New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 935 
specific difference does not appear to be rational. It does not 
appear in the experiments here recorded that the yield of beets 
was greatly larger with 40,000 to 80,000 lbs. of stable manure 
per acre than with 1000 Ibs. of commercial fertilizer. It seems 
extremely probable that if a fresh application of stable manure 
ever causes the ranker vegetative growth, this result must be 
attributed either to the larger quantities of fertilizing ingredi- 
ents which are usually supplied in comparison with chemical 
manures, or to the modifying influences upon the soil of its 
organic matter as affecting texture and water holding power. 
Granting that the excessive amounts of nitrogen and other ele- 
ments of plant food contained in the usual application of stable 
manure are sometimes the cause of too rank growth, then the 
use of less manure will modify this effect which is undesirable 
with some plants. In case the better texture and greater water 
holding power that the manure induces, and which are so desir- 
able conditions to secure for most soils, are the explanation of 
the great vigor of the plants, it would not seem wise to with- 
hold the manure, but to control the character of the growth by 
regulating the quantity of manure and number of plants on a 
given space and by other means. 
The evidence which this bulletin presents shows clearly that 
under the conditions involved, stable manure was freely applied 
to the beet land in the spring just before planting the seed 
without injury to the quality of the beets. 
If this proves to be true in general, no time limitations are 
to be placed on the use of such manure, and sugar beet produc- 
tion will not demand of the farmer an annual expenditure of 
cash for commercial fertilizers because they are a necessity in 
this line of farming. 
