Deterioration Sugar Beets Due to Nitrates ioi 
could be observed between the rows to which these fertilizers had 
been applied, either singly or in conjunction, and the rest of the 
field. The growth was alike luxuriant over the whole piece of 
ground. The phosphoric acid did not affect the ripening in the 
least, so far as we could see. The samples taken at different periods, 
23 Sept., 11 Oct., and 3 Nov. 1910, do not show any differences in 
favor of the beets grown with the application of phosphoric acid and 
those grown without it. We may take any single factor in the com¬ 
position of the beets or all of them and there is no positive evidence 
of any beneficial effects accruing from the application of this amount 
of phosphoric acid. The amount of superphosphate added was as 
large as we deemed feasible and was so chosen in order ot make the 
ratio of phosphoric acid to the potash and nitrogen available to the 
crop as high as possible. 
1 he effects produced by the other fertilizers are no more posi¬ 
tive than those of the phosphoric acid. We must conclude, so far 
as these samples go, that these fertilizers have neither positively ben¬ 
efited nor injured the beets 
Owing to a number of features in the beets grown upon such 
land which no one could fail to notice, questions concerning the 
physiological eff ects of these conditions necessarily presented them¬ 
selves. In order to afford opportunity to study this point 100 sam¬ 
ples were prepared in 1910, but owing to the fact that the Depart¬ 
ment of Botany had too much other work to do these samples were 
not examined. In 1911 I again took up this question and Mr. W. 
W. Robbins was kind enough to undertake to study the subject to 
such extent as his other duties permitted. I furnished him samples 
of beets grown on the bad land used for our experiments in 1910 as 
examples of beets grown with excess of nitre, and good beets grown 
on a field which, according to samples of soil tested, contained no 
excess of nitrates. His report is given in full as follows: 
“The researches of a number of European investigators have 
shown that the anatomical structure of the sugar beet is correlated 
with sugar content. In general, beets with a high percentage of 
sugar have a finer structure than those with a low percentage. A 
cross or lengthwise section of a beet shows it to be made up, for the 
most part, of a ground tissue, penetrated by groups of vessels. In 
a cross section, these groups of vessels take a circular form, being 
separated from each other by parenchyma tissue. At the center of 
the beet the bundles are close together, forming the so-called “star.” 
The tissue separating vessels is composed of two kinds of paren¬ 
chyma cells—small cells surrounding the vessels and large ones 
further removed. The smaller parenchyma cells are rich in sugar, 
while the larger ones are principally water storage calls, poor in 
sugar. Hence, beets having a predominance of small celled paren- 
