82 The Colorado Experiment Station 
entirely different object in view. It has generally been held that 
sodic nitrate affects the quality of the beet prejudicially. Whether 
this view, which has been almost universally held for a long time, 
was based upon definitely established data or was a general, but 
thoroughly well founded impression, I do not know. I have been 
able to find but one single series of experiments, this consisting of 
only two members, to definitely establish the injurious effects of 
sodic nitrate upon the factory qualities of beets. There may be 
others of very recent date but they have not come to my knowledge. 
The experiments to which I refer were made by Andrlik and consist 
of two experiments, one with about 27.0 pounds of nitrogen as 
sodic nitrate, the other with 81.0 pounds of nitrogen, or about 175 
and 525 pounds of sodic nitrate per acre. His results were as fol¬ 
lows: With 175 pounds of sodic nitrate per acre applied in three 
portions, average weight of beets 330 grams, sugar 17.2, total 
nitrogen 0.160,"injurious nitrogen 0.040, injurious nitrogen per 100 
sugar 0.233; with 525 pounds to the acre, beets 372 grams, sugar 
16.4 percent, total nitrogen 0.234, injurious nitrogen 0.101, injur¬ 
ious nitrogen per 100 sugar 0.616. The check beets weighed 333 
grams, sugar 17.8 percent, total nitrogen 0.138, injurious nitrogen 
0.042, injurious nitrogen per 100 sugar 0.236. The injurious ash 
in the three samples was per 100 sugar, in the check 1.45, with 
175 pounds saltpetre 1.57 and with 525 pounds saltpetre 1.89. Con¬ 
cerning these results Andrlik remarks, “The application of about.80 
pounds of nitrogen per acre, 91.5 kg pro 1 ha, in the form of Chile- 
saltpetre acts very detrimentally.” It brought about the following 
results: it lowered the sugar from 17.8 to 16.4, it increased the 
total nitrogen from 0.138 to 0.234, the injurious nitrogen per 100 
sugar from 0.236 to 0.616 and the injurious ash per 100 sugar from 
1.45 to 1.85. Andrlik does not say that these were bad beets, but 
that these changes in the beets were very detrimental. I infer from 
other statements that I have found, that 0.616 injurious nitrogen per 
100 sugar is a decidedly objectionable quantity. This is the only 
intimation that I have found relative to the amount of injurious ash 
which may be permissible in an unobjectionable beet, and it is not 
clear that he intends this amount, 1.89 per 100 of sugar, to be so 
considered, but he specifies that the sodic oxid and injurious nitro¬ 
gen in the roots have been increased three fold—the sodic oxid is 
o 
given as 0.094 percent of the beet. 
In regard to the effects of the sodic nitrate upon the nitro¬ 
genous constituents of the beets we have no good measure as our 
check samples failed us altogether, being quite as bad in quality as 
the beets to which we applied 75° or more pounds sodic nitrate per 
acre, and very decidedly poorer in quality than those to which we 
applied 250 pounds per acre. The fact is that the results of this 
