EE eae Seats PR es Sey DS a 
1910] SCHREINER & SKINNER—ABSORPTION AND GROWTH zt 
cent nitrate. Of the single fertilizer ingredients, the nitrate culture 
is the best, and this is usually followed by the potassium culture, the 
phosphate culture being in general the poorest of the entire triangle, 
The cultures in the interior of the triangle do not show so marked a 
difference, although it is apparent that there is a tendency toward a 
rise in the middle of anv line, this being displaced somewhat along 
some of the lines so as to give the effect of the highest and better region 
of growth lying in the middle of the lower part of the triangle; i.e., 
nearer to the potassium-nitrogen base. The set grew from February 
25 to March 21. The green weights obtained in the sixty-six cultures 
are given in the triangular diagram shown in fig. 3. A more detailed 
discussion as well as grouping of these green weights, their correlation 
with the concentration of the solution, —< the amount of nutrients 
removed will be given later. 
As has already been stated, the solutions were analyzed every 
third day for the three component fertilizer parts, phosphate, nitrate, 
and potash, expressed as P,O,, NH,, and K,O. The original con- 
centrations in these elements were in the sum total 80 parts per mil- 
lion. After the analysis the sum total of the three component parts 
was again calculated and the average concentrations of these three 
elements was again ascertained for the eight periods. The average 
concentrations will be found in the diagram in fig. 4. It is thus 
apparent that more of the essential ingredients were removed in the 
interior of the triangle; i.e., there was a greater absorption where 
all three were combined than where only two elements were present, 
and the least removal took place in those cultures where the single 
salts were present. It is also noticeable that in the solutions contain- 
ing the three fertilizer elements the greatest removal occurred in that 
region of the diagram where the greatest growth occurred. A more 
detailed discussion of these results and their component parts will 
be given later in this paper. 
Ratios of P,O., NH,, and K,O, found in the various cultures 
It might be said that in all cases the ratio in the final solution was 
never the same as the original ratio. The amount of change which 
had taken place, however, was markedly different in the different 
solutions and depended largely upon what the original ratio was. In 
