HOWARD, LEAKE AND HOWARD. 53 



The author concludes that the results indicate that soil and seed 

 play a relatively small part in influencing the composition of crops 

 and that the differences observed are due for the most part to 

 climatic conditions prevailing at the time of growth. The results 

 appear to be open to serious objection and are vitiated by the fact 

 that the samples compared are by no means equally well grown. 

 This is evident on examining the absolute weight of the same 

 wheat grown at the various centres. The weight of 1,000 grains 

 of Kubanka varied from 24*9 to 46*5 grammes while the limits of 

 variation in the case of Crimean were 20*4 and 340 grammes. 

 These variations are so great that they are bound to influence 

 considerably the nitrogen content as, other things being equal, the 

 lower the absolute weight the higher the nitrogen. Again, no 

 milling and baking tests were made in these experiments and the 

 conclusions are based entirely on the analytical data. 



In Canada, Shutt has continued his investigations on the in- 

 fluence of environment on the composition of wheat, and the results 

 are published in the Report of the Canadian Experimental Farms for 

 1909, 1910 and 1911. The experiments were conducted principally 

 with Fife wheat at Lethbridge in South Alberta and are concerned 

 with the influence of soil moisture on composition. In 1909 and 1910 

 especially, the samples from the non-irrigated land, in which the soil 

 moisture decreased up to harvest time, contained a much higher 

 percentage of nitrogen than those from the irrigated plots in which 

 the soil moisture was appreciably greater. The samples do not 

 seem to have been milled and baked so that it is not possible to 

 determine how far the milling and baking characters have been 

 influenced by the conditions under which the wheats were produced. 

 Further, the absolute weight in the experiments of 1909 and 1910 is 

 not stated, so that it is not possible to say whether the wheats 

 compared were equally well grown or not. 



Evans 1 has conducted some investigations bearing on the in- 

 fluence of soil moisture on consistency and composition in the Central 



1 Evans, Bull.:], Central Provinces Department of Agr., 1909. 



