FIELD CROPS. 683 



"(3) Differenttubersof the same variety, grown under similar cultural conditions, 

 may vary in their starch content to the extent of one-third or more. 



"(4) This dirt'ercuce does not appear to be a i-esult of heredity. 



"(5) Prcmged tubers are inferior in their starch content to regular ones. 



"(6) The tubers that grow deepest in the soil are richest in starch. 



"(7) In one trial the hilling of potatoes apparently caused a reduction in their 

 starch content. 



" (8) Potatoes grown rather closely in drills were richer in starch than those grown 

 in rows both ways. 



"(9) Potatoes greened by exposure to sunlight and those that are very scabby are 

 not necessarily poorer in starch than others. 



' * ( 10) Xo relation was apparent between the size of tubers and their starch content. 



"(11) The higher the starch content the sooner a potato cooks and the more it 

 swells in cooking. 



"(12) The flavor of potatoes is not necessarily dependent upon their starch 

 content." 



The author suggests that the market price of potatoes should be 

 based upon their starch content rather than upon their bulk, and 

 describes an apparatus suitable for the rajjid grading of potatoes in 

 order to determine their market value on this basis. 



The grooving of sugar beets on alkali soils, E. W. Hilgard and 

 1{. II. LouGHRiDGE {California *SY«. Kpt. 1S95, pp. 71-!)1, pJ. 1). — These 

 experiments were carried out upon a 10-acre tract of land at Chino, 

 located on the borders of the alkali land. The held was first culti- 

 vated and planted with forage plants, but none of them gave promise 

 of a crop, so the greater part of the tract was again plowed, and on 

 May 29 was sown to sugar beets. "These came up quicklj-, though 

 with a somewhat thin stand, right among the alkali efflorescences, and 

 continued to grow without let or hindrance." Owing to the wide dif- 

 ferences in composition of leachings from difierent x>arts of the tract, 

 it was found necessary to discriminate between the different portions, 

 and the entire area was divided into plats 50 ft. square. Chemical and 

 physical analyses of the soil, composition of the leachings from soils of 

 CG plats in different portions of the tract, and of leachings from samples 

 taken from different depths on 3 plats, crop data and composition of 

 beets grown on 6 plats, and classification of beets by varieties and 

 plats according to sugar content, are shown in tables and charts, and 

 are discussed. 



In some of the plats the alkali was of the ''blackest" kind, contain- 

 ing over 2,000 lbs. of sodium carbonate i)er acre, while in others not far 

 distant the alkali was "white," consisting of neutral salts. Sodium 

 sulphate predominates in the tract as a whole, and common salt 

 is mostly quite subordinate. ''The most remarkable feature is the 

 almost universal i)resence of nitrates, sometimes to the extent of over 

 one-half of the total salt. ... In some cases the total amount of salt- 

 peter in the soil ... is such as to exceed, many times, any fertilizing 

 application ever made." 



Beets grown on soil containing such an excess of nitrates were use- 

 less f;)r sugar making, being overgrown and sappy and low in sugar 



