19 



The two samples, composed of three crops each, analyzed very 

 nearly the same. The lime was a little higher and the potash and iron 

 a little lower in crops A, B, and C than in crops D, E, and F. These 

 differences hold for aU four plats, so they can hardly be chance 

 variations. It seems probable that they arc due to cHmatic influ- 

 ences which afl'ect the plant directly or through the soil. 



In Taljlc X are given the relative ash compositions and the relative 

 amounts of ash constituents in the dry substance of the plants from 

 the different plats, the percentages of the different elements in the 

 plants from Plat I being taken as 100 in each case. The results ai-e 

 an average of the two lots analyzed, given in Table IX. 



Table X. — Relative ash composition of soy heans from different plats. 



The carbonate of lime in the soil had little more effect in varying 

 the ash content of soy beans than it had on bush beans. As with 

 bush beans, the most notable variation appeared in the regular 

 decrease in the iron content of the plant with mcreasing amounts of 

 carbonate of lime in the soil. The other variations that occurred 

 are of lesser order, not exceeding 10 per cent except in the case of 

 silica. There was a small but regular increase in- the amount of lime 

 in the dry substance of the plant with increasing amounts of lime in 

 the soil; in Plat II, however, the increase was not greater than the 

 probable error. Proportionate to the increase in lime, there was a 

 decrease in the amount of magnesia in the dry substance of the plant 

 with increasing amounts of carbonate of lime in the plats. The 

 remaining constituents in the plants showed no parallehsm with the 

 lime content of the soils. The gi-eater amount of silica in the plants 

 grown in the calcareous soil appears anomalous. 



SUNFLOWERS. 



Six crops of large Russian sunflowers were grown. The plants 

 were harvested when the heads had formed, but before the seeds were 

 fully developed. At this stage the leaves were soimd, except a few 

 of the lower ones, which were not included in the sample for analysis. 



