333 
S'lujar-Bcet Cultivation in Austria. 
Imperial, Electoral, and the like) has gone almost completely 
out of cultivation in favour of newer, richer, and more prolific 
descendants of the old Silesian stock, the most famous of which 
are the White Improved Vilmorin, and the Klein- Wanzlebeu. 
The White Improved Vilmorin beet, though originally a 
French variety (being called after the well-known seed firm of 
Vilmorin, Andrieux & Co., of Paris), has a great reputation all 
over Central Europe, and the quantity of it annually distributed 
is immense. I found it in use at all the sugar factories I visited 
in Austria, and highly spoken of for its exceptional richness, 
its great purity, and its good keeping qualities. Originally 
descended directly from the old white Silesian beet, it has been 
the subject of careful and persistent cultivation for considerably 
Fig. 1.— XUe Silesiau Sugar-beet. Fiu. 2.— The White Improved Vilmorin Sugar-beet. 
over thirty years, with the result that its qualities of richness 
and purity have now become fixed and constant. Some thou- 
sands of analyses have shown it to yield up to as high a pro- 
portion of sugar as 16 per cent, of the weight of the roots, 
If lb. of sugar per gallon of juice being a very ordinary yield 
with it. 
A density of the juice of from 1-075 to 1-080, which corre- 
sponds to a proportion of 14 to 15 per cent, of sugar in the root, 
is (juite conunon. The average crop is from 12 to 14 tons of 
roots per acre, but over 10 tons of excellent roots are not infre- 
quently obtained. 
The i^articular characteristic of the Vilmorin beet is the 
