, 2 The Colorado Experiment Station 
these things the iniquity of our ignorance. We are likewise in dan¬ 
ger of going to the other extreme in placing our hopes and confidence 
tn the virtues of fertilizers. It is too late in the development of 
agriculture to question their benefits but it is no sin even in the pres¬ 
ence of the learned to assert that there are limitations to their benefi¬ 
cent effects and that there are yet unsolved questions pertaining to 
their use and action. This is the frame of mind in which I approach 
the questions presented in this bulletin free enough I hope fiom 
prejudice to state the whole case, and frank enough to be incon¬ 
sistent or even contradictory if the facts require it. I have no desire 
to run counter to established teachings, but simply to learn the les¬ 
sons that are presented by our practice, and only wish that I were 
more adept in learning them. 
I wish to again state that Colorado, owing to its size and posi 
tion presents a variety of conditions which many persons fail to 
properly consider. I have had no occasion to study the problems 
of the beet crop in the valleys of the Poudre, the Platte, the Pncom- 
pah°re or the Grand rivers, had I had and were I presenting the 
results of such a study they would in all probability be stated some¬ 
what differently from the present ones. _ 0 a 
This Station has published four Bulletins, 155, 160, 178 and 
170, on the Fixation of Nitrogen in some Colorado Sous. fh e 
occurrence of very large amounts of nitrates m some of our soils is 
fully demonstrated, also that fixation takes place rapidly. 111 them 
under favorable conditions and still further that nitrification takes 
place rapidly enough to account for very considerable quantities of 
nitrates in these soils. , ,, . 
Allusion has been made to the facts leading directly to this 
study, namely, the following questions which were propounded, why 
do not our beets ripen and keep better? Why have they fallen o 
in sugar content despite improvement in seed? Why do they pro¬ 
duce so much molasses ? . i .. • . . 
These questions represent facts serious enough m their 1m- 
portance to justify any effort to answer them and if we learn only a 
part of the truth we will have made some progress. The work done 
in the preparation of Bulletin 155 prepared me to believe it to be 
possible that nitrates might actually be developed on so large a scale 
as to account for the lengthened vegetative period of the beet; its 
o-reen condition at the time of harvesting might easily account for 
its ready deterioration, and to this immaturity of the beet with the 
presence of nitrates might fairly be attributed the high percentage 
of molasses produced. I tested samples of Steffens waste water, 
molasses, and beets for nitric acid and found it present in such quan¬ 
tities as to be easily detected. This seemed to me more suggestive 
that not only the molassegenic action of the nitrates but the immatur- 
