S8 The Colorado Experiment Station 
loam, contained 18.3 percent sugar and had an apparent coefficient 
of purity of 83.2, while the beets grown in the undrained alkali land 
in 1898 contained 18.3 percent sugar and had an apparent coefficient 
of purity of 89.3. The shape and quality of the beets represented 
in Plate IV, upper figure, are undoubtedly the result of all the un¬ 
toward conditions obtaining, but the chief, if not primarily the only 
one, is the presence of the nitrates. The analysis of these beets, 
Analysis No. CII, given on a subsequent page, shows that these 
beets had taken up a very remarkable amount of nitrogen, 0.345 
percent total nitrogen with 0.0834 percent of nitric nitrogen. 
A knowledge of the conditions and the analytical results shown in 
the analyses of the beets and ash, leave no room for doubt but that 
the excessive quantity of nitrates in the soil was the principal cause 
in the production of such beets. 
The results so far presented to show the effects of nitrates upon 
the composition of the sugar beet, agree with those of Andrlik ex¬ 
cept that in this case the application of larger amounts, 250 as 
against his 175 pounds, proved decidedly beneficial and even 500 
pounds per acre produced results only a little less favorable than 
the 250 pounds. We may measure this for our present purpose by 
the yield of sugar as given for the beets delivered to the factory. 
Field 1, 250 pounds nitrate, produced 4,763 pounds and Field 2, 500 
pounds nitrate, 4,377 pounds per acre. The second 250 pounds 
applied to Field 2 did not increase the yield, there being actually a 
decrease of 3S7 pounds. This is too small a difference to be seri¬ 
ously considered under our conditions, but we shall subsequently see 
that this is not the whole of the case. From this point, from 500 to 
1,250 pounds, there was a decided deterioration of the beets, unques¬ 
tionably due to the nitrates. The composition of these beets, in 
which the deterioration has been brought about by the application 
of 1,000 pounds of nitrate, is almost identical with the bad beets 
taken as a check and which of course, were grown without the appli¬ 
cation of nitrates or other fertilizers. These conditions are repre¬ 
sented by Analyses LXXVIII and LXXIX, beets grown with 1,000 
pounds sodic nitrate applied per acre, and Analysis XX, beets grown 
without nitrate. We have total nitrogen in LXXIX, 0.26660, in 
XX, 0.25215, nitric nitrogen 0.04008 and 0.04537, injurous ntro- 
gen 0.16017 and 0.13660, injurious nitrogen per 100 sugar 1.19561 
and t .07246. These analyses agree better than the duplicate sam¬ 
ples taken from the field which received 1,250 pounds of sodic 
nitrate. We cannot doubt the cause of the poor quality of the for¬ 
mer beets, the high total nitrogen, the high nitric nitrogen and the 
high percentage of injurious nitrogen which is most clearly shown 
by the amount present for each 100 pounds of sugar, and especially 
so by converting the injurious nitrogen into its equivalent of nitro- 
