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Show I SUGfR- BEETS THE WORK OF GROWING BEET SEED. The question is occasionally asked, why cannot farmers raise their own sugar beet seed just as they do potatoes pota-toes or wheat? Without directly answering the query a brief description descrip-tion of the process of raising beet seed may prove interesting. It is almost al-most as much work to breed up a select se-lect strain of beet seed as it is to foster fos-ter a given standard in coach horses . or other pedigreed stock arid it takes almost as. long to do it. As all beet V ! growers know, a beet is a biennial plant and is different in itSg habits from a radish, for instance, in making, seed. From a radish seed planted in the spring ripe sccdmay be taken the same year while .from a beet seed planted the same way no blossoms or seeds may be had until the next j year. In the meantime the grpwii Sheet must be dug and carried over winter in cellars or pits and set back into the field the next spring like a i cabbage or turnip in o dcr to have ----- it bloom and throw up seed stalks. About nincfy per cent of all the world's supply of sugar beet sccdi is grown in Germany on farms given over solely to that industry. Many of these farms contain thousands of acres. The seed beets tare given every -possible care in fertilization of the field, planting and cultivation. From the growing beets experts select specimens speci-mens conforming to certain standards in contour, size and shape of leaf 1 and body, these arc tested, each beet separately for sugar content polarizing, polar-izing, they call it- and the exact result re-sult of each test is written on a label which is attached to that particular 'beet. Those that pass satisfactory examinations arc sorted carefully, each family separate, each with its little tag or pedigree safely fastened to it. These arc called the elite beets and arc carefully stored in cellars cel-lars or pits and carried over until planting time the next spring when they arc reset and given the very finest fin-est of care and cultivation. -- --'- - - -- - - - It is from these elite seeds that we get the- mother beets. Each elite,, beet will yield-about a, pound and a'," half of seed. Sometimes the supply" of elite beets is short for some reason. rea-son. ln that case when they arc reset re-set life beets are split into quarters, each one making a; separate seed plant. EVcn budding is occasionally done to increase the supply of elite beets, taking an eye from an elite beet and grafting or budding it into the crown of a common beet, carefully cutting out all other sprouts that may start The seed from the litc beets is carefully care-fully harvested, inspected', weighed, tagged and put into bags and the bags into fireproof vaults, each type and each family separate. The vaults arc locked, scaled and guarded by every known precaution against pil-fcring pil-fcring or tampering with by rival seed growers. -, The following spring this elite seed is planted, cultivated and coddled as before and from this seed comes the crop of mother ibects, which in their turn arc carried over winter and planted plant-ed out again the next spring to throw up seed stalks and raise the seed of I H commerce. As soon'ad sccciL stalks H H .appear on the mother beets a stoat H ' 1 . stake is driven alongside of each ancL H a strong wire netting thrown oyer it H to protect the blossoms from insects, - H hail or other accident that might H spoil he work of four years' time;' H I' H Thus the 'seed planted by our Colo- H rado :growcrs is four years from its1 H original planting. So finely have sug- H ar beets been developed that it is ncU H ccssary to repeat the process each? H year, selecting elite beets, testing andt W growing mother beets from the result-' H ini sccd.-Dcnver Field and Farm. |