EEQUIKEMEXTS OF SUGAR BEET SEES. 41 



Pagnoul asserts that there is not much differ- 

 ence in the percentage of juice in normal bi-annuals 

 and annuals; in fact, the purity of the beet is much 

 greater in the latter; which is explained by the pass- 

 age of many of the alkaline salts, and even phosphoric 

 acid, to the upper part of the root, or neck, to meet the 

 requirements of seed formation. During the flowering 

 period the entire effort of the plant is centred on the 

 flower and the resulting fruit. The sugar found in the 

 leaves of normal beets is 0.16 per cent, to 0.53 per cent, 

 and 1.07 to 0.46 per cent, in annuals. In beets in gen- 

 eral, the sugar is formed in the leaves and descends to 

 the root; this descent is evidently not so complete in 

 annuals. Correnwinder's experiments show that seeds 

 from annuals contain very little albumen, which fact 

 partly explains why annuals, even after the formation 

 of seed, have a normal sugar percentage. The seed 

 from annuals yield very poor beets. The cellulary tissue 

 is transformed into fibrous, which renders the utiliza- 

 tion of such beets almost impossible at the factory, and 

 they should always be rejected. All efforts in the direc- 

 tion of suppression of the stalk as soon as it appears 

 seem to be futile, and such beets for sugar manufac- 

 ture would be inferior to roots where the conditions 

 of seed formation are allowed to continue. A series ■ 

 of experiments were undertaken by Contamine, which 

 showed that the expense of the suppression was con- 

 siderable; furthermore, the annuals become even more 

 fibrous than they were, with the stalk frequently four 

 feet in height. 



Some interesting experiments have been made 

 with the view to determine the influence of the weight 

 of mothers upon the number of roots going to seed 

 the first year, and obtained from seed grown under 

 same conditions and having same sugar percentage. 

 Those beets, weighing about one-half pound each, for 

 some unknown reason had the annual tendency to a far 



