SUGAR Beets With Only One Viable Seed Would Reduce Costs Greatly

Efforts have been made from time to time by plant breeders to develop a strain of sugar beets having only one viable seed in the cluster so as to reduce the expense of handwork in thinning. If this could be done an acre of beets could be produced at a fraction of the present cost, as nearly all the work of planting and cultivation could be done by machinery, cutting out the expensive hand labor.

The department worked on this problem for a number of years.  Considerable progress was made by selection of plants showing the single-germ tendency. When the work began under C. O. Townsend and E. C. Rittue the average production of single germ seed was 1 in 2,000. The tendency was increased by selection to about 50 per cent single-germ seed. Progress beyond this point appeared to be difficult.

With increased knowledge of the science of genetics and new methods of causing variation through the use of radiation and the probability of inducing sports in this direction, plant breeders should be on the lookout for plants that show this tendency and renew the effort to make progress in this direction. It would be of great value to the beet-sugar industry.