i^ SUGAR BEET SEED. 



very much lighter, the average weight being 0.533 kilo, 

 contained only 11 to 12 per cent. Vilmorin, during his 

 early efforts at selection, introduced the method of tak- 

 ing from the beet a cylindrical piece with an instru- 

 ment similar to an apple-corer. 



2d. Density of a Piece of Beet. — That the sample 

 could be taken from the beet without changing its keep- 

 ing qualities, providing that the hole made be at once 

 filled with sand, was an important progress compared 

 with the old methods. The cylinders of Blount 

 were placed in a series of vases and filled with sugar 

 and water; these solutions contained 7, 8, 9, 10 to 15 

 per cent, of sugar. 



The selection of roots based on the density of the 

 core taken from the beet continued to be in vogue for 

 many years, the baths subsequently used having densi- 

 ties of 105.0, 106.0, 107.0 and 108.0;* the small cylinders 

 were frequently cut into four pieces. Dervaux-Ibled 

 devised a method of selection, using saline baths in 

 tanks of much smaller dimensions than those previ- 

 ously described. It had been noticed that if a sample 

 of root be taken perpendicular to the axis, at about 

 one-third the height from the neck, its density wouldbe 

 one degree to 1.2 degrees less than the juice. If the 

 samples were floated in a saline bath of 106, the con- 

 clusion then was that the beet had a density of 107 

 to 107.2. The roots were first selected on the fields by 

 exterior signs alone. The small vases, containing only 

 200 to 300 grams of salt water, were placed in numer- 

 ous hands, which allowed 3000 to 4000 beets to be 

 selected per diem. The evident advantage over the 

 whole-beet method was, that the roots were not neces- 

 sarily cleansed or the leaves removed, while the econ- 

 omv of time and labor was considerable. The baths 



*The above manner of writing the densities instead of placing thfr 

 decimal after the first fianre. was that adopted by those who were- 

 "working by that special method of selection. 



