A Method for Controlling Pollination of Sugar Beets 1

OF SUGAR BEETS GEORGE STEWART AND D. C. TiNGEY A few years ago there was considerable effort in the western United States to improve by breeding the yield or the quality, or both, of sugar beets. Usually, ordinary chemical mass-selection methods were employed, but there were also some efforts, to control pollination. In the end these attempts were abandoned, some for one reason and some for another. It seems probable that inability to make enough progress to warrant the continuation of sugar-beet breeding was due, at least in part, to lack of success in controlling pollination. Bags of cotton gauze placed over the entire plant did not appear to prevent cross pollination. Some entomologists attributed this to thrips getting through the bags or below them. At any rate no control