— 53 — 
about 63 per cent, of potash and soda together. The carbonic acid, 
sand, and organic matter, is not considered as belonging to the ash. 
We also find a certain uniformity in the amount of lime and mag- 
nesia present. Counting these in terms of lime, we find the range 
mostly within the limits of 11 and 14 per cent. In the two sam- 
ples of French beets it is 15.5 per cent. The phosphoric acid in the 
eight analyses, which we have tabulated, agree closely in six in- 
stances, while the other two are much lower. In the case of the 
sample of Vilmorin, harvested October 13, and carrying 13.02 per 
cent, of sugar, the low percentage of phosphoric acid cannot, in my 
opinion, be explained by ascribing it to the lack of this constituent 
in the soil, it must be ascribed to some other cause. In regard to 
the sample from New Mexico, I can express no opinion, as I have no 
intimate knowledge of the conditions under which it was grown. I 
am frank to say that I doubt whether this New Mexican sample 
ought to be taken as an example of a beet, rich in sugar. That it 
showed the presence of 17.25 per cent, of sugar when I received it, 
is true, but that it did not show that much when it was fresh, is 
quite as certain. I believe the high percentage to have been due to 
drying out, rather than to a naturally high degree of richness. 
The percentage of ash, in the French samples, is rather lower 
than we find in our samples, but other data for French beets make 
it about the same. The percentage of ash in the leaves, assuming 
the dry matter equal to 10 per cent., is the same as we find for Colo- 
rado beets, but the composition of the ashes of the leaves is not at 
all alike. They are similiar only in containing the same chemical 
elements. The composition of the ash of the leaves from the French 
beets is quite comparable to that of the ash of the beets themselves, 
the differences consisting of an excess in the percentages of soda, 
lime, magnesia, and chlorin, over that of the beet ash, while the 
percentage of potash in the ash of the leaves is less than that in 
the ash of the beets by 15 per cent. 
The table on page 54 shows to how great an extent the ash 
constituents of the leaves differ from those of the beets in their rel- 
ative quantities, and also, how the ashes, both of the roots and the 
leaves, of Colorado grown beets differ from those grown in France. 
I have quoted the analyses of the French beets, and do not know 
how nearly representative they may be, but as to the Colorado beets, 
any one of the samples given on previous pages could be used for 
the same purpose quite as well as the one chosen. This one was 
taken simply because its percentage of sugar, being so near that of 
the sample quoted, eliminates any question of doubt which might 
arise because of differences in the quality of the beets. 
