Sugar Be:e:ts, Cantauoup^s. 5 
the wonderful set of seed as it really was as compared with the plant 
to the right in the photograph. Both plants had developed under 
equal conditions in every way, and seemed equally vigorous; both 
bloomed freely, but while one set seed seemingly at every flower, 
the other would bloom and blast, which was also the case of the 
majority of the seeds in the plat; while a few such plants as Nos. 
I, 3, 17 and 16 had nearly as much or more seed as No. 12. 
Seed Production —In order to determine the conditions most 
favorable for the production of alfalfa seed, we have instituted a 
line of personal interviews with some of the most successful alfalfa 
seed growers, to ascertain their theories and methods regarding the 
problem; and from such data, together with results of co-operative 
tests and from our plat work, we hope to determine some of the 
factors that influence a yield of alfalfa seed, and thus enable the 
farmer to secure more profitable returns. 
The importance of alfalfa in its relation to crop rotation for 
maintaining fertility is each year more apparent, as the yield from 
land continually taxed with beets or other crops is contrasted with 
the same crops grown on alfalfa sod. The breaking up of the old 
alfalfa fields and the seeding down of the worn out land each year, 
is creating a demand for alfalfa seed that bids fair to exceed the 
present rate of supply; for some reasons the present yield of alfalfa 
seed, even in the best producing sections, is not as good as in former 
years; and consequently there has been a steady advance in the 
price of alfalfa seed; this fact and the somewhat uncertainty of suc¬ 
cess in re-establishing a stand of alfalfa seems to deter many farm¬ 
ers from adopting a crop rotation that good judgment would seem 
to suggest that they should. 
It is in view of increasing the yield of alfalfa seed and solving 
some of the difficulties of alfalfa growing, that we have undertaken 
this line of investigation. 
BEETS 
Under this topic we have continued efforts to develop a disease 
resisting beet. We have now about 50 pounds of seed produced 
from the second generation of mother beets since the selection of 
seed beets from the ‘Turly top” affected fields,of 1903. Since that 
year the trouble has not appeared in Colorado, and in order to test 
the merits of our selection at this time, we have sent to Dr. C. O. 
Townsend of the Department of Agriculture, about 25 pounds of 
this seed; he agreeing to send it out to portions of California and 
Utah, where the trouble occurs to some extent each year, and will 
report to us if the seed possesses any inherent resisiting qualities. 
In this connection we have gained considerable information 
relative to the problem of beet seed growing, the methods and condi¬ 
tions necessary for securing a yield of beet seed. Some of the points 
that have grown out of our experience in this line might be sum¬ 
marized as follows: " 
