66 SUGAK BEET SEED. 



the same conditions as previously mentioned, we 

 shall have a concave surface, representing the tip 

 end of beets containing 15 or 16 per cent, of 

 sugar. The necks in the latter case are short 

 and small, but in the previous example, long and 

 thick. It is not well to confound a hairy surface on the 

 outside of sugar beets with small adhering roots, as 

 frequently found. They both, it is true, have the same 

 object in view — extracting from the soil the maximum 

 amount of plant food; but small adhering radicles are 

 frequently an abnormal condition of growth, while the 



Fig. 27. 

 hairy portions are the necessary and essential means of 

 plant or root absorption. During the processes of 

 harvesting, washing, etc., the hairy portions disappear 

 almost entirely before the roots are sent to the sheer; 

 while adhering radicles are generally sufficiently large 

 to resist any operation to which they may be sub- 

 mitted, and subsequently, as previously explained, lead 

 to inferior results in the slicing process. 



In regard to the depression and hairy growth, it 

 is interesting to note that it is generally on the side 

 where there is the greatest distance between roots. 



