WiNiFRKi) E. Brenchley 149 



various stages of yellow coloration to dead ripe grains with dull brown 

 awns (5 plants or 8 plants per pot). In the single plants the straw was 

 thick, the leaves broad and well developed and the ears rather numerous, 

 and these plants were also rather taller than any of the others. As the 

 number of plants increased the stems became thinner, the leaves 

 narrower and the ears fewer, and in all cases the more crowded the 

 plants the )nore mature they were. This hastening of maturity is 

 probably associated with the varying quantity of water available per 

 plant, as it is well known that in a dry season when little water can be 

 obtained cereals and other crops ripen oft' more rapidly in response to 

 the drought. 



In the narrow pots the numerical results were very similar whatever 

 the rate of seeding, except that rather more ears w^ere produced per pot 

 with an increase in the number of plants. The actual amount of nitrogen 

 extracted was practically identical in each case, again indicating that 

 the amount of available nitrogen was one of the chief, if not the chief, 

 factors in determining the amount of growth. The results obtained 

 with the broad pots were much the same. The amounts of dry matter 

 produced and the nitrogen extracted showed little variation from set 

 to set, but were just twice as great as in the narrow pots, as twice the 



