28 
The Colorado Experiment Station. 
quality of the beet from the sugar standpoint. Dr. Headden has 
collected a great deal of data on this point which will be presented 
by him in due time. The money loss to the farmers in seed alone has 
amounted to thousands of dollars. But the orchardist has been un¬ 
questionably the heaviest loser, for not only has he been deprived of 
the crop for the current season, but he has also lost the trees upon 
which he is dependent for future crops, at least we have yet to see a 
single tree which has shown any indication of recovery. Added to 
this and worse than all, perhaps, is the utter worthless and hopeless 
condition of his soil for agricultural purposes. The apple, cherry, 
apricot and plum, all appear to suffer about equally, while the pear 
and peach, thus far, have exhibited marked resistance, the peach 
having been observed to suffer least of all. 
The symptoms of excessive nitre in the soil as manifested in 
apple trees are so characteristic that it may be well to describe them 
briefly in passing. The first indication is the firing or burning of 
the leaves along the margins, beginning at the apex, extending rap¬ 
idly along the edge, inward toward the midrib and downward to¬ 
ward the base until the entire leaf has turned brown. There is no 
occasion for anyone who is familiar with the yellowing of foliage 
due to lack of proper drainage to confuse this with the nitre burn¬ 
ing, for the appearance of the leaves in the two cases is entirely dis¬ 
tinct. Whole trees have been known to undergo this transforma¬ 
tion in less than three weeks time. In fact, Dr. Headden reports 
having killed a four-year-old tree in an experimental orchard in 
four days by applying twenty pounds of nitrate of soda around the 
roots and then irrigating at once to bring the nitre into solution. 
In reference to the behavior of this tree, he says,-“The effects were 
in all respects similar to those produced in other orchards” under 
natural conditions. If the burning of the leaves occurs early in the 
season, the trees will often exert a feeble effort to put forth a second 
crop of leaves. These are usually small, whitish leaves and inclined 
to be rather pubescent. Such trees, laden with one-third to one-half 
grown apples, seldom mature any fruit, and in all probability will be 
dead by spring. If the attack comes late in August or September, 
the chances are that the fruit will mature, but it will be undersized 
and of poor quality; no new leaves will be expected to appear and 
the old ones will cling to the twigs late into the fall. The following 
spring, it is very likely that an attempt will be made at leafing out, 
but as stated above the leaves will be small, yellowish-white and few 
in number, and by the middle of the season the tree will be dead. 
Before proceeding further, I wish to make it perfectly clear that 
what I have said is not to be interpreted as applying to all of our 
