The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-05-28
.UTAHW|L[ PRODUCE
SUGAR BEET SEED
European War Has Turned At.
tention Of Sugar Men To
, New Necessity r
Home Grown Seed Is Better Than
imported, Future Sup
!. , ply Limited.

In the May number. Of Sugar, Frank
s.. Harris, agronomist of the Utah FIX
pertinent Station, tells of TIE beet seed
experiments pow being carried on in
that state.
DR.. Harris states that the, Prussian
chemist, MargratT, in l747 discovered
cane, sugar in the beet root, estimating
the total sugar content as only FIVE per
cent. The first beet sugar factory was
established in 1912, and at, that time,
just over 100 years ago, the best pro
duction Of sugar did not exceed seven
per cent of the weight of the root, and
extraction was much nnder this.
Feet Industry Century Old
The industry has grswu slowly from
small heRinning until at this date, May,
1915, there are sixty-twO beet sugar
factories in the United States alone,
and thousand or more, all told, in
foreign. countries. g. ... e..
in the hundred years since the beet
sugar Industry was born, intensive Sc.
lection has improved the quality of the
crop SO that the average is now four
teen per cent, with occasional crops
yielding up to twenty-five or twenty
three per cent or more. Science alone
has thus doubled production in cen
fury, for it takes no more rain and no
more sunshine to grow a fourteen per
cent sugar beet today than was neces-
sarv to grow the seven per cent beet in
R18l2. u
Seed Requirements Heavy u
/. II takes 100000 pounds of sugar
beet seed each year to supply the needs
of the United States, but up to 1915
not onertwentieth of this has been PRO
duced at home. American beet grow
ers have depended on France, Germany,
Austria.HuDgary, and -Rassia for prac-
tically all the seed used.
Beet seed was grown at Schuyler,
Nebraska, in 1893, yielding better and
bigger crons of sugar than the best i'm
ported. Home grown seed is always
better than imported, because the crop
accommodates itself to the climatic en-
yironment. Seed from a humid eli,
mate like that of northern Europe does
not produce teets adaptable TO the inl
tense sunlight and arid climate of the
west. Hence a good many western
beet growers began to produce their
own seed.
Utah Growing Seed
The Utah Experiment Station has re.
Gently given a good deal of attention
to the work of scientific sugar rect
seed selection. The Utah farmers, like
those of central California, have many
of them specialized In the seed bust
ness.
The Utah farmers grow half the al
falfa seed used in the United States
and produce large quantities Of garden
and field seeds of all sorts. Those who
had made beginning in the beet seed
business are now in al position to rear
a goodly harvest because of the mar,
Fet that has been forced upon them by
the European war,
Beet seed product ion is a speciality
and requires special knowledge. The
sugar beet has been so long studied
and worked with that certain external
characters Of root and leaf are recog.
nized as being an index to sugar con
tent. so that the expert seed grower
needs to be trained to the business. He
must be chemist as well as an expert
Rgrieulturist, for every "a mother" Get
selected for seed production must be
tested Z" 81" vt sucrose and purity
agree with e"'ernal conformation. 1t
Is Only by selection and analysis, pa
tient'y Conducted year after year, that
''hne.hreedipg' can establish a strain
that will hold and fix the characters
which the plant breeder is trying to
produce. ....--.... ~.
The Time Element H.. .,..
1t takes a number Of years to get a
strain Of mother seed of high standard
in sufficient quantity to produce com
mereial seed Of equally high standard.
The business requires large capital for
its DEVELOPMENT because men who have
the erpert special training which is
rennisite to success must be employed.
II may take ten years to thoroughly
Hsta hlish the sugar beet seed industry
in the West. but the war has shown
the necessity for it. Much sugar capital
is available for the new industry, not
only In Utah but in all the beet sugar
producing states.
IT.