Deterioration Sugar Beets Due to Nitrates 15 
The aggregate value of the beets yielded by the six unfertilized 
plot was 300.21 dollars or 50.04 dollars per acre, that of nine fer¬ 
tilized plots was 47475 dollars or 52.75 dollars per acre. Five 
other plots received dressings of fertilizers in which the constituents 
were given in percentages, i. e., as ammonia 4-4percent, soluble 
phosphoric acid 8-9 percent, potash, actual IC 2 0 , 4^-5 F2 percent, 
against these were run two check plots. The total value of the beets 
gathered from the two check plots, one acre each, was 109.09 dollars 
or 54*545 dollars per acre and from the five fertilized acres the total 
value was 214.60 or 42.92 dollars per acre. I have taken these 
plots in two groups, one favorable to the application of fertilizers 
which shows for the nine fertilized acres a gain of 2.73 dollars per 
acre over the unfertilized, the other group, unfavorable, which 
shows for the fire acres that received fertilizers a return of 11.62 
dollars per acre less than the return from the unfertilized plots. 
> Mr. A. FI. Danielson, formerly assistant agriculturist at this 
institution, carried on experiments to determine the effect of fer¬ 
tilizers on the yield and sugar content of beets for three years, 1903, 
1904 and 1905, and formulates his results as follows: “Nitrogen in 
the form of nitrate of soda is the only element which has any de¬ 
cided effect in increasing the yield of sugar beets over the cost of 
application.” 
“Potash in the form of sulfate and phosphoric acid in the form 
of raw bone meal, basic slag, dissolved or acid bone and phosphate 
rock used alone or together have very little or no effect upon the 
yield. ? 
“There are strong indications that potash and phosphoric acid 
fertilizers largely, if not entirely, neutralize the effect of nitrate of 
soda upon the yield of sugar beets, although the quality of the beet 
is good.” Colo. Expt. Sta. Bulletin 115, p. 23. 
In 1909 Mr. Winterhalter again instituted experiments with 
fertilizers on a still larger scale than heretofore and continued them 
for two years, 1909 and 1910, and has kindly furnished me with 
such a detailed report of the crops of these two years that a full 
cutting and also the Steffens waste water, and found a surprisingly large 
amount of nitric acid present in both. I next took uo the subject with Mr. W r . 
H. Baird, General Superintendent of the American Beet Sugar Company, who 
immediately interested himself in the subject. I realized fully that there were 
and are many questions to be settled which can be settled only by experi¬ 
mentally established facts, consequently in the spring of 1910 I approached Mr. 
Winterhalter, Consulting Agriculturist, with a proposition to make certain 
experiments which subsequently met with the approval of the General Man¬ 
ager, Mr. Howe, the General Superintendent, Mr. Baird, and the Manager, Mr. 
\\ letzer. I am indebted to all of these gentlemen for their co-operation, espe¬ 
cially to Mr. Winterhalter for his interest in the agricultural features of the 
problem and to Mr. Baird for his interest in the technical end of it. Further, 
our thanks are due to the officers of both companies ,the Holly and the Amer¬ 
ican Beet Sugar Co., for the liberal view that they take in regard to access to 
and use of their data. The public will realize that much of the factory data is 
not. of general interest and that only such as pertain directly to the questions 
involved in this investigation and are necessary to a complete statement of the 
problems may properly be considered. 
