Deterioration Sugar Beets Due to Nitrates 71 
Ibis is the poorest sample of beets grown on good land that we have 
analyzed, but we have others that are also decidedly poor, for in¬ 
stance our College samples grown in 1910 with dry matter 20.3, 
sugar 13—, injurious ash per 100 sugar 3.42, injurious nitrogenous 
substances per 100 sugar 6.38. Some of the characteristics of these 
beets in regard to the relative quantities of the different nitrogenous 
groups have already been given, but there is another question which 
may be of importance in the general problem presented, i. e., why 
were the beets of the Arkansas Valley of such indiffernt or poor 
quality from 1904 to 1910 inclusive? They were very good prior 
to 1904. They were so far as our records show very good for a 
period of at least 8 years. 
The nitrogen present in sugar beets in the form of nitric acid 01- 
nitrates is usually so small that its determination is attended with 
difficulty or is impracticable. What has been considered as excep¬ 
tional quantities have been found in some French sugar beets. In 
the analyses already given we see that the nitric nitrogen varies from 
0.00096 percent in the Fort Collins beets grown in 1910 to 0.04537 
percent in a sample grown on good but unfertilized land in the 
Arkansas Valley. 
While there are differences of opinion as to the effects of 
nitrates upon the sugar beet, I think that it is universally agreed that 
one effect is to prolong the vegetative period of the plant and retard 
its maturation, and if applied too late in the season to produce poor, 
green beets at harvest time. Until the last few years only general 
statements to this effect were made but in recent years investigations 
have gone further and ascertained that the nitrates increase the in¬ 
jurious nitrogen in beets and this is true in the case of an applica¬ 
tion of 525 pounds of sodic nitrate per acre, applied in three portions 
of 175 pounds each. 
As elsewhere stated, the fact that I have found very large 
amounts of nitrates present in our soils and the further observation 
that the beets in the fields as they were harvested and taken to the 
factory appeared to be green, and further, because the juices in the 
factory indicated immaturity of the beets, I inferred that the pres¬ 
ence of the nitrates in the soil was related to these facts as cause to 
effect. I arrived at this conclusion several years ago before the 
investigations of recent years had become available to me. 
One of the most serious features of our problem is that it is not 
a question of a few pounds of nitrogen applied by or before the end 
of June or the early part of July, but of an unknown, often a large 
amount of nitrogen, furnished in July and August, of which fact we 
will adduce, in the proper place, what I believe to be conclusive 
evidence. 
