226 



SUGAR BEET SEED. 



The only solution would be for those states most inter- 

 ested to come forward and appropriate the required 

 amount. A fact also that must be thoroughly looked 

 into, if one or more of these stations be established, 

 and from them serious work is to be expected, is : That 

 the chemist in charge of each particular station be not 

 a novice, as is often the case, in the special work he 

 has to do. Let him spend a year or more at Halle sur 

 Salle, Germany; then another year at one of the French 

 stations; let him bring over with him one or two prac- 

 tical hands for the physical selection of mothers, men 

 who have been employed in this special work for 

 twenty years or more; otherwise, great injustice will 

 be done to the head chemist at Washington, who is 

 responsible for the whole work. It must be understood 

 that nothing of any great importance in the way of 

 sugar-beet types can be accomplished under seven or 

 eight years. It took over twenty years to put the 

 standards as now used in Europe on the solid basis 

 they now are. 



The extended correspondence we have had with 

 numerous experiment stations reveals very little. At 

 Cornell University, many experiments are under way; 

 nothing yet is decided. Iowa Agricultural College has 

 some experiments in the production of beet seed in 

 progress, " but the investigations are not yet far enough 

 advanced to enable us to make a report." At the fac- 

 tories in Alameda, they declare that they produced 

 seed for many years (in 1893, 10 tons; 1894, 20; and 

 1895, 15 tons; about half of which they used), but one 

 fact remains, namely: It is far cheaper to purchase the 

 product in Europe than to attempt one's own selection. 

 At Watsonville, they declare that their experiments are 

 too recent to be worth publishing. The Pecos valley 

 sugar factory argues very much in the same way. 



From Mr. Oxnard, we learn that they carried on 

 sugar-beet-seed production in Nebraska for a period of 



