Abstract
In order to pinpoint some morphological characters which would be easy to measure and would be helpful for the effective selections for root weight and sugar content of sugar beets, selections for the rapidity of leaf differentiation and size of a lamina were made. The former foliar trait showed a strong parent-offspring correlations with itself, root weight and sugar content. The latter trait showed a lower heritability than the former one, and no parent-offspring correlations with the root characters were seen. However, a detailed inquiry revealed that the latter foliar trait might be also useful as a criterion for selection. A concomitant improvement in root characters was not realized by the selection of these foliar traits, but some suggestions regarding the objective were obtained.
