Deterioration Sugar Beets Due to Nitrates 29 
pbate, potassic sulfate, etc., under our conditions of climate and soil, 
f le answer is that the results have not been such as to justify any 
expectation ot a sufficient increase in yield of beets or percentage of 
sugai to be at all profitable. We shall in subsequent paragraphs 
present their effects upon the composition of the beet. 
As our chief fungus disease, up to the present time, has been 
the leaf-spot which is generally supposed to be dependent upon cli- 
. atic conditions for its rapid development, and no one can doubt 
its very rapid development and general distribution in the Arkansas 
Vr !e -I 1 909 and 1910 we have presented such facts as are avail¬ 
able,^ and which we think properly usable in this case, to show to 
We ,^ e 1 -' Us r fi f d 111 attribut >ng severe damage to the crop 
to tms cause. While the leaf-spot certainly destroys the foliage and 
prooably affects both the sugar content and yield of beets the extent 
of the injury done by this fungus is not very clearly shown, at least 
not by the ooservations of 1910. There are, on the other hand 
clear indications that whatever may be the influence of the leaf-snot 
so, conditions are quite as potent if not more so, in determining^ 
yield and sugai content of the crop 
nPr„;l fte ‘\, haVin f descr , ibed effects of excessive quantities of 
nitrates in the soil upon the apple tree in Bulletin i cc I added “This 
is the only effect of this soil condition that I wishto presentsthis 
ime though there are other serious agricultural conditions which I 
ni Ti Wlll ., find at tnbutable to this cause, i. e„ to an excess of 
nitre in the soil Sometimes due to too much at one time as is 
attested by the death of apple and also other kinds of trees, some- 
lmes to too great an aggregate supply during the season. The fol¬ 
lowing may illustrate what I mean by the latter statement. It is gen¬ 
erally conceded that the application of nitrates to the sugar beet, 
q XCC f T dle earlier stages of its growth, is detrimental to the qual- 
ty of the beet. It has been and is now recommended that if nitrate 
is to be used on this crop that it be applied just before planting the 
,eed. I understand that in some parts of Germany they now apply 
some nitrate as late as the middle or latter part of June. Touching 
upon th>s point m Bulletin 155 I put the question as follows: “But 
what will be the condition of the crop if it receives a continuous sup¬ 
ply, amounting, during the season, to 600 or 800 pounds (of nitrate) 
or is planted m soil which already contains several times this amount 
per acre? If the assumption that nitrates, when present in lar°- e 
quantities, injuriously affect the quality of the beet be true, then 
eets grown m such soils ought to be very poor in quality, but not 
necessarily in crop. We, at that time, October 1909, endeavored 
to establish the amount of nitric nitrogen in the soil of one of the 
helds on the College farm, a part of which was planted to beets I 
think that eight parts of nitric nitrogen per million of soil may be 
