162 The Colorado Experiment Station 
nitrate beets. The only possible question which can obtain is in 
regard to the presence and source of the nitrates. We have an¬ 
swered this question in Bulletins 155, 160 and 178 and further in 
this one, using Mr. Zitkowski's figures which show the presence, 
and as I believe the formation of very much larger quantities of ni¬ 
trates than I have ventured to apply. 
SUMMARY. 
The object of this bulletin is to determine whether the quality, 
of the sugar beets grown in some sections of Colorado is such as is 
produced by an undue or untimely supply of nitrates and to deter¬ 
mine whether the depreciation in the quality of beets, which fact is 
not questioned, may be due to a widespread and excessive supply of 
nitrates in the soil. 
Up to 1904 the quality of the beets grown in the Arkansas Val¬ 
ley was excellent but since that time there has been a general de¬ 
pression in the quality of the beets. The percentage of sugar has 
fallen from an average of 17.5 percent prior to 1904 or 1905 to an 
average of about 14.5 percent from 1905 to 1911 inclusive. This 
falling off in the percentage of sugar has been persistent throughout 
this period and not for one year or two years only. The amount of 
molasses which has had to be worked by the Steffens process has 
been abnormally high, 7.5 percent, and sometimes even more, cal¬ 
culated on the beets cut. 
There has been no season but that there were some sections 
which produced good beets so far as the percentage of sugar and 
crop were concerned, nevertheless the average quality of the beets 
has been much below what it formerly was. The causes generally 
thought to be operative in bringing this about may be included under 
the following designations: Alkali, seepage, possible lack of some 
plant food, or an improper ratio of the elements of plant food to one 
another, leaf-spot Cercospora beticola, and climatic conditions. 
The first two are usually associated in the public mind, though 
some of our land is rich in alkalis but is not excessively wet. 
Our observations upon the effects of alkali and water on the 
sugar content of the beet do not support this view. Sugar beets 
grown four years in succession on strongly alkalized land were as 
rich in sugar as beets grown on wholly unobjectionable land. The 
conclusions drawn from the four years’ observations were that the 
alkali per se was not detrimental to the quality of the beets; that it 
did not affect the amount of dry matter in the beets; that it slightly 
increased the quantity of the ash, but that it did not affect the com¬ 
position of the ash so positively that we could assign any definite 
effect to this cause. The water plane in portions of the land experi- 
