Research Bulletin No. 3 
The plant in surface soil developed much like the plants in 
the Holdrege and Hastings cylinders, but unlike these it formed 
two branches. The second did not grow more than a few inches 
but the first formed a head. Xeither this nor the head on the 
main stalk emerged fully from the sheath. The head on the 
branch formed two seeds and that on the main stalk three. On 
May 30 the plant was dying and on June 20 was quite dead. The 
cylinder was opened on the next day. Roots reached to the bot- 
tom of the cylinder but those in the lower portion were few in 
number. The separation of the roots in the case of this cylin- 
der was very difficult on account of the large number of old root 
fragments originally present in the soil. Those from the sixth 
foot were lost before being photographed. Only in the case of 
the surface foot was the free water exhausted, but in the next 
three feet of soil, while the moisture content was considerably 
above the hygroscopic coefficient, it was below the wilting co- 
efficient. In the lowest two feet free water was still abundant, 
there being 19.3 per cent in the sixth foot. 
The crevice between soil column and cylinder wall had reached 
to 6. 6. 9. and 9 inches in the case of the H O. Wauneta. McCook, 
and Lincoln cylinders respectively. In the case of the Holdrege 
and Hastings cylinders a small crevice extended to 48 and 42 
inches respectively. In the case of the surface soil a large 
crevice, one-fourth inch wide, had formed to 30 inches and a 
smaller one, one-eighth inch wide, to 48 inches. This had been 
filled by the spatula with fine, dry soil which on opening the 
cylinder was found to completely fill the crevice to a depth of 12 
inches but not below. For reasons already given (p. 36) it is 
safe to consider that these crevices had little or no effect upon 
the exhaustion of the soil moisture. 
The five plants from the H O, Wauneta. McCook. Holdrege, 
and Hastings cylinders are quite comparable with the ten plants 1 
from which the seed had been obtained, altho they were somewhat 
taller, weighed more, and produced more seed than the original 
plants. The comparison is shown in Table 25. 
Judging from root distribution, final moisture conditions, 
and observed changes in the condition of the plants, the death 
of the plants in the five cylinders of soil from the areas west of 
Lincoln was due entirely to exhaustion of the water supply. In 
four cases, viz. Wauneta. McCook Holdrege. and Hastings, the 
conditions were extremely favorable to the complete exhaustion 
of the water, in that after a very extensive root system had been 
developed thruout the soil mass the death of the main portion of 
1 Secured by the writer from a field near Cuervo, N. M., in September, 
1910. The seed planted was from the mixture of the seed from ten 
plants. 
