Deterioration Sugar Beets Due to Nitrates 159 
detected by Von Eippmann in unrecoverable (nicht gewinnbaren) 
traces, the former by means of the spectroscope in beets, beet leaves 
and beet products.” We find manganese always present in the ashes 
of our beets and beet leaves, varying from a few hundredths to 0.3 
percent in sugar beets and to 0.5 in the long red mangold. 
We will recapitulate these differences, our beets (the ones that 
we have been studying) are larger in size, lower in sugar, lower in 
dry substance, higher in ash constituents, lower in nitrogen, lower 
in proteid nitrogen, higher in injurious ash and higher in injurious 
nitrogen than the European beets cited. The beets are poor in phos¬ 
phoric acid and rich in potash. The soda and chlorin content is very 
erratic. The calcic oxid is low, about one-half as much as in Euro¬ 
pean beets, while the magnesic oxid is a little higher than in these. 
It does not appear that the magnesic oxid is abnormally high but 
that the lime is abnormally low. The soils in which the beets dis¬ 
cussed were grown are without exception rich in calcic oxid from 
4.0 to 6.0 percent, also in magnesia about 1.5 percent, with carbonic 
acid usually about 5.0 percent. These differences must indicate 
great differences in the nutrition and transformation of substances 
in the beet. 
We have a little light on some of these differences but not on 
all of them. We can account in some cases for the low sugar, low 
dry substance, higher ash, low proteid, higher injurious nitrogen 
and lower phosphoric acid content. We cannot explain the higher 
potash and lower lime nor have we at the present time any knowl¬ 
edge of their significance. 
A study of the effects of nitrates upon the composition of the 
beet shows that they increase the size of the beet and the top; reduce 
the percentage of sugar and dry matter; increase the ash; suppress 
the phosphoric acid; increase the total nitrogen; decrease the ratio 
of proteid nitrogen to total nitrogen and increase the nitric nitrogen 
even in beets grown in soil already rich in this form of nitrogen even 
if applied at a time when the beets are supposed to use only a small 
amount of nitrogen. Nitrate applied 4 Aug. to 28 Sept. 1911 in 
all equal to 750 pounds per acre increased the size of beets by 9.9 
and 14.6 percent; reduced sugar 1.0 and 1.1 percent; dry sub¬ 
stance 0.9 from 22.0 to 21.1; increased total nitrogen from 0.14223 
to 0.16698; reduced ratio of proteid nitrogen from 60 to 50 percent, 
increased injurious nitrogen from 0.3229 to 0.49041 per 100 sugar; 
increased nitric nitrogen from 0.0083 and 0.0074 to 0.0187 and 
0.0142 and suppressed the phosphoric acid in the pure ash from 
10.1 to 7.8 and from 10.9 to 9.4 percent. These results were ob¬ 
tained with beets on excellent land free from seepage and alkali and 
the plants were free from the leaf-spot. This was during the season 
that produced the best beets that we have had for years. A like 
