PREPAKING SEED BEFORE SOWING. 



195 



beet, and diminish its saccharine quality, while on the 

 other hand, the nearer together the roots are, the more 

 numerous they are, on a given area, and their total 

 weight per acre is not much inferior to that obtained 

 with greater distance. The importance of keeping the 

 roots with the least possible space between one and 

 another was a question insisted upon nearly loo years 

 ago, and since then each country has taken up the 

 question in turn. In France, the Pellet experiments 



The most important series of investigations yet made respecting 

 Bpacing are those of Petermann (Belgium). 

 Tlie experiments were about as foJlows : 



with Vilmorin seed showed that at 7.9 inches between 

 rows the beets weighed 12.4 ounces and contained 

 14.2 per cent, sugar, while at 23.6 inches thev weighed 

 2.6 lbs. and contained 3.6. From which it may be con- 

 cluded that the best results are at 15.7 x 9.8 inches; less 

 than this is not desirable. Schultz (Germany) claims 

 that the best results are at distances of 14.4 inches 

 between rows and 12 inches spacing of roots in rows. 

 One fact is certain, that if only 13.7 inches are between 



