232 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY REPORT. 
INFLUENCE OF FERTILIZERS. 
One ton of sugar-beets takes from the soil, on an average, 4 
pounds of nitrogen, 2 pounds of phosphoric acid and 7 pounds of 
potash. In 1898, numerous cooperative experiments were made 
in testing the influence of fertilizers upon the yield and quality of 
sugar-beets. A fertilizer, analyzing 3 per ct. of nitrogen, 5.5 
per ct. of available phosphoric acid and 7 per ct. of potash, made 
from nitrate of soda, dried blood, acid phosphate and sulphate of 
potash, was applied at the rates of 500 and 750 pounds an acre. 
The use of 500 pounds of fertilizer proved more profitable in every 
way than the use of 750 pounds. The percentage of sugar and co- 
efficient of purity were not apparently affected by the use of 
fertilizer. | 
Experiments were carried on at the Station during four years 
in testing the influence of stable manure applied in the spring 
upon the quality of sugar-beets. “Comparisons were made of the 
quality of beets not manured with those grown with commercial 
fertilizer (usually 1,000 pounds an acre) and with those grown on 
land receiving in the spring, before planting the beets, from 20 
to 40 tons of stable manure an acre. Beets from at least six 
varieties of seed were grown during the four years. The results 
showed that the beets thus grown were of uniformly high quality 
under all three methods of treatment. The average was somewhat 
better with the farm manure than with no manure or with com- 
mercial fertilizers. The soil is a rather heavy clay, well drained. 
THE CHEMISTRY OF HOME-MADE CIDER VINEGAR. 
Cider vinegar made by farmers was frequently found to fall 
below the legal standard of the State, viz., 4.5 per ct. of acetic 
acid and 2 per ct. of cider-vinegar solids. It was commonly 
claimed that these vinegars were made from pure apple juice. 
An investigation was undertaken to ascertain why cider vinegar 
made by farmers so frequently falls below the. legal standard. The 
work covered a period of some seven years. The details were 
published as Bulletin 258. The investigation included (1) the com- 
position of apple juice of different varieties of apples, (2) the 
change in composition that apple juice undergoes during alcoholic 
and acetic fermentations. (3) conditions affecting these changes 
and (4) the destructive fermentation of vinegar on long standing. 
