed, or whether it is of the variety 

 represented to be by the contract of sale. In what fol- 

 lows in these pages, an outline is given of what a supe- 

 rior seed consists, with rules regulating the sale, the 

 best methods for moisture, impurities and germination 

 determinations. If these tests are made, the purchaser 

 will have some protection, and not be misled as he has 

 frequently been. Upon general principles, it may be 

 admitted that seed growers who have not a specialty 

 cannot give the same attention to beet-seed production 

 as a specialist, and all arguments to the contrary are 

 simply misleading. During the past twenty years the 

 editor of The Sugar Beet has watched the results 

 obtained from seed furnished by European and .Ameri- 

 can dealers, and, strange as it mav seem, there are not 



