LXXXVIII 
COAXING THE SUGAR BEET 
I SN’T IT ODD that man can start out with a tiny, wild 
plant that stores food in its bit of a root as big as your 
thumb and develop that root into a lusty vegetable that 
weighs twenty pounds and forms the basis of a great 
industry! 
Yet this is what he has done in the case of the beet. 
One is not likely to see a wild beet as he does wild car¬ 
rots, but he may appreciate the extent to which the beet 
has been cultivated if he compares the ordinary beet of 
the garden with those monster roots — often as big as a 
child’s body — which may be seen at the beet sugar 
factory. 
The beet started out as a small plant that stored up a 
bit of food in its root during the first year of its growth for 
use the second year in making seed. Man tried eating 
this wild root and rather liked it. He planted it in his 
garden and, by selecting seed from the big beets and 
planting it, gradually increased its size. He finally had 
beets as they come to our tables, floating in vinegar. 
The “honey bearing reed,” which was sugar cane, was 
brought from the Far East. It flourished in the Canary 
Islands. When the West Indies were discovered all the 
European countries tried to get territory there on which 
to grow sugar. They all got the habit of using it. 
Then, during his wars, Napoleon was cut off from the 
West and ran out of sugar for his army and his people. 
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