The San Francisco call., 1904-04-27

able in few years to produce a seed
that will average 26 per cent of sugar
In the factory beet. When this is ac-
complished, says Secretary Palmer of
the association, Congress may take off
the tariff as against the Philippines, or
any other country for that matter, as
American factories can with this COM
pete even against the unclad and un-
housed labor of the South Sea islands
few seed beets have developed 25
per cent, and one beet has been found
with 2S per cent With this to start
from, it is a much easier matter to
breed up a whole crop to this stand
ard than to advance a point beyond it.
The work of reaching 16 per cent fac
tory beets from per cent seeds will
be appreciated from this fact. The fac
tory beet, it should be said, develops
about per cent less sugar than the
seed beet analyses.
TESTING THE SEED.
The department is carrying on lines
Of work looking to betterment of the
beet and the benefit of the industry.
The first is the securing Of the best
seed and distributing it after it Is test
ed. 1t is not going into this on a COM
mercial scale, of course, but in an eff
fort to extend cultivation. The second
work is the testing of seed. Seed is
bought in large quantity and placed
with other seed in tracts OF from two
to ten acres in the vicinity of every
factory in the country. The third work
is the testing by comparison of all the
different varieties Of seed used in the
factories of the United States, the tests
in all cases being by experts and in
the most scientific manner.
But there is another and very i'm
portant development in the cultivation
of the sugar beet, and which the de-
partment is working up. 1t is the pro-
duction of a single seed in the ball
The beet seed ball contains from one
/ to nine seeds, and each seed produces
beet. The roots are therefore grouped
and to keep them trimmed requires a
great deal of labor of a kind the Amer
ican farmer does not like-that is slow
work with the hands, STOPPING over
each hill. If the beet could be grown
singly it could be planted in rows and
cultivated with machinery. To produce
a seed that would grow a single beet
! and beet that would reproduce its
seed is the effort being made The
method adopted is simply that of Sc
lection-finding the single seed in the
first place, and breeding to 1t, selecting
out the product and repeating the pro-
cess.
CARE IN SELECTION.
Success or failure in the growing of
sugar beets," said Mr.. Tracy, ''lies in
the selection of seed. The seed is the
! whole thing. Sugar is made in the
field and not in the factory. The seed
costs from cents to Is cents a pound,
and about fifteen pounds plant an acre.
If the farmer buys poor seed he saves
from 80 cents to 81 an acre, with a
possible difference in product of from
6 to tons in weight and a correspond
ing difference in sugar, content and
purity counting for from SIS to s2S in
| money. The best seed raised comes
| from the neighborhood of the Hartz
| Mountains. There are several growers
in this country, the seed of the Morrison
farm at Fairfield, Wash, being the best.
Considerable seed is raised near Lee
hi, Utah, which is thought to be the
| best for the arid land and the irrirotaJ