Deterioration Sugar Beets Due to Nitrates 157 
pean beets except under abnormal conditions. The average total 
nitrogen in Tauchstaedt beets grown without fertilizers is 0.20132 
percent. This average is based 011 seven years’ observations. The 
average of those just quoted from Strohmer and Fallada is 0.2445 
percent, that for the six samples of cossettes quoted from Andrlik is 
0.233 and for twenty-three other samples also given by Anrdlik the 
average is 0.2285 percent. The average for the total nitrogen in 
our beets grown on good land without fertilizers will not exceed 0.15 
to 0.18 percent. The proteid nitrogen is low, being as a rule less 
than 50 percent of the total in the harvested beets, and in the case 
of beets grown on bad ground, even with the application of super¬ 
phosphate at the rate of 1,000 pounds per acre, it fell to a little less 
than 20 percent of the total. The European beets contain almost no 
nitric nitrogen, so little that the determination is seldom attempted. 
Further, the Bohemian molasses given in this bulletin show very 
little of this form of nitrogen, while it is present in our beets in 
liberal quantities, reaching in the case of beets grown on very bad 
ground 0.08 percent and is so good as never entirely wanting. The 
sample of Montana beets contained none and one sample from Fort 
Collins contained only 0.0009 percent. Usually our best, mature 
beets contain 0.003 or more percent. The injurious nitrogen in our 
beets is very high. Andrlik states that “beets poor in nitrogen con¬ 
tain only one-fourth to one-third of their total nitrogen, on the other 
hand beets rich in nitrogen contain as much as one-half of it as in¬ 
jurious nitrogen,” Zeitschrift des Vereins der Deutschen Zuckerin- 
dustrie 1903, p. 922, and gives examples in support of his statement 
showing beets with from 0.224 to 0.306 percent nitrogen which con¬ 
tain injurious nitrogen reaching from 37.9 to 43.8 percent of the 
total. Four of the best samples grown by us in 1911 containing 
°-i 4 I2 4 , °- I 43^^» 0.14882 and 0.14223 percent total nitrogen, con¬ 
tained 42.55, 43.47, 37.98 and 35.43 percent of it in the form of 
injurious nitrogen. These beets were grown without any fertilizers 
and were harvested, the first pair on 12 Oct. and the second pair on 
8 Nov. Phis shows the betterment of the beets by ripening. I 
may add that beets grown with application of nitrates subsequent to 
1 Aug. showed an improvement also but to a less extent, the total 
nitrogen in these beets was essentially 0.165 percent. The injur¬ 
ious nitrogen in these, the same varieties as above given and har¬ 
vested on the same dates, amounted to 45.33, 45.07, 42.67 and 42.58 
percent of the total. We see that these percentages are very much 
higher than those given by Andrlik, whose beets with 0.165 percent 
nitrogen contained 32.1 percent of it as injurious nitrogen. This is 
10.5 percent less than we find in beets of equal nitrogen content in 
their very best condition. 
Our beets carry much less phosphoric acid as a rule than the 
