150 The Colorado Experiment Station 
cultivated portion of the field at five feet below the surface and one 
foot above the bottom of a drainage ditch 600 feet to the north and 
west of this point, at no other point in the line of borings did they 
find water within six feet of the surface. In 1897, 1898 and 1899 
1 grew excellent beets both in regard to crop and sugar content on 
land in which the water did not fall to a greater depth than four 
feet below the surface at any time and the soil was heavily impreg¬ 
nated with the white alkali common throughout the state. I have 
no analyses of these beets comparable to the analyses here pre¬ 
sented, but samples taken 8 Nov. 1898 showed 17.29 and 18.24 
percent sugar, the beets were of excellent shape and of medium size. 
The subsequent year another variety grown in the worst section of 
the plot gave 15.82, other samples gave 15.86 and as high as 16.34; 
the apparent coefficient of purity for these beets was about 84. No 
nitrogen determinations were made but the ash of this variety was 
analyzed and gave the following results for the pure ash: 
ANALYSIS PURE ASH OF BEETS GROWN ON ALKALI LAND, 1899. 
Sulfuric acid . . . 
Phosphoric acid 
Chlorin. 
Sodium. 
Potassic acid . . 
Sodic oxid. 
Calcic oxid. 
Magnesic oxid . 
Ferric oxid .... 
Aluminic oxid . . 
Manganic oxid . 
Percent 
Percent 
in Fresh Beet 
4.93 
0.043 
11.48 
0.100 
11.93 
0.104 
7.75 
0.063 
48.55 
0.426 
1.18 
0.010 
3.66 
0.032 
9.13 
0.077 
0.89 
0.008 
0.24 
0.002 
0.26 
0.002 
100.00 
0.872 
i beets 
was 4.18, which 
is higher than is desirable, but much less than one who is familiar 
with the conditions of the land at that time would expect. For full 
discussion of the soil conditions and crop see Bulletins 58 and 65 of 
this station. The only points presented by this analysis which are 
in any way abnormal for our western beets is its quantity, 0.872 per¬ 
cent of the fresh beet and the relatively large amount of chlorin, 
0.104 percent. The excess of sodic oxid over that necessary to com¬ 
bine with chlorin to form sodic chlorid is very small and the phos¬ 
phoric acid is very high, two features which are wanting in beets 
grown with the application of or in the presence of nitrates, espe¬ 
cially the phosphoric acid which is always depressed by the nitrates. 
These data are presented as the most definite and reliable that I have 
showing the effects of excessive water and alkali, other more gen¬ 
eral information has been stated in the earlier portion of the Bul¬ 
letin. The questions of water and alkali are involved in the land 
