176 The Colorado Experiment Station 
blade and stem was carefully wiped with a damp cloth before final 
sampling, so that the danger of external, mechanical contamination 
was guarded against. The next and last samples of leaves for the 
season was taken 12 Oct., when we obtained the following results: 
E R 0.01208, E R check 0.0000 percent. The stems or petoiles for 
the same variety E R and dates were as follows: 1 Sept. 0.06412 
snd 0.03734, 28 Sept. 0.08452 and 0.04744 and on 12 Oct. 0.04313 
and 0.01956 percent. While the nitric nitrogen had been com¬ 
pletely eliminated from the blades by 28 Sept, it remained very 
abundant in the stems till 12 Oct., and was almost twice as abundant 
in those of beets which had been treated with nitre as in those of 
beets from the check plots. The nitric nitrogen present in the beets 
on these dates was, 1 Sept. 0.02320 and 0.01925,, 28 Sept. 0.02600 
and 0.00969, and on 12 Oct. 0.01685 and 0.00503 percent, which for 
the beets that had been treated with nitre and for the three dates is 
about one-third of the amount found in the stems. 
\ 
The final samples of beets in these experiments were taken 8 
Nov., the leaves of course had been ruined for our purposes by the 
freeze of 20 Oct. The results of the experiment may be stated as 
follows : Chile-saltpetre applied at the rate of 750 pounds per acre in 
four applications between 4 Aug. and 28 Sept., both dates included, 
increased the average weight of the beets, and also that of the tops; 
it decreased the percentage of sugar by one percent, it decreased the 
dry substance in the beet by about one percent, it increased the pure 
ash in the beet slightly, it decreased the phosphoric acid in the pure 
ash by about two percent and apparently had the opposite effect upon 
the phosphoric acid in the ash of the leaves; it increased the nitric 
nitrogen in the beet about twice, it increased the injurious nitrogen 
per ioo sugar and the injurious ash to a slight extent, and also de¬ 
pressed the ratio of the albumin to the total nitrogen. These are 
again the specific points in which our Colorado beets show their 
inferiority in comparison with the best beets. These experiments 
not only establish more firmly the effects of the nitrates upon the 
composition and quality of the beets but show that a development of 
them quite late in the season may be decidedly injurious. The 
effect upon the phosphoric acid contained in the pure ash or in the 
beet is also fully corroborated. The season of 1911 produced the 
best beets that w r e have had for several years and they worked ex¬ 
ceptionally well in the factories; the piece of land on which these 
beets were grown was as good as any that we have and the nitre 
was applied late in the season, so that the effects of the amount of 
nitre added are probably as small as we would ever be likely to ob¬ 
tain. This view does not rest solely upon the general report of 
persons in charge of factories whose judgment alone ought to be 
acceptable, but is also indicated by the properties of the beets grown 
