16 The: Colorado Experiment Station 
the sample already given in which we have 987.6 p. p. m. nitric 
nitrogen and 658.4 p. p. m. chlorin, but the sulfates in this case 
were high. 
OBSERVATIONS OF 1912. 
1 
The work done preparatory to writng up Bulletin 178 showed, 
when collected, that it would be desirable to follow the variations in 
the nitric nitrogen present in a definite locality and in these spots 
from time to time throughout several months. Accordingly we 
planned to make such observations but we have not been able to 
carry out these plans as we wished. Still we have gathered quite a 
mass of data. The fact that we have been prevented from carrying 
out our plans in extenso is not the only feature that contributes to 
making the data less valuable than they otherwise would have been, 
but other factors have also contributed to bring about these results. 
These nitrate conditions in general were much less severe in 1912 
than they were in 1910 and 1911. There was, in some sections at 
least, a more general distribution of the trouble, but by far fewer 
cases of intense injury due to this cause, than in preceding years. 
In writing Bulletin 183 I had occasion to note that there was a 
general improvement in the quality of our sugar beets over that 
shown during the preceding four or five years. This was shown 
in a still greater measure in 1912. I do not doubt but that the 
intensity of this nitre trouble varies with different seasons though 
I have no definite figures to prove this assertion. Still it is true 
that in 1907, 1908, 1909 and 1910, the molasses in some factories 
gave a great deal of trouble in the crystallizers, whereas in 1911 
they worked very easily. We had in certain sections other evidence 
of this change. The growth and physical properties of the beets 
were entirely different from those of the preceding years, the tops 
were small, prone, and of a yellowish green color. The beets were 
relatively large in comparison with the size of the tops, and their 
flesh had an opaque, yellowish white color and not the glassy, semi- 
transculent, watery white color of the previous years. In 1912 the 
crop was still better and the average precentage of sugar was two 
percent higher than it had been in some of the previous years. The 
nitric acid in the molasses of 1911 was less abundant than in 1909 
and 1910. I have not analyzed the molasses-of 1912. In addition 
to such general facts as these, there were fewer cases of intense 
injury to fruit trees in 1912 than in 1910 and 1911. This too is 
based upon general observation and not upon actual numbers. There 
were too many bad cases and too much general injury done in 1912, 
however, to escape notice or to be considered as a negligible factor 
in our fruit growing or in our general agriculture. We are simply 
