26 



IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF WHEAT. 



Hermbstadt obtained some curious results, as quoted by D.G.F. 

 MacDonald/' as follows : 



He sowed equal quantities of wheat upon the same ground and manured them with equal 

 weights of the difi'erent manures set forth below. From 100 parts of each sample of grain 

 produced he obtained starch and gluten in the following proportions: 



Kind of fertilizer, if any. 



Unfertilized 



Potato peels 



Cow dung 



Pigeon duug 



Horse dung 



Goat dung 



Sheep dung 



Dried night soil. . . 



Dried ox blood 



Dried human urine 



starch. 



Produce. 



66. 7 Threefold. 



65.94 



62.3 



63.2 



61.64 



42.4 



42.8 



41.44 



41. 43 



39.3 



Fivefold. 



Sevenfold. 



Ninefold. 



Tenfold. 



Twelvefold. 



Do. 

 Fourteenfold. 



Do. 

 Twelvefold. 



These results are not to be considered seriously, representing as 

 they do an impossible condition. 



Prof. H. A. Huston'^ treated 0.01-acre plots of land each with 

 nitrate of soda, dried blood, sulphate of ammonia, rotted stable 

 manure, and muck, respectively, either in the autumn or spring, or 

 in both seasons. In 1891 all the plots treated with nitrogenous com- 

 pounds showed marked increase in the percentage of nitrogen in the 

 grain. In 1892 the results were by no means so uniform and would 

 not justify the conclusion that nitrogenous fertilizers increased the 

 nitrogen content of the wheat. 



Vignon and Conturier^" tested the effect of phosphate fertihzer 

 alone upon the nitrogen content of the grain of two varieties of wheat. 

 On Plot 1 they used 75 kilograms of phosphoric acid per hectare; on 

 Plot 2, 150 kilograms, and on Plot 3, 225 kilograms. 



There was a very evident decrease in the nitrogen content of the 

 crop as the quantity of fertilizer was increased. 



It was concluded from experiments conducted at the Ploti Experi- 

 ment Station^' that, with favorable meteorological conditions, manure 

 increased the total amount of nitrogen taken up by wheat, but, 



« Practical Hints on Farming, London, 1868. 

 ''Indiana Experiment Station Bulletins 41 and 45. 

 cCompt. Rend., 132 (1901), p. 791. 



''Abstract, Experiment Station Record, 14, p. 340, from Sept. Rap. An. Sta. Expt. 

 Agron. Ploty, 1901, pp. xiv-180. 



