— 2Q 
adjacent to the farming districts and much of the lime itself 
is almost chemically pure. Pure water for factory use can 
be easily obtained. 
Indeed it can be said in all truthfulness that no place 
where a factory is now in operation presents advantages 
equal to those posessed by any one of half a dozen localities 
in Colorado. 
INFLUENCE OE DRYING ON BEETS. 
In the raising of sugar beets for a factory, it is customary 
to dig beets during the early part of the season, as fast only 
as the factory can use them. At the end of the season, in 
countries where there is danger of the ground freezing, all 
of the crop is harvested and either brought to the factory 
and stored in bins or piles or else the surplus of beets are 
piled up in the field where grown and covered with a thin 
layer of dirt to prevent their freezing. 
It becomes a question of great importance to both beet 
grower and beet manufacturer as to what changes if any 
will occur in the beet during the weeks that elapse between 
digging and slicing. 
Some investigations along this line were made at the 
station in 1897. Samples of beets were weighed and placed 
where the conditions would be much the same as those in 
the field, other samples remained in the cellar of the labor- 
atory, others in the laboratory itself, while still others were 
buried in dirt. 
The two ideas were to find out how fast beets dry out 
under these conditions and whether there is any loss of 
sugar when the beet dries. The first is important to the 
grower, because if he sells his beets by the ton, all the dry- 
ing out reduces his tonnage. The second is equally impor- 
tant to the manufacturer, because having bought the beets 
and paid for the sugar in them at the time of delivery, he 
wants to know whether the sugar will keep until he is ready 
for its extraction. 
A few of the results obtained will be given here in an- 
ticipation of the fuller figures to be published in a technical 
bulletin on the chemistry of the growth and handling of 
sugar beets. 
On October 29th, a lot of beets were taken from a field 
on the College farm and divided into three equal lots; one 
was taken to the laboratory at once and kept in a cool, dark 
place; the second lot was left lying on the ground in the 
field exposed to the sun as would happen in ordinary prac- 
tice. The next day this lot was gathered and analyzed, 
