Deterioration Sugar Beets Due to Nitrates 169 
high percentage of pure ash in the beet this constituent appeared 
about normal when calculated on the fresh beet. The beets grown 
with fertilizers were lower in sugar than those grown without them 
in eight out of nine cases. The injurious ash was higher in eight 
out of nine cases and the injurious nitrogen was higher in seven out 
of the nine. The increase in these two factors was in some cases 
very great, from 4.27 to 7.68 for the injurious ash per 100 sugar 
and from 0.37 to 0.95 for the injurious nitrogen. The nitric nitro¬ 
gen fell to 0.0025 in the sample grown with the application of potash 
alone, but otherwise they all contained about 0.01 percent of this 
form of nitrogen, apparently unaffected by the amount of sodic 
nitrate added. The low percentage of sugar, the high percentage 
of pure ash with its low percentage of phosphoric acid, the high in¬ 
jurious ash and injurious nitrogen, with ruling high percentage of 
nitric nitrogen are again suggestive of too liberal or an untimely 
supply of nitrates. These results do not indicate a lack of any of 
these elements of plant food and do not justify us in looking to these 
as means for the amelioration of these conditions. 
The third class of beets was studied to obtain a decisive answer 
to the question, “What are the effects of nitrates upon the composi¬ 
tion of the sugar beet ?” It is generally agreed that nitrates added 
in too large quantities or too late in the season lengthen the period of 
growth and it has been, shown within the last few years that it in¬ 
creases the injurious nitrogen. Many of our beets are green when 
harvested and of course the juices often work badly. I have known 
of the occurrence of unusual quantities of nitrates in some of our 
soils for six or more years. I had already associated these facts in a 
causal relation several years before the investigations of recent years 
had become available to me. I knew of no investigation which had 
satisfactorily answered the query stated above, so its answer was im¬ 
perative in the prosecution of this work. In 1903 Andrlik published 
two analyses showing that 525 pounds of sodic nitrate per acre ap¬ 
plied in three portions depressed the percentage of sugar and in¬ 
creased both the injurious ash and injurious nitrogen. The amount 
applied, 525 pounds of Chile-saltpetre per acre, is a very moderate 
quantity compared with the equivalent of the nitric nitrogen that we 
find in many of our soils. 
In order to study this subject a piece of choice land was selected 
and various quantities of nitrates applied from 250 to 1,250 pounds 
per acre, the larger quantities were applied in portions of 250 pounds 
each. The first application of 250 pounds was made two days be¬ 
fore the seed was planted, the succeeding ones at intervals of four 
weeks up to 27 July, the date of the last application. The follow¬ 
ing tabular statements in which we include the Montana beet for 
comparison exhibits the results: 
