Deterioration Sugar Beets Due to Nitrates i 15 
Colorado analysis we find that the Colorado molasses contains 147 
times as much. If we compare the lowest ratio for the nitric to the 
total nitrogen in the Bohemian samples with the highest ratio for 
the Colorado samples, we find the latter 206 times the former. The 
Colorado beets here represented produced from 5.5 to 7.5 percent of 
molasses, calculated on the beets cut while the Bohemian beets pro¬ 
duced, according to the best information that I can obtain, certainly 
not more than 5.5 percent. Molasses Nos. 7 to 15 inclusive and also 
No. 20 are molasses from the seasons of 1909 and 1910, but sam¬ 
ples 16, 17, 18, 19 and 21 are molasses from the season of 1911. 
Only four of the 1911 samples are from factories from which I ob¬ 
tained samples in 1910. It will be observed that these samples are 
in the main lower in nitric nitrogen than the Colorado samples of 
1910 and the factories were producing less molasses calculated on 
the beets cut than in 1910, some of them two percent less. Two of 
the samples were taken at the end of the campaign and the beets 
being worked at that time were in bad condition and the production 
of molasses was on this account a little heavier than earler in the 
season. These molasses are a little lower in nitric nitrogen than 
those obtained earlier in the season, which is quite natural. 
Subsequent experiments show that defoliation in early Septem¬ 
ber causes the retention of the nitric nitrogen in the beets and it may 
be argued by some, if they know the facts, that the leaf-spot may 
have caused this abundance of nitric nitrogen in the molasses by 
having destroyed the foliage to so large an extent. The first con¬ 
sideration is that beets do not normally contain such quantities of 
nitric nitrogen and it was not produced in the beets by the leaf-spot. 
A second consideration is that some of the Colorado samples rich in 
nitric nitrogen were produced from beets free from leaf-spot.* 
♦NOTE—As beet molasses has become a considerable factor in fattening 
cattle, we are sometimes asked about the value of the nitrogen present in the 
molasses. It is not a part of our purpose to go into this question to any 
extent. It is just to state that no representation is made by he Colorado fac¬ 
tories, so far as I know, that the molasses has any value because of its nitrogen 
content, but only because of its sugar or carbohydrate content. The following 
analyses show the forms in which the nitrogen is present or permit us to infer 
in what form it is present. 
Total 
Ammonic 
Amido 
Amino 
Nitric 
Protfiid 
No. 
Nitrogen 
Nitrogen 
Nitrogen 
Nitrogen 
Nitrogen 
Stutzer 
1 . . , . . 
... 1.0802 
0.01557 
0.02323 
0.22256 
0.15520 
0.05570 
2. 
_ 1.0674 
0.01478 
0.02508 
0.23354 
0.05570 
3. 
. . . 1.2597 
0.01584 
0.02349 
0.12332 
0.02190 
0.04593 
4. 
_ 1.0495 
0.02138 
0.02191 
0.14034 
0.20480 
0.04805 
5. 
0.02033 
0.03352 . 
0.28690 
0.32170 
0.05306 
6. 
_ 1.4372 
0.02085 
0.03934 
0.21377 
0.15320 
0.05807 
7 ... . 
. . . 1.0495 
0.01663 
0.02877 
0.22941 
0.12180 
0.03168 
As the methods of treatment in the defecation of the juices tend to remove 
the proteids the small amount of nitrogen indicated as present in this form by 
Stutzer reagent was cheeked by precipitation with acetic acid and alcohol and 
washing with water to determine albumin which gave us from zero to 0 014 
percent nitrogen in this form, a wholly negligible quantity at best These 
molasses are all from the 1911 campaign and show that from one-tenth to one- 
quarter of all the nitrogen present in these samples was in the form of amino 
compounds and the rest was probably present in the form of betain The 
nitrates have no food value and the other compounds are not generally believed 
to have much if any food value, certainly not more than an equal weight of 
carbohydrates. 
