The Colorado Experiment Station 
14 
to further investigation, but we will give only the general crop re¬ 
sults in this place. The American Beet Sugar Company had made 
experiments with a variety of fertilizers some years previous to this 
with results which were not at all decisive in showing any benefit 
arising from their use. Mr. Winterhalter, in writing to me about 
their work in 1904 says, “Experiments with nitrate of soda were 
made by several of our growers upon small plats in their best fields, 
but, as in the past, we secured no results showing its benefits. ,, 
Again in the same communication he refers to five particular plats 
on which sodic nitrate had been applied, of these he says: “Two of 
them produced a smaller yield than a corresponding plat which had 
received no nitrate and three of them showed an increase of 2,097, 
605 and 357 pounds per acre respectively.” 
During the same year, 1904, Mr. Winterhalter, on the part of 
the company, carried out the following series of experiments. The 
fertilizers were applied just before planting the seed. In some 
cases the fertilizers were sown and cultivated in to a depth of four 
inches, in one experiment a portion of it was plowed under to a 
depth of eight inches. The seed was drilled in two inches deep, 
between May 10 and 17. All plots received two irrigations each, 
May 23-31, and July 17-24. The plots were harvested between 
October 15 and Nov. 15. 
No. of Fertilizer Yield of Beets Percentage Sugar 
Plat Applied Net Pounds 1st Sample 2d Sample Purity 
1. None . 
2. 200 lbs potassic sulfate; 
270 lbs. precipitated phosphate. 
3. 200 lbs. potassic sulfate; 
200 lbs. dried blood. 
4. None . 
5. 270 lbs. precipitated phosphate; 
240 lbs. dried blood. 
6. 240 lbs. dried blood. 
7. None . 
8. 200 lbs. potassic sulfate; 
270 lbs. precipitated phosphate; 
240 lbs. dried blood. 
9. 170 lbs. potassic sulfate; 
270 lbs. precipitated phosphate; 
200 lbs. nitrate of soda. 
10. None. 
11. 270 lbs. precipitated phosphate; 
200 lbs. nitrate of soda. 
12. 2 00 lbs. nitrate of soda. 
13. None . 
14. 300 lbs. nitrate of soda. 
15. None . 
19,961 
17.7 
16.3 
81.8 
21,743 
18.0 
16.6 
81.8 
22,120 
18.7 
17.1 
82.9 
24,026 
18.9 
17.3 
84.3 
23,420 
18.7 
17.2 
84.4 
20,223 
20.6 
19.0 
84.2 
21,107 
20.5 
18.9 
84.9 
21,722 
17.6 
16.2 
81.7 
21,374 
17.9 
16.5 
81.2 
21,325 
18.9 
17.4 
84.1 
20,842 
18.5 
17.0 
83.3 
19.697 
19.0 
17.5 
84.0 
17,294 
19.1 
17.5 
85.8 
19,121 
19.4 
17.9 
84.5 
16,370 
21.0 
19.3 
87.1 
well as in other portions of the Arkansas Valley, it occurred to me that a con¬ 
tinued and excessive supply of nitre, throughout the season, especially during 
the later portion of the season, would account for the immature condition of 
the beets and perhaps some of the difficulties met with in the factories. I 
stated my views and reasons for them to Mr. W. M. Wiley, at that time Presi¬ 
dent of the Holly Sugar Co., and examined the beets which they were then 
