Deterioration Sugar Beets Due to Nitrates 31 
of six inches. This quantity is very large, speaking from the stand¬ 
point from which we are accustomed to consider this question, but 
is very much below excessive occurrences with which we meet in 
case of some lands actually planted to beets. This figure, 160 p. p. 
m., calculated as sodic nitrate, is equal to 960 p. p. m., or taking the 
top six inches of soil as weighing 2,000,000 pounds, we would have 
1,902 pounds or this salt within reach of a growing crop. It is not 
pi o\ en nor do we wish to assert that the beet crop grown on the 
College farm in 1909 actually used up an amount of nitrates repre¬ 
sented by the difference between the amounts found in fallow spots 
in these beet plots and in the ground between the beets, but we do 
hold it as fully proven that the conditions obtaining in our soils make 
it probable that unless some prohibitive condition exist the beets 
giown on this particular piece of ground will be furnished with so 
liberal a supply of nitrates as to be detrimental to the quality of the 
ci op. This means that this land will be apt to produce top or turnip¬ 
shaped beets, with big crowns, heavy foliage, a very moderate sugar 
content and a low coefficient of purity, unless the season be un¬ 
usually long and permit of their maturing. The facts in this case 
will be taken up later. 
Here be it stated with emphasis that I do not propose to explain 
all the ills that beset the sugar beet crop by attributing them directly 
or indirectly to the formation of nitrates in the soil, but I do claim 
that we have hei e an old question in such an intense form as to prac¬ 
tically become a new one of the most serious import to the industry 
of producing sugar from the beet root in large sections of, if not in 
the whole of the state. My object has been to try to find out to 
what extent my views are in harmony with the facts and I am happy 
to believe that, in trying to do this, I have the good will of the peo¬ 
ple most directly concerned, for they have become fully convinced 
that there is a big problem involved which has not yet been solved. 
This is the real reason why I have discussed in their bigger features 
the questions of seepage, of alkali, of fertilizers, of the leaf-spot and 
their effects upon the crop and its sugar content. No one knowing 
veiy much about Colorado agriculture would deny or attempt to 
minify the importance of these questions; they are real questions, 
but. on the other hand, persons with only a very moderate knowl¬ 
edge of our agricutural problems or men engaged in this pursuit 
when brought into actual contact with problems which thev cannot 
solve, whose solution is perhaps unknown, are apt to assign a role 
to known or visible agencies which belong to wholly different ones. 
In the estimation of the public, alkali has, from the beginnings of 
our agi iculture, been a veritable bete noir, likewise an excess of 
water. The latter of course presents important questions but the 
question is whether we have not, in too great a measure laid upon 
