222 SUGAR BEET SEED. 



to a European beet farm would make the question very 

 much clearer in their minds. 



The scientific selection of mothers demands, as 

 has been shown in previous pages, a very complete 

 laboratory installation, a chemist and several assist- 

 ants. It means this one question and very little else: 

 To use a soil that happens to be withm easy reach, 

 and cultivate beets upon it; then to make selections 

 of these beets, with the view to seed production, 

 regardless of fertilizer and numerous other requisites. 

 This would, after a term of years, end in obtaining a 

 race of beets very inferior to the mothers representing 

 the original parent. The money outlay for a beet-seed 

 farm under these conditions would be a losing opera- 

 tion, in view of the limited number of factories in the 

 country. Later on, when the industry is more 

 advanced than at present, when at least fifty factories 

 shall exist, some enterprising seed specialist should 

 take the matter in hand; but not until then. 



It has been argued by some writers, that if the 

 beet-manufacturing countries of Europe should refuse 

 to furnish us with beet seed, our factories must cease 

 working. This would require a joint action on the 

 part of Austria, France, Germany and Russia; and for 

 what purpose? To prevent enterprising Americans 

 making their few pounds of beet sugar, which, up to 

 the present, has absolutely no effect upon the world's 

 sugar market ! Every country of Europe is interested 

 in developing the beet-sugar industry in the United 

 States, with the hope that it may create a demand for 

 their sugar machinery; and no better method can be 

 adopted to attain this end than by sending us all the 

 beet seed we may need for years to come. Hence, there 

 need be no apprehensions on that point. 



American Experiments in Beet-Seed Production. 



Of the interesting American experiments in the 

 production of beet seed, mention must be made of those 



