SKINNER AND BEATTIE: EFFECT OF ASPARAGIN ON WHEAT 435 
out asparagin was 19.298 grams against 22.075 grams with aspara- 
gin, an additional increase of 14 per cent due to asparagin. When 
no nitrate was present this additional effect of the asparagin was 
47 per cent. 
In TABLE III the green weight for the series of cultures con- 
taining 16 parts per million NH; as nitrate, is given. Without the 
asparagin the total weight of these cultures is 19.917 grams; with 
asparagin it is 21.253 grams, or only an increase of 7 per cent. 
The additional effect of asparagin was still less in the 24 parts per 
million NH3 cultures, and with the higher amounts of nitrate this 
eflect became even uncertain. 
The effect of asparagin was much more pronounced in those 
fertilizer combinations that contained no nitrate and those low in 
nitrate. From this it appears that asparagin, like creatinin, 
treatin, hypoxanthin, xanthin, and a number of other nitrogenous 
‘ompounds, can replace the effect of nitrate in producing plant 
growth. 
INFLUENCE OF ASPARAGIN ON ABSORPTION OF FERTILIZER SALTS 
The foregoing discussion shows clearly the influence of asparagin 
°n growth and its effect in cultures containing no nitrate. There 
femains to be discussed the removal of nutrients from the solution 
during the growth of the plant. As already mentioned, the ab- 
Sorption of nutrients was determined by making an analysis for 
iitrate at the termination of every three-day change, and of the 
Phosphate and potassium on a composite of the solution from the 
our changes. It is thus possible to compare the results obtained 
under the controlled conditions, without the asparagin and under 
the Conditions where 50 parts per million of asparagin were present 
i the solution. 
The total phosphate, potash, and nitrate removed from the 
tures was 1,109.6 milligrams for the normal and 1,117 milli- 
sams for the cultures containing asparagin. The examination of 
the results, when considered for the three constituents separately 
*S given below, shows that the phosphate and potash absorption 
Were somewhat greater in the asparagin cultures, as is demanded 
by the larger growth, whereas the nitrate removal is considerably 
than in the normal cultures. 
