SOILS FOR SEED PRODUCTIOIf. 



133 



Preparing Soil, Planting of Mothers, and Care 

 During Their Development. 



When the cultivation for the reception of mothers ^ 

 is considered, it is generally found that the best results 

 are obtained when these beets follow wheat in the 

 rotation. We shall now take as an excellent practice, 

 that which we found at the Besny farm. It must not 

 be forgotten that sugar-beet cultivation for an 

 adjoining factory at Laon has attained a degree of 

 perfection quite equal to that of the separate 

 agricultural question of seed growing. For, if mothers 



riG. 45. Plan of field, showing position of mothers. 



are not of a high saccharine quality, the resulting seed 

 will not be, and, as by Legras's method of selection, all 

 roots under 14 per cent, sugar are not used, the 

 average obtained is considerably above fourteen. 



To attempt the creation of a variety of beet that 

 demands great depth of soil, would certainly never 

 have become popular, and would have been a mistake, 

 but to centre all efforts on an average type suitable to 

 a soil not too deep, nor too shallow, fulfilling the 

 requirements of most cases, is what has been sought 



