Deterioration Sugar Beets Due to Nitrates 59 
statement of the permissible amount in a good beet. In Andrlik’s 
Sample No. V, which he indicates as a poor beet, the injurious ash 
amounts in the beet to 2.75 parts per 100 parts of sugar. Andrlik, 
however, appears to base his opinion of his beet wholly upon the 
amount of injurious nitrogen present. If this amount of injurious 
ash in the beet, 2.75 parts per 100 of sugar, be the permissible limit, 
our beets are as a rule too high in these ash constituents. 
On the other hand I think that the relatively large amounts of 
injurious nitrogen compounds per 100 parts of sugar, shown by 
Analyses XV to XX indicate a tendency on the part of our soils'to 
produce a low quality of beet. I further think that this tendency 
and its cause is indicated by the high percentage of nitrogen present 
as nitric acid. 
THE EEEECTS OE FERTILIZERS. 
We have already recorded the results obtained in a number of 
experiments with manure, sodic nitrate, superphosphate, potassic 
sulfate and two forms of lime, singly and in combination upon the 
sugar content and yield of beets. We were unable to determine that 
there was a sufficently uniform and favorable result produced to 
justify the use of any one or any combination of them. The ques¬ 
tion presented in the following paragraphs deals only with the com¬ 
position of the beets grown irrespective of the yield of either beets or 
sugar. 
In the preceding paragraphs we have shown that while our soil 
and climate may produce excellent beets we do not always harvest 
such, in fact, it is the decided deterioration of the general crop that 
has taken place in the Arkansas Valley since about 1904 that deter¬ 
mined us to undertake this study in the hope of finding out the cause 
and discovering a remedy. 
We have seen that some of our beets are decidedly low in qual¬ 
ity and if this be due to the lack of proper plant food or the presence 
of plant food in improper ratios an investigation into the effects pro¬ 
duced by the fertilizers mentioned may give us some hints at least 
how the crops may be bettered in quailty whether it is economically 
feasible or not. 
