ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. I43 



Very slight changes of temperature can be shown by the rise or fall 

 of the liquid, and as this is the customary mode of measuring tem- 

 perature, no explanation is necessary to a class nor is confusion pro- 

 duced. I have found the thermometer very useful for showing such 

 changes as those produe-^'d by adding water to sulpliuric acid, cal- 

 cium chloride, ammoniu^u nitrate and many slighter changes caused 

 by chemical reaction. 



F. P. VENABLE. 

 Chemical Laboratory, TJ. N. C. 



SUGAR BEETS FROM KENTUCKY. 



In order to test whether the sugar beet can be successfully raised 

 in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky, a preliminary experiment was 

 held in the summer of 1885 Seed of " Vilmorin's Improved French 

 White Sugar Beet," from Gregory of Marblehead, was sown about 

 the 10th of May in soil which had a number of years previously 

 been used for garden vegetables, but which had for three years at 

 least received no manure or fertilizer. In August they were attacked 

 by the so-called " old fashioned " potato bug and the tops some- 

 what injured. They were gathered the latter part of September. 

 The season had been in this locality very dry and warm, the mean 

 temperature of the summer months being 2.59=^ warmer than that 

 of 1884. The beets were very small from this cause, a number of 

 selected specimens averaging 331 grams. The sugar was determined 

 by expressing the juice, testing for reducing sugar, inverting the 

 beet sugars and determining the invert sugar. The sugar estima- 

 tions were made with Fehling's solution. The average amount of 

 reducing sugar was 0.30 per cent, and the sucrose 10.91 per cent, of 

 the juice. This per centage of sugar is very favorable under the 

 circumstances, coming near to the amount which is profitable to 

 manufacture, but the beets were small, the amount of " solid mat- 

 ter not sugar," large, and the amount of reducing sugar larger than 

 it should be. How much of this was due to the unfavorable season 

 and the lack of proper fertilizers, it is impossible to determine, and 

 the beets must be tested another season and with other cultivation. 



Prof. Wiley, of the Agricultural Department, considers that the 



