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The supreme importance of quality in seed for the production of crops, and tl1e relation of breeding to this cha.racte!'istic, was apparently recognizecl very early in the development of man. ,/e clo not know how far back in history this truth can be traced, but in the 19th Chapter of Leviticus we find this
command:-"Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a .diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy fi'3ld with mingled
seed.-Leviticus 19: 19'1
The fact that these principles were established in the time of lloses indicate that long before the dawn of recorded history r.iankind knew something of genetics and heredity. Besides the !:rosaic law, we find in the Code of Hammurabi of Babylonia, definite regulations with regard to seed. This famous code, tabulated about 2300 B. C. and containine laws which were recognized many centuries before that, provided that a la...~dlord should furnish seed to the tenant, and if the tenant stole the seed instead of planting it, his punishment should consist of having his fingers cut off.
Coming down to our own day,' we all recognize in a general w~y the impor-tance of both good germination and hereditary characteristics in the seed which we issue to our erowers. I believe I ar:i safe in sayine that the Great •./es tern Sugar Company has ma.de a more thorough study of beet seed and the types of seed available than any other sugar company in the U.S. A. This study re:9resents one of the most imnortant activities of our agricultural experinental work, and I thought you might be interested in 'ecnowi!.1g what we are doing in this regard. Aside from mentioning t:i.at a.11 seed purchased is very carefully tested for its germinating, quality, I shall confine r~ysolf largely to the heredi t4ry ,,alues of seed and our o,m breeding operations.
~"'rom the standpoint of yield of sugar per acre, beot soed may be classi- · fied into three general types. Let us assutne a certain standard of yield and p olar-ization a.s follows:
Beet Seed
Yield Per Acre lOCY}.s
2
Polarization lOO'fa
Sugar Per Acre lOCr,ib
A seed which produces the above results is called our Standard seed, and
we shall call it the ''Neutral'' Type. In order to compare any other seed with this
Standard, we conduct what we call variety tests in the followine- way. On carefully
prepared ground, and ground which has received exactly the same treatment as to
crop-ping and fertilization over a period of years, alternating plots of the Standard and
the variety are planted. These plots usually consist of four rows of beets 100 feet
long, so arranged that all borders and ends of the plot are cut out at harvest time.
The accuracy of the harvest results is greatly increased by having many repetitions,
so we plant as !?!any as six plots of each, of the Standard and of the variety. Even
in the most uniform field there are enough soil variations so that it is absolutely
essential to have these plots alternate, and this is particularly true when beets
are grovm with irrigation. It has been demonstrated both here and in L'urope that a
simgle comparison of one plot with another, and particularly of one field with
an-other, ~s of very little value in evaluating beet seed, as the errors due to soil
conditions, irrigation and other variables are too great.
Some of you may be doubtful as to the accuracy of variety tests, even with
the extreme care that is taken, so I wish to quote some typical results of these
tests for a period of years. Seed Ko. 1 is a com.>nercial seed of definite ch
aracter-istics, and we ca:J..l it the ''Yield)! type, because it produces heavy tonnages with
slightly low polarization. Seed no. 2 is what we call a ''Sugar'' type, becaust it is
the reverse of no. 1, with high polarization and lower tonnage. In order to secure
consistent results, it is of course necessary that the seed be produced by real seed
breeders, such as the l'3ading firms from whom we buy seed.
Yield Polarization Sug.Per Acre
1st Year Standard 100.0% 100.0% 100%
No. 1 103.4% 99.9% 103.3%
2ml Ye~r Standard 100.a; 100
.o
f~
100 .01()No. 1 104.3;~ 99.
7
7.,
103.9%Beet Seed 3rd Year 1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year DISCUSSIO!J: Standard No, 1 ;::itandard
Ko. 2 Standard no. 2 Standard no. 2 Yield 100
.or
;
99.5
Jb
100.0% 89.3% 100.of:, 86.9fa 100.0% 90.o% - 3 -Polarization 100.6% 100.7% 100,0% 104.8",l 100.0% 105,2% 100.0% 105.6;IJ
Sug.Per Acre 100,0;6 100.z:,! 100.0'6 93.7% 100.0'% 91.5% 100.CJ
-fo
95. 0'1;6A study of this table of course brings out the important fact that the
max-imum production of sugar per acre is obtained with the yield type, and cannot be
se-cured under any circumstances with a very high sugar content. This point is so well
established that it is easily possible to divide the seed breeders of Euro.9e into two
groups. (ll A small group which produces yield type strains, or both yield and sugar
strains. (2) a large group which produces only sugar strains. It is unfortunately
true that it is appnrently easier to breed the latter type, so much so that we
con-sider it a real accomplishment when we find a now ''Yield" type seed. During the last
six years we have made 100 or more variety tests, representing 25 seed breeders, and
you may be surprised when I tell you that only seven of these varieties are of the
type we want, while all the rest are of the undesirable high sugar type. I think I
am safe in saying that of some 50 or 60 European seed producing firms there are not
nore than seven who can produce the seed which gives outstanding results under our
conditions, and four of these seven I would rate hi~er than the other three.
In addition to establishing which is the best seed for our average
condi-tion, it is well worth whil~ to determine individually the best seed for Northern
Colorado, Eastern Colorado, lfobraska and :t.1ontana. The seed vvhich is the very best
for northern Colorado v,ill also rank high in any other district, but it is by no
means established that it will rank first. r;e are therefore anxious to enlarge our
variety tests, by conducting them separately for ti1e three main districts. We have
already made a small beginning by making tests at Scottsbluff last year, as well as
.,
Beet
Seed 4-produce beets of hie;i1er sugar content in a district like Gering, v1hich is noted for its low percentage. If this is to be done it must necessarily be accomplished
with-out sacrificing much in the way of total sugar per acre, as the latter in a large
measure determines the earnings of b()th the company and the grower$.
In addition to our variety tests on regular commercial strains, we have
past two years conducted them also on particularly promising far.nilies
fur-.
o
~
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us by a large seed produ~er, If theiel\have first performed well in EL1rope,
for the nished
and we can confirt!l the results under our very different conditions, the seed from
the families selected by us will be multiplied by the producer and ultimately fur-nished as comr.iercial seed. This is a very fascinating field of investigation and we a.re hopeful that it will in ti~c have a very direct influence on both our ton-nages and sugar production. Last year we tested sixty of these promising strains, and 33 of them,when tested out against the same standard as I have mentioned before,
produced 9 percent more sugar per acre than the standard. What does this mean in terms of seed which will ultimately be produced from these strains? Since these re-present seed from very high grade mother beets we do not ex!1ect to secure the same
9%
increase with seed produced on a large scale, but we can reasonably expect 3 or4
%
increase, These tests are being continued, and with careful breeding and proving of the results under our conditions it may be that some really superior seed forcom-mercial use will be developed. One interesting phase in this connection is that sev-eral of these strains are more resistant to leaf spot than others, and if this can
be made a fixed characteristic it would be of considerable value to have resistant seed for several of our territories.
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BREEDI:rG 0Pi!li4TI0N'SDuring the pa.st few years we have again taken up the breeding of beet seed on a small scale, and I wish to discuss this for just a few minutes. During the ,var it was of course necessary to push this wor)$: on a large scale, and I feel
Beet Seed
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[,-that 1u-. 1:endelson de§lerves great credit for the ,vay in which he r:iet the serious seed
situation during those yeru·s. Since the war there have been many chati.ges in our beet
contract, and this, together with the discovery that our older methods of evaluating
new strains was not leading us in the right direction, made it necessary to curtail
the production of home grozm seed for some years, and make some definite changes in
our system of breeding. Since each generation of seed takes two years, all of this
takes much time, and it will still be some years before we can produce any quantity
of seed from our best strains, 7e have, however, reached the point where we do not
hesitate to compare some of our superior strains vii th the best strains f·.1rnished by
the large foreign producer. You will recall that I have just told you that a number
of these foreign strains averaged 9% more sugar per acre than our standard. Below
is a little table showing the performance of four of our own ::.trains, all compared
with this same standard. /
Yield Polarization Sug.PerAcre
Strain No. l 12s .1~Z 102 .&,11; 131.
7%
ti Ho. 2 112.9'f; 106.4% 120.1%
,,
Uo.3 109.
;;%
104.2% 113.8'%"
No. 4 101.1% 108.7'7! 109.9%All of these are extremely promising strains and if their descendants will
carry on these desirable qualities we will really have something worth while. You
will notice that in spite of the high tonnages, as shown by the first column, they
still show a reasonably high sugar conten~ over lOO~Z in all cases. This is a very
desirable combination. I am particularly interested in watching the fUrther
devel-opment of No. l and Ko, 4, which as you will note, have rather different
character-istics, No. 1 is an extremely heavy yield type, while No. 4 has a splendid sugar
content, alonu with a reasonable field. No. 1 actually produced 27 tons of beets
to tho acre, with 15.
6
f
sugar, while r:o. 4 produced 18 t.ons per acre with a sugarcontent of 17.4~. ~his figure of 17.4; sugar in a year such as the last one of
Beet Seed - 6
-considerable promise for te~ritories with low sugar in the beets, year after year.
The standard grown on alternating plots, and representing· our very best commercial
seed, averaged only 16.0% sugar, so we have a definite superiority of 1.4% higher
sugar content.
It would seem that one or all of these four strains should produce
com-mercial seed giving us some 5% ~ore sugar per acre than anything ·we have now. If
we apply this 5% to our sugar production this year, we have an increase of 450,000
bags of sugar, a goal well worth striving"for. I also wish to point out that this
5%, if attainable, will a~ply just as well to a 20-ton crop as to a 10-ton crop, so
when the ultimate limit in the way of perfect stands and cultural methods has been
reached, we may be able to push this lirni t 5% furth0r by seed alone. r;:'hat day is
