46 
Bulletin 58. 
The effect of excessive free space was studied on a row planted 
singly, with unoccupied ground for several feet on either side. The 
beets were very close to one another in the row. The average 
percentage of sugar was lower than shown by the same varieties 
grown in rows twenty inches apart. 
Over irrigation applied at the proper time, produces, in some 
soils, an increase in the percentage of sugar, without materially, if 
at all, decreasing the crop. 
\ 
The continued cropping and cultivation of our plot has slightly 
decreased the percentage of ash in the beet and changed its compo¬ 
sition, particularly lowering the percentage of chlorin. 
If fresh beets be soaked for seven days in water cooled by ice, 
an actual increase of sugar takes place, indicating the formation of 
sugar in the beet root. 
The substances in beet chips hydrolized by dilute hydrochloric 
acid, are, as a rule, higher in beets rich in sugar than in stock beets, 
or in those having a lower percentage of sugar. 
The leaves of the sugar beet contain some glucose and maltose, 
but only small quantities, if any, sucrose. 
