114 The Colorado Experiment Station 
cause some of the beets in the Arkansas Valley have in years past 
produced from 7 to 9 percent and even more, which is clearly a very 
large amount, too much in fact by several percent. The explanation 
that I offer for this fact is evident and has already been formulated, 
i. e., that the soils furnish too large an aggregate amount of nitrates 
which effect a late maturation of the beet, which may or may not 
explain all of the bad qualities observed in them. Whether it does 
or not we have shown that the nitrates will depress the sugar con¬ 
tent, this has long been established, increases the injurious nitrogen 
and the injurious ash and renders the beets rich in nitric acid. I 
have made ths fact evident by giving in all of the analyses presented, 
the nitric nitrogen present. If this be true, then the molasses should 
be rich in nitric nitrogen. I have never examined the saccharate for 
nitric nitrogen. It is probably very small in amount or entirely ab¬ 
sent, as the Steffens waste waters are rich in it and it should not be 
carried down with the saccharate to any considerable extent; so 
that the nitric nitrogen present in molasses even in Steffens houses, 
would owe its origin to the beets worked and not to the saccharate. 
I have the determinations of the total and nitric nitrogen in a num¬ 
ber of molasses. Some of these were furnished me by Mr. Baird 
and made in the laboratory of the Rocky Ford factory in connection 
with this work, but others of them were made in our Station labora¬ 
tory. The following is a statement of the results: 
1 
Nitrogen 
Nitrogen 
Percent of 1 
Total 
Nitric 
Nitrogen 
1. 
2.4000 
0.0067 
0.28 
2. 
.... Bohemia 
2.3000 
0.0032 
0.14 
3. 
.... Bohemia 
2.4200 
0.0042 
0.19 
4. 
. . . . Bohemia 
2.2600 
0.0082 
0.37 
5. 
. . . . Michigan 
2.5200 
0.0470 
1.85 
6. 
. .. . California 
• 1.9000 
0.0920 
4.80 
r- 
1. 
2.1100 
0.3200 
15.30 
S. 
2.0700 
0.4000 
19.30 
9. 
. . . . Colorado 
1.8038 
0.3715 
20.60 
10. 
1.5253 
0.3146 
20.63 
11. 
. . . . Colorado 
1.8364 
0.3830 
20.86 
12. 
1.6999 
0.3560 
21.09 
13. 
.... Colorado 
2.0900 
0.4400 
21.20 
14. 
. . . . Colorado 
2.0500 
0.4700 
23.00 
15. 
1.5638 
0.4516 
28.88 
16. 
1.2798 
0.1839 
14.37 
17. 
.... Colorado 
1.7082 
0.2737 
16.04 
18. 
.... Colorado 
1.3241 
0.2584 
19.51 
19. 
1.8595 
0.4225 
22.71 
20. 
.... Colorado 
1.8699 
0.1196 
10.66 
21. 
. . . . Colorado 
1.3433 
0.1560 
11.62 
The Colorado molasses are all lower in total nitrogen than the 
Bohemian and Michigan samples, but are without exception higher 
in their nitric nitrogen. If we compare the lowest percentage of 
nitric nitrogen found in the Bohemian with the highest found in a 
