FIELD CEOPS. 357 



here described were made in 1902 and are in part a continuation of previous work 

 (E. S. R., 14, p. 34). About 200 acres of deep, friable loam soil, uniform in physical 

 character and fertility, were devoted to the experiments. 



The results of a test of 28 varieties from imported and home-grown seed apparently 

 showed that the quality of the seed is more important than the variety. The home- 

 grown seed compared very favorably with the imported seed, which gave rather 

 irregular results. Contrary to previous results barnyard manure applied this season 

 at the rate of 22 tons per acre seemed to have no effect on the yield and quality of 

 the crop. All beets grown Avhere salt was used as a fertilizer were relatively good in 

 quality and showed no difference in susceptibility to disease as compared with beets 

 from other plats in this experiment. 



The results from early-planted beets were decidedly better than irom late-planted 

 beets. This season, which was much wetter and cooler than normal, rather deep 

 cultivation gave the best results. In previous years cultivation al)out 3 in. deep was 

 most profitable. Deep hand-lioeing when the plants were 4 to 5 in. high gave a con- 

 siderable increase in yield. Beets grown on weedy fields showed a low sugar content. 

 In the series of cultivation tests the plat on which cultivation was continued late into 

 the season after the leaves were full grown produced the largest tonnage per acre 

 The beets on 1 plat in these tests were strii)red of half of their leaves on July 8 when 

 they had reached their full size. It was found that while the beets on the other 

 plats were affected with leaf spot to the extent of about 50 per cent, the plat from 

 which half the leaves had been stripped showed only about 30 per cent. Breaking 

 off the leaves did not injuriously affect the yield and quality of the crop. 



Alkali lands and sugar-beet culture, III, H. C. Myers {Jour. Soc. Chem. Ind., 

 22 {1003), No. 13, 2U)- 78.J-7So,fg^. 7). — A study of alkali soils in Utah and Colorado, 

 with special reference to sugar-beet culture, is presented. An examination of ITtah 

 soils j^roducing beets of low purity showed that the surface foot of soil contained 

 very little alkali and that the low purity was due to the injurious salts brought up 

 from below the surface foot by improijer irrigation. In another instance it was found 

 that the average purity of beets on soil containing 1,880 lbs. of alkali per acre in the 

 surface foot was 81.3, and that when the alkali content was reduced to 376 lbs. the 

 purity rose to 84.9. The alkali content of the second foot of soil as determined in 

 this work seemed to vary between 3,120 and 5,600 lbs. per acre. The percentage of 

 carbonates, nitrates, sulphates, and chlorids found in the surface foot, and the com- 

 position of white alkali are shown in tables. 



In studying the bottom lands near Greeley, Colo., the quantity of alkali removed 

 from the soil by a beet crop was determined to be 322.5 lbs per acre, of which 134.3 

 lbs. were removed in the tops. Investigations on the upland soils in this same vicin- 

 ity are also reported. Analyses of virgin desert upland soils and of soils under culti- 

 vation for 30 years and similarly situated are compared. The cultivated soil had 

 produced wheat, potatoes, and alfalfa in rotation without fertilization. The analysis 

 of this soil was made after the first crop of sugar beets had been harvested. In both 

 soils the nitrates, phosphates, and humus were low, while potash averaged well in 

 the virgin soil and showed a marked increase after 30 years of cultivation. The per- 

 centage of humus was also highest in the cultivated soil. The sugar beets produced 

 on this soil were high in sugar content and purity. The treatment of a crop of sugar 

 beets injured by hail and its recovery are recorded in this connection. 



The following plants collected by the author on virgin alkali soil in Utah are 

 recorded as indicators of alkali: Artemisia tridentatn, DisficJiH.'i npicata, Atriplex conferti 

 folia, Siurda torreyana, Airiplex canescens, Lydum andersonii, Gutierrezia euthamise, 

 AmardntJmH alhux, Btgeloria gr(treofciis. 



The sugar industry of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, S. M. Hadi 

 {Allahabad: Govt. Printer, 1902, pp. 112, pis. 10, figs. 58).— This book treats of the 

 species and varieties of sugar cane grown in these Provinces and of the methods 

 employed in the cultivation of the crop and the manufacture of sugar. 



