IV.] 



EFFECT OF SEASON UPON WHEAT 



67 



from the northern parts of the country, where growth is 

 more prolonged and ripening less complete, is always 

 of better feeding value than straw grown where drier 

 and hotter summers prevail. Some of these points 

 are illustrated in Table VII., which shows the nitro- 

 gen in grain and straw and the ratio between them, 

 of the wheat grown on three of the Rothamsted plots 

 in two sharply contrasted seasons — 1852, which was cold 

 and wet ; and 1863, which was hot and dry : — 



Tablb VII.- 



-Composition of Wheat Crop in Wet and Dry 

 Seasons. 



Thus in the wet year, 1852, there is a smaller propor- 

 tion of grain, and the straw is left much richer in 

 nitrogen than in the dry year; the heavily manured 

 plots 2 and 7 also show a greater proportion of straw, 

 which is richer in nitrogen than that from the 

 unmanured plot. If we compare the wettest season 

 known at Rothamsted, 1879, with one of the hottest 

 and driest, 1893, we find the proportion of grain to straw 

 on the unmanured plot, which on the average is 70 per 

 cent, varied from 43 in the wet year 1879, to no in 

 the dry season of 1893. 



As to the effect of heavy nitrogenous manuring, an 

 example may be taken from some of the Rothamsted 



