— 44 — 
October 13, but I have elsewhere stated what I mean by the matur- 
ing of the beet. The percentage of ash in the fresh roots is seen to 
slightly decrease with the advancement of the crop ; this is due to 
the rapid increase in the weight of the crop itself, and not to an 
elimination of the ash constituents. The mature beet, as grown 
here, contains a trifle over 1.10 per cent, of ash, and the leaves con- 
tain a little more than twice as much. 
The table also shows clearly the influence of the alkali in the soil 
upon the percentage of ash, i. e., that it causes an increase of about 
2 per cent., reckoning the ash on the dry matter. The results are 
quite in harmony with those previously given, except that the per- 
centage of ash in the beets grown on alkali soil is still greater than 
shown by the fodder analyses. The actual percentages for beets 
grown on good ground and on alkali ground are 5.32 and 7.58, re- 
spectively. The varieties of soils within the plot itself, indicated by 
the flgures 1, 2 and 3, show no such evident effect, and there is no 
regularity in the variations of the percentage of ash in the samples 
from these sections. The beets from section 3, especially in the lat- 
ter part of the season, show a higher percentage of ash than the 
samples from the other two sections. The samples from this section 
are lower in percentage of dry matter, also in the percentage of 
sugar, but higher in percentage of proteids, than the others. This 
is the wettest portion of the plot, and shows, during either cold or 
dry weather, an abundant efflorescence of alkali, but the analyses of 
the soils do not show that it contains more, or even as much, as sec- 
tion 1. The corroding effect of the alkali was scarcely noticed at 
all in this (the 3rd) section, while it was observed in the 2nd. This 
may be due to the character of the salts in solution, and not to their 
quantity ; still, the total alkalies in section 2 is greater, apparently, 
than in section 3. The effect of the alkalies upon the tilth of this 
ground is not clear to me. The soil in this section is so saturated 
with calcic sulphate that small aggregations of gypsum crystals are 
plentiful in some portions of it. The tilth is very bad, but whether 
this is due to the water, and the fineness of the soil, or in any larger 
measure to the alkali, which is practically sodic sulphate, may be an 
open question, but I am quite convinced that the alkali has compar- 
atively little effect, directly or indirectly, in determining the charac- 
ter of the beets in this case. The effect of the crop upon the soil 
was little, or nothing. 
It has been shown that the leaves of the sugar beet plant, as it 
grows with us, are equal to from 70 to 90 per cent, of the weight of 
the roots. The percentage of ash in the green substance shows that 
ton for ton, the leaves remove from two to two and one fourth times 
as much ash material as the roots. I had hoped to find in this ratio. 
