TRI-LOCAL EXPERIMENTS ON THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRON- 

 MENT ON THE COMPOSITION OF WHEAT. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The variation in the composition of plants of the same species 

 when grown under different conditions has been the subject of much 

 study durinir the past half century. The term environment as here 

 used includes all the factors of any locality which might tend to in- 

 fluence the growth "f the plants, as, for instance, climatic conditions, 

 sil, time of planting and harvesting, method of cultivation and 

 manuring, previous crop and rotation, thickness of seeding, etc. By 

 climatic conditions rain, sunshine, humidity of the atmosphere, tem- 

 perature, winds, elevation, etc., are meant. 



The experiments here recorded were begun in 1905 with the col- 

 laboration of the Office of Grain Investigations of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, and consisted in growing wheat from the same origi- 

 nal >eed . ontinuously in each of the three apices of a triangle, for 

 example, (1) in Kansas,. Texas, and California, (2) in South Dakota, 

 Kansa>. and California. The crop from each apex was then sent to 

 the other two Mat i<>ns and there grown under the same conditions as 

 the continuously grown seed. There were thus three plots at each 

 apex, or station, all from the same original seed; one plot grown 

 continuously at that point, the seed of the other two plots coming 

 from the other points of the triangle. By this interchange of seed 

 it was po^ible to determine the influence of climate and soil and of 

 the kind of seed on the composition of the crop. 



PREVIOUS ENVIRONMENT EXPERIMENTS. 



Experiments to test the influence of environment on the composi- 

 tion of cereals were started some twenty or more years ago by Clif- 

 ford Richardson, under the direction of H. W. Wiley, Chief of the 

 Bureau of Chemistry. These consisted in growing the same varie- 

 ties of wheat, etc., in different localities, and Richardson concluded 

 from the data obtained that the soil exerted the greatest influence 

 on the composition, that is, that wheat grown in Colorado would 

 have approximately a constant percentage of gluten. In an article 



[Bull. 128] 



(7) 



