HOME-GROWN BEET SEED. 227 



years; the yield per acre did not prove profitable; they 

 obtained about 15 tons, which cost about twice as 

 much as the same seed could have been imported for. 

 The climate around Grand Island appears to be too 

 windy for beet seed. We have great doubts that 

 the difficulty can be overcome by planting rows of corn 

 between the beet rows, as suggested ; for the mothers in 

 growing need all the plant food the soil can furnish, 

 and even at distances of three feet the roots are all in 

 communication, one with the other. To introduce 

 corn would complicate matters, and certainly not for 

 the better. 



Utah Beet Seed Selection. 



In reply to our letter, Mr. C. A. Grager, Superin- 

 tendent of the Utah Sugar Company, sends us the fol- 

 lowing satisfactory account of their methods of selec- 

 tion. There are certain original features about the 

 way the work is conducted, which are well worth 

 recording. Here, again, too much importance must 

 not be placed as yet upon the early germinating char- 

 acteristics, for reasons which we explained when 

 reviewing, in the foregoing, the Schuyler, Neb., 

 experiments. 



" We consider that good seed is the first essential 

 toward the success of a beet-sugar plant. Good seed 

 or poor seed may mean the difference between success 

 and failure. It has not been our efifort to produce a 

 cheaper article than the imported, but to grow as good 

 a seed in all respects, and better in some, than the best 

 imported seed; and in this we feel that we have been 

 thoroughly successful. The sugar content and purity 

 of the beets grown from our own seed have never 

 fallen below that of the beets from our very best 

 imported seed; and in germination, which we consider 

 a very important point, our seed is the quicker by from 

 two to four days, produces a stronger germ, gives froni 



