HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 99 
diseased plants and obtain their culture media and their technical 
information. 
The Cuairman. How much do you devote to that now? 
Mr. Woops. $12,900, which sum includes everything—salaries, and 
field expenses, and everything else devoted to that line of work. We 
devote $12,900 to the technical laboratory work now, and it is our 
plan to increase that by $1,000, making a total of $13,900. The sugar 
beet is the second problem, to which we now devote $3,900, and we 
want to increase that by $1,100, making a total of $5,000. 
Mr. Scorr. Is that in addition to the $5,000 appropriated last year 
for beet-sugar investigation? That type of an investigation? 
Mr. Woops. Yes, sir; $5,000. Attached to our Bureau is largely 
the work of gathering statistics in regard to the growing of sugar 
beets in this country. This problem that I am discussing is the study 
of the enemies of the sugar beet, the diseases especially in the main 
sugar beet areas of the country—Michigan, California, and Colorado— 
where there are diseases’which very quickly reduce the sugar output; 
and although the amount of sugar produced this year is very greatly 
in excess of any previous year’s production, yet the production this 
year has been reduced about 10, or possibly quite 15 per cent, by such 
diseases as ‘‘curly top,” ‘‘leaf spot,” etc. 
Mr. Gatitoway. I will say, in answer to Mr. Scott’s question, that 
this las€ item in the Bureau of Plant Industry, of $5,000 for sugar 
investigation, the Bureau of Plant Industry has very little to do with. 
It is a floating appropriation. This has been going into the Depart- 
ment’s appropriation for several years, and was put in there by the 
disbursing officer for administrative purposes. The matter is really 
under the direction of the Secretary of Agriculture himself. 
The Cuarrman. Who is at the head of that—the beet-sugar matters? 
Mr. Gattoway. Mr. Sayler. 
Mr. Woops. There is another question in connection with our sugar- 
beet work, and that is that the present beet-seed bal] has anywhere 
from 8 to 5 seeds in it. When planted, several of these seeds germi- 
nate, therefore, close together, and the person who thins them out has 
to get down on his knees and break off all but the strongest sprout, 
and in that process the sprout that is left is often injured. So it is 
necessary to do a large amount of sugar-beet work by band, and that 
makes it very expensive. Now, we have reason to think that we can 
produce a beet ball which will contain one seed only, and we have 
made over 14,000 selections of individual beet flowers that produced 
one seed each. They produce a beet that is better and stronger than 
the others. 
Mr. Scorr. They produce a ball that has but one seed? 
Mr. Woops. Yes; they show a tendency to do so. Our idea is that 
by selections we can produce a strain of beets that will produce a one- 
seeded ball. The beets could then be planted and thinned by machin- 
ery, and in fact nearly every operation connected with the growing 
of the crop could be carried on by machinery. 
Mr. Burixson. You say by selection; it is only a matter of selec- 
tion and breeding, as a matter of fact, is it not? 
Mr. Woops. Yes; the work at present is simply selection. We may 
have to hybridize those that we secure by selection, those having a 
higher sugar content, so as to combine the sugar-producing power 
with the single-seed producing power. 
