Deterioration Sugar Beets Due to Nitrates 9 
supplied with this form of nitrogen as the nitric nitrogen ranged 
from 7.0 to 36.0 parts per million in the top two inches of soil, while 
in the second two inches it ranged from a trace to two parts per 
million. The ground water from Well A showed as the result of 
fifty-six determinations that the nitric nitrogen varied from 0.4 to 
3.6 parts per million. These samples were taken from March 23 to 
May 21. The amount of nitrates in the water of a well in an adjoin¬ 
ing piece of land was very much larger and varied much more with 
the rise and fall of the ground water. 
We formulated our conclusions as follows: 
The effect of the alkali, present in our soil, upon the sugar 
content of the beet is, of itself, not detrimental. 
The presence of alkali increases the weight of the leaves very 
slightly, and has no marked influence on the date of maturing. 
The amount of dry matter is the same in beets grown in alkali 
ground as in those grown in ground free from alkali. 
The effect of the alkali upon the composition of the beet, as 
shown by the ordinary fodder analysis is an increase in the per¬ 
centages of the ash and the crude protein and a decrease in the per¬ 
centage of nitrogen-free extract. The effects of the alkali are 
greater upon the composition of the beet (the roots) than upon that 
of the leaves. 
The composition of the ash of the beets did not seem to be 
affected by the different character of the soils experimented with, 
either because there was so great an abundance of available, and to 
the plant acceptable, mineral matter present that it was not affected 
by the presence of a large quantity of other salts or the composition 
of the ash of the sugar beet is very constant. 
Again two years later we came to the same general conclusion, 
i. e., that the alkali per se, in such quantities as it is present in any 
portion of our plot, does not injuriously affect the percentage of 
sugar in the beets. 
Several years later while still pursuing the alkali question my 
attention was directed to a piece of land that was planted to beets. 
Concerning the condition of this land no one could entertain a doubt. 
The stand of beets in the portion of the field that I visited was good, 
the tops were large and the promise for a crop was good. The 
ground between the rows was thickly incrusted with alkali and,the 
water plane was at this time, October 4, within eighteen inches of the 
surface. The water used in irrigating this land was seepage water 
which carried 3711.4 p. p. m. A sample of this soil taken to a 
depth of three inches showed the presence of 3.582 percent of matter 
soluble in water or 143,000 pounds of water-soluble in each 4,000,- 
000 pounds of such soil. The alkali incrustation was not included 
in this sample. Calcic, magnesic and sodic sulfates constituted up- 
