170 The Coeorado Experiment Station 
RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS WITH NITRATES. 
Montana 
Colo. 
Colo. 
Colo. 
Colo. 
Colo. 
Sodic nitrate, pounds 
per acre... . 200 
250 
500 
750 
1,000 
1,250 
Pet. 
Pet. 
Pet. 
Pet. 
Pet. 
Pet. 
Sugar . 
. 18.240 
16.500 
15.800 
13.400 
11.000 
12.800 
Pure ash. 
. 0.491 
0.519 
0.726 
0.822 
0.744 
0.680 
Phosphoric acid. 
. 0.081 
0.038 
0.061 
0.036 
0.034 
0.024 
Nitric nitrogen. 
0.001 
0.010 
0.042 
0.063 
0.042 
Total nitrogen. 
. 0.105 
0.145 
0.205 
0.296 
0.255 
0.254 
Ratio proteid to total 
nitrogen.... 53.000 
31.000 
23.000 
17.000 
16.500 
20.500 
Injurious ash per 100 
sugar. 1.670 
2.127 
3.205 
4.781 
5.472 
4.050 
Injurious nitrogen per 100 sugar.. 0.167 
0.364 
0.682 
1.293 
1.403 
1.115 
The maximum results were obtained with 1,000 pounds Chile- 
saltpetre per acre, but the depression of the phosphoric acid is the 
greatest with the 1,250 pounds. Another sample from this plot 
showed only 0.02205 percent phosphoric acid in the beets. The fol¬ 
lowing effects of the nitrate applied are very evident, i. e., that while 
the 200 pounds in the case of the Montana beets and the 250 pounds 
in our case were decidedly beneficial the larger applications de¬ 
pressed the percentage of sugar. The maximum depression being 
55 percent or 33.33 percent of the sugar, it increased the pure ash 
by 43.0 percent, it increased the nitric nitrogen from ten to sixty- 
three fold, it depressed the phosphoric acid from 0.038 to 0.024, 
about 37.0 percent, it increased the total nitrogen by 100 percent, it 
depressed the ratio of the proteid to the total nitrogen from 31 to 
16.5, almost 50 percent, it increased the injurious ash to two and 
one-half times as much as the beets grown with 250 pounds of ni¬ 
trate per acre contained. If the comparison be made wih the Mon¬ 
tana beets as the standard even the beets grown with 250 pounds 
nitrate per acre appear inferior in the following points: the phos¬ 
phoric acid is low, nitric nitrogen is present, and the ratio of the pro¬ 
teid nitrogen to the total is low. An examination of the detailed 
statement of the analyses further shows that the chlorin and the 
sodic oxid were both increased by the larger quantities of the nitrate. 
These are the points in detail which characterize our poor beets 
grown on good soil, i. e., the sugar is low, the pure ash is high, the 
phosphoric acid is low, the chlorin and soda are often high, nitric 
nitrogen is always present, often in considerable quantities, and 
while the total nitrogen may not be excessively high, the ratio of the 
proteid to the total nitrogen is low, the injurious ash and nitrogen 
per 100 of sugar are high. These characteristics, too, are the ones 
that persist through our series of beets grown with the application of 
fertilizers. It has been shown by others that the effects of sodic 
nitrate may be lessened but not wholly set aside by the joint appli¬ 
cation of potash and phosphoric acid. The amino nitrogen was de¬ 
termined throughout the series and as would be expected shows an 
increase as the nitrogen applied to the growing plant is increased. 
These beets, grown with nitrates on the most desirable land 
