Robert M. Harveson, Extension Plant Pathologist Panhandle R&E Center, Scottsbluff
In a March article, I initiated the proposal that two major factors were responsible for the United States to consider producing and utilizing domestic sugarbeet seed rather than depending upon Europe as the seed source.
I hypothesized that the first factor was the first World War. Seeds were generally unavailable between 1914 and 1918 because the majority of the seeds previously used came from war-ravaged France and Germany.