SUGAR BEETS. 
/ / 
A RESUME OF THE PUBLISHED WORK OF THE AGRICULTURAL 
EXPERIMENT STATION OF COLORADO. 
By William P. Hbadden, Ph. D. 
The first experiments made in the State of Colorado to deter¬ 
mine the feasibility of growing sugar beets for the manufacture of 
sugar on a commercial scale were those made at the Experiment 
Station at Fort Collins in 1888. These were undertaken by Profes- 
sors Cassidy and O’Brine at the instigation of the late C. L. Inger- 
soll, Director of the Station. Three varieties were experimented 
with. The percentage of sugar was quite satisfactory, the authors 
making the yield of cane sugar from 4,250 to 7,318 pounds per acre. 
The object of these experiments is evident from the closing 
paragraphs of bulletin No. 7,* in which the work is recorded: 
“Prom the above it will be seen that there is quite a wide variation in sugar 
content in the four varieties tried last season. Enough, however, has been de¬ 
veloped to create a lively interest in the cultivation of the sugar beet in this 
State for the purposes of sugar production—” 
From the publication of the results of these first experiments, 
In April 1889, to the present time, the Station has issued eight other 
publications on this subject, only one of which republished any of 
the results contained in previous bulletins. 
The work on this subject has taken two directions, cultural and 
chemical. Bulletins 11, 46, and 58 are devoted to considerations of 
the latter class; Nos. 7, 14, 21, 36, 42, 51, and 57 almost exclusively 
to cultural studies, No. 14 alone deviating from this line in contain¬ 
ing a statement of the Director and Chemist in regard to the state 
of {the industry in 1890. 
In No. 14 the question of the relation between the size of the 
beet and its sugar content was discussed, and the suggestion made 
that the size of the beets could be controlled by thick seeding and 
judicious thinning. 
* Potatoes and Sugar Beets. April, 1889. Profs. Cassidy and O’Brine. 
