38 SUGAK BEET SEED. 



by a lot of high-sounding names of varieties almost 

 without Hmit, supposed to give excellent results upon 

 any and every soil in most varied climes. In justice to 

 those who purchase beet seed, the foregoing may be of 

 interest; all other issues respecting variety of seed, 

 what kind existed, who their growers were, etc., have 

 been discussed in previous writings. Let the Ameri- 

 can manufacturer think twice before he experiments 

 with a variety of beet that has not been accepted by the 

 European beet-sugar manufacturing syndicates. 



Annual Beets. 



Normal sugar beets, as used for sugar manufac- 

 ture, go to seed only after the second year, and for that 

 reason are known as bi-annuals. Many of their roots, 

 however, produce seed the first year, and tlvese are 

 known as annuals. The exact cause of this abnormal 

 phenomenon has never been entirely accounted for. 

 The reversion to lower or original forms is due to 

 atavism and it,'with faulty methods of selection, may be 

 considered the two main causes. The fact is, that roots 

 having small, conical necks have generally an annual 

 tendency; the age of the seed used is also a factor not 

 to be overlooked. Beets, when scientifically selected, 

 should furnish roots which never give more than 2 per 

 cent, annuals. 



As a general rule, it has been noticed that annuals 

 are more numerous on fields which have been sown 

 early. The fact is, the same seed, sown upon the same 

 soil, under exactly the same conditions, hut at different 

 times, at intervals of a few days, will give a dififerent 

 percentage of annuals. If there are open spaces in 

 fields due to too early planting, or other reasons, it is 

 better to fill in these by late sowing and thus reduce 

 the percentage of annuals which would possibly fol- 

 low; beets from late sowing would be perfectly nor- 

 mal. When we compare the conclusions drawn about 



