— 56 — 
The two analyses, quoted from Champion and Pellet, by Mc- 
Murtrie, give 60 per cent, for the alkalies, 10 per cent, for the chlor- 
in, 7.5 per cent, for lime, and 6.5 per cent, for magnesia. The 
Massachusetts Report, of 1894, gives for the alkalies, uncorrected, 
53.3 per cent., for the phosphoric acid 9.7 per cent. 
The experiment was undertaken to determine the effect of the 
excessive quantity of alkali salts upon the beet, and in the hope 
that we might find the condition of the land ameliorated by the 
removal of soda salts. The effect upon the percentage of ash in the 
beet was to raise it from 2 to 3 per cent., and this increase was pro- 
portional in the components of the ash, so that the proportion of 
alkalies remained the same. The ratio of the soda to the potash 
was not affected, as I had hoped to fine it ; in fact, it was lower for 
the soda to the potash, in the ashes from samples grown on alkali 
ground, than in that from some samples from the Farm plots which 
I had taken as my standard. In samples from sections 1 and 2 
of my plot the percentage of soda varied from 10 to 15 per cent. 
The average anal}^sis taken from Wolff’s tables is 10.25. The sam- 
ples taken from section 3, varied from 16 to 19 per cent., with a cor- 
responding depression of the percentage of potash. This increase 
in the soda ratio is general in the samples from this section, and I, 
at first, considered it as due to the influence of the alkali, but one 
of the samples from the Farm plot, where there is no alkali, in the 
sense in which this term is used, showed 18 per cent, of soda, and 
the beets were of excellent quality. I think that the causes which 
brought about the appropriation of the soda in the two cases were 
different ; still so long as the causes are not definitely determined, 
the presence of 18 per cent, of soda in the latter case fairly raises a 
doubt whether the excessive soda salts, in the soil, was the real cause 
of the large percentage of soda in the former case, as I believe they 
were. The total alkalies taken up from the alkalized ground, was 
almost exactly the same as that taken up from the good ground. 
The chlorin in the ashes, with one exception, is nearly the same, 
but the average is higher for my plot, owing to the influence of sec- 
tion 3. The conclusion is this, that on soil which is in good, or even 
fairly good, mechanical condition, the composition of the ash of the 
beet is not affected by the presence of alkali, but the percentage of ash 
is raised. On land, however, which is wet and in bad condition, 
the alkali increases the amount of soda and chlorin in the ash. 
This increase in the soda amounts to from 4 to 7 per cent., and in 
the percentage of chlorin to about the same. The conditions which 
are required to produce these results are so unfavorable, that the 
production of any other crop is quite out of the question. 
The lime and magnesia, as already stated, are constant in their 
respective percentages, but they are much lower than the percent- 
ages for the German and French sa^'^oles or averages. This cannot 
