What is a Sugar Beet? The term “Sugar Beet” is an unfortunate one, as the word “Sugar” had already been appropriated to express the sweet flavor of the varieties of Beets raised for table use, while the word Beet is strictly a misnomer, the vegetable Sugar Beet being in reality a Mangold Wurtzel. A generation ago our fathers used the term “Sugar” as a familiar designation for any sweet variety of beet raised for table use, and at the present by the great majority of the public the term is still so used. As the new industry of manufacturing sugar from the beet grew on the continent of Europe, seedsmen were called upon to supply for commerce seed of the best variety for this purpose. It was necessary that this variety should be as free as possible from all coloring substance as this would, as a matter of course, give a stain to the juice, and impose on the manufacturer the labor of purifying it. The ones at first selected were the long, white Mangold Wurtzel, and these were called the “Sugar” Beet in commercial parlance. These white Mangolds were not entirely white, the portion that grew above ground being usually colored a light green by exposure to the sun’s rays; it became therefore an object for the manufacturer to still improve on them to the end that all the coloring should be eliminated. The intelligence and enterprise of the seedsmen of Europe responded to this want, and in the course of a few years two prominent varieties were produced, that have nearly completely satisfied it,--one of these was sent out by the estimable house of Vilmorin Andrieux & Co., of Paris, and is named “Vilmorin’s New Improved White,” and the other “White Imperial Extra,” by the distinguished German house of Ernest Benary. These improved Sugar Beets of commerce grow nearly entirely under ground, and when grown these beets define themselves to be the Mangold variety, by the coarser structure of the root, the stouter ribs and the greater coarseness of the leaves, which spring in larger masses directly from the crown, than is the case with beets for the table. The moral of all this for my farmer friends is, that if you want a beet for table use do not order “Sugar Beet” or you will be very likely to find a Mangold growing in your garden, a return, but not a recompense for the sweat and toil of the husbandman. VARIETIES. About twenty varieties are catalogued by seedsmen, many of which are but strains of the same kind, bearing the name of the grower, who by careful cultivation has endeavored to improve it. Classified by form they come under three classes, viz.:--the long, the round and the ovoid or intermediate varieties. Classified by color we have the red or scarlet, the pink, the yellow or orange, and the white varieties.