42 The Colorado Experiment Station 
unfavorably not only upon the quality of the beet, but also upon the 
harvest. The same' author states that from 20 to 45 percent of the 
nitrogen and from 12 to 15 percent of the sodium oxid is appropri¬ 
ated by the roots. One would infer that the rest wap used by the 
leaves or possibly remained in the soil. The former is much more 
possible than the latter. I have only a few determinations at my 
command to show how rapidly and completely the nitre applied to 
the soil may be appropriated by the plants. These results are very 
unsatisfactory but their general import is that both the rate and 
extent of the appropriation is rather great. Andrlik’s results show 
that the increase of nitrogen recovered in the crop of beets was equal 
to 44.5 percent of the nitrogen applied as sodic nitrate in the case 
where the heavier application was made and 19.9 percent in the case 
of the lighter application. He did not consider the leaves except to 
mention the considerable increase in weight produced, from 2,000 to 
2,400 pounds per acre. We shall, in the experiments of I9 X L 
some further data on this subject. 
In collecting samples of beets grown without the application of 
fertilizers we are wholly unable to state how great or small a supply 
of nitrogen as nitrates they may have had during the season. The 
amount present at different times is variable and is influenced by so 
many causes that the aggregate supplied is difficult to estimate. We 
have among other conditions the influence of the crop itself as is 
shown by the work of Drs. Lyon & Bizzell, Journal of Franklin In¬ 
stitute, January-February, 1911. We made a number of determina¬ 
tions in 1910 to establish the different amounts of nitrates in the land 
cropped to beets and the same land not cropped. A single pair of 
these samples taken 18 October 1910 will show the difference that 
may be found. One of the samples was taken from a portion of a 
row where there were no beets; this was, then, a small spot within 
the patch which chanced to be without crop. Three samples were 
taken, the top two inches, the succeeding four inches and the suc¬ 
ceeding six inches or twelve inches in all. The top two inches 
showed nitric nitrogen equivalent to 140 pounds of sodic nitrate per 
acre. The succeeding four inches gave 96 pounds of sodic nitrate, 
and the succeeding six inches gave 96 pounds sodic nitrate, or the 
top foot of this fallow spot which was small in area and surrounded 
by a luxuriantly growing crop, contained nitric nitrogen equivalent 
to 332 pounds of sodic nitrate per acre on this date Three other 
samples were taken in the same manner from a row of beets as near 
to this spot as was advisable with the following results. The top 
two inches gave 12.0 pounds, the succeeding four inches 1.7 pounds 
and the next six inches 2.6 pounds of sodic nitrate per acre. We 
have in this case a difference of 315.7 pounds between the amount 
of nitrate per acre in the fallow spot and that in the cropped land a 
