SOILS FOK SEED PEODUCTIOX. 125 



position — and may be considered as a uniform whole. 

 The entire area is only 750 acres, which seems small 

 as compared with a western ranch in the United States, 

 but it is not desirable that this seed growing be con- 

 ducted on too extensive a scale, as the details could 

 not then be thoroughly watched. The advantages of 

 this uniformity in soil composition are manifest when 

 analyzing beets cultivated upon it, as the sugar per- 

 centage of the resulting roots is nearl)- the same in one 

 spot as in another. A mother when planted, will give 

 seed of a variety that may be said to be standard 

 or typical. 



If it were possible to introduce upon a large scale 

 what has been accomplished at Besny, it would do 

 away with all discussions between the manufacturer 

 and farmer, as the roots furnished by one grower 

 would be almost exactly the same as those furnished 

 by another. However, this is not possible under 

 existing American conditions, where each cultivator 

 has his own views, and, in his own estimation, knows 

 more than science can teach him. The difference in 

 the sugar qualities of beets from the same seed mav be 

 2 or 6 per cent., and the price paid for the roots varies 

 proportionally. The problem M. Legras set out to 

 accomplish was not an easy one; for portions of his 

 land were poor, and, furthermore, covered with weeds, 

 which had to be eradicated before intensive cultivation 

 could be thought of, as fertilizers would only still fur- 

 ther increase or stimulate their growth. Herein was 

 the wisdom of the owner, whose argument was: "What 

 money I spend on the one hand I shall reap on the 

 other," and this has been accomplished, for there was 

 hardly a weed visible between the rows of beets or 

 mothers during the writer's last visit. The money 

 saved now more than compensates for the first outlay 

 for land cleaning. 



