Journal of Agricultural Research voi. xxvi, no. 3 
150 
DISCUSSION 
Since sugar-beet factories cut their beets at harvest or after a short 
period of storage, the sugar-beet industry requires beets of high sugar 
content at harvest. This fact and the results of these investigations 
demand that our mother beets be tested in the fall after harvest. Since 
the average commercial sugar beet of the factories is stored 40 days on an 
average before cutting to make sugar, it might be advisable to test 
our breeding beets 40 days after harvest. In this event we should be 
selecting breeding beets which would be of high sugar content at harvest 
and have some storage qualities as well. Thus we would select with the 
expense of one testing those beets which would be most desired by the 
sugar companies. Under no circumstances would it appear advisable to 
make only one test on mother beets, and this test in the spring after the 
beets have been stored. 
If there comes a time when sugar companies are forced to store their 
beets over extended periods, those having good storage qualities will be 
desired, in which event beets containing such qualities can be selected 
and bred up from consistent tests made before and after storage. 
SUMMARY 
1. Failure to recognize the erratic variations between tests of sugar 
beets at harvest time and after storage until the following spring has 
probably led to confusion in the selection of desirable strains of beets in 
sugar-beet breeding work. 
2. Spring tests of sugar beets (made after the beets have been stored) 
are incomparable with the tests made at harvest. Spring tests are 
untrustworthy and give erroneous values for the quality of the beets at 
harvest. 
3. Individual beets show great irregularity in the percentage and 
quality of sugar lost during storage. 
4. Beets high in sugar and sugar content tend to lose more sugar 
during storage than do beets which are low in sugar and sugar content. 
5. Since sugar-beet factories cut their beets at harvest or within an 
average period of storage of approximately 40 days, it appears that 
strains selected as desirable for breeding purposes should be considered 
on the basis of fall rather than of spring tests. 
6. In order to understand clearly the comparative value of different 
strains of beets, the plant breeder should record both fall and spring 
tests and the conditions under which the beets were stored. 
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