252 SUGAR BEET SEED. 



cultivation for beets was first introduced into Ger- 

 many, now forty years ago, by Ferdinand Knauer. 

 The existing varieties may be considered now estab- 

 lished on a very firm basis, for certainly time of more 

 than twelve years is a most important factor. The 

 Knauer seeds take three years to produce. Selection 

 is made on the field from forms of types used as stand- 

 ard of comparison; these roots are kept in the soil and 

 not analyzed until February or March the follow- 

 ing year. 



It was Knauer who fought the Vilmorin theory 

 respecting individual power of plants. It was he who 

 pointed out in the original selection that the Mangold 

 was one of the parents (this fact, we believe, was never 

 entirely admitted by Vilmorin, but at the same time 

 was never denied). Such being the case, Knauer con- 

 cluded, some years ago, that he' would make a new 

 departure, using the Mangold as a basis. The results 

 obtained were far more rapid than at first could have 

 been thought possible; under which circumstances, 

 after ten years, with the so-called refreshing of the 

 blood five times, the new beet was finally placed upon 

 the market. It was soon noticed that this newly 

 created variety had a very high percentage and appar- 

 ently matured early. The difficulties at first in introduc- 

 ing this Mangold sugar beet were very like those M. 

 Vilmorin had to contend with — the shape was not 

 always the same, there was a want of uniformity, yet 

 the texture of the epidermis was better than any of the 

 existing types of beets used (this was considered a great 

 advantage from a manufacturer's standpoint), the 

 slicers could work them better and diffusion was 

 more satisfactory. 



From long observation and determination, the 

 form or shape has now been corrected, and it is only 

 in very exceptional cases that any fault is found with 

 the shape. A strange fact relating to this variety of 



