160 The Colorado Experiment Station 
amount of nitrate in 1910 applied in three portions, beginning 28 
March and making the applications four weeks apart, decreased the 
sugar from 16.85 to I 3 - 4 , dry substance from 22.4 to 20.6, increased 
the pure ash in the beet from 0.52 to 0.82; increased total nitrogen 
in the beet from 0.1449 to 0.2961; reduced the ratio of proteid 
nitrogen to total from 40 to 30 percent; increased the nitric nitrogen 
from 0.00144 to 0.04143 and reduced the phosphoric acid in the pure 
ash from 7.218 to 4.363 percent. 
The averages for seven years given by the Lauchstaedt Experi¬ 
ment Station show that beets grown with complete mineral fertiliz¬ 
ers contained 0.06923, those grown without the application of any 
fertilizer contained 0.05479, while those grown with addition of 
nitrate alone contained 0.04431 percent of phosphoric acid. 
The effects upon the leaves which were studied in 1911 may 
be more freely discussed at another time, but it may be stated that 
the nitric nitrogen disappeared from the blades of the beets to which 
no nitrate had been applied about 14 Sept., while it continued in the 
blades of the nitrated beets up to the time that they were frozen. 
The nitrates seem to migrate into the petioles as these are richer in 
nitric nitrogen at all times than either the beets or the blades. Nitric 
nitrogen continued in the petioles of the leaves of beets which had 
not been dressed with nitrates up to the latest date that the samples 
were taken, 12 Oct. The amount was approximately one-fourth as 
much as was present in the petioles from beets which had received 
nitrate. The nitric nitrogen in the petioles from beets which 
had not been dressed with nitrate was from four to five times greater 
than the amount found in the beets and was larger than the amount 
found in the roots of those plants which had been treated with 
nitrate. 
That the foliage of the beet plant is the efficient agent in the 
transformation and elimination of the nitric nitrogen taken up by 
the beet appears evident from the results obtained by defoliating the 
beet. I he beets were defoliated 6 Sept. The nitric nitrogen in 
the roots on 1 Sept, was 0.01925 and 0.01796 percent. The beets 
were harvested on 8 Nov. and though the average weight of the 
beets had increased by 160 and 130 grams for the respective varie¬ 
ties the nitric nitrogen in the beets as harvested equalled 0.01367 
and 0.01584 percent. The increase in the size of the beets was 
approximately 22 percent, the decrease in the percentage of nitric 
nitrogen was only 11 percent, the gain in nitric nitrogen in the roots 
was approximately 30 percent. Beets which had not been defoli¬ 
ated. the checks corresponding to these samples contained 0.00827 
and 0.00746 percent nitric nitrogen. The complete destruction of 
the leaves stopped the transformation of the nitrates and probably 
other substances until the production of a new foliage, which of 
