Development of Root System of Wheat in Different 
Kinds of Soils and with Different Methods of 
Watering. 
BY 
KHARAK SINGH, M.A.L., 
of Punjab Agricultural College , Lyallpur , India, 
(. Rothamsted Experimental Station.) 
With three Figures in the Text. 
STUDY of the development of the root system in different kinds of 
soil and under varying conditions of manuring, watering, and cultiva- 
tion, is of considerable importance in the Punjab (India), especially where 
the crops have to depend mainly on artificial irrigation. 
The experiments to be described were confined to growing wheat in 
pots only. The plants were grown in two sets. The first set, A, was sown 
on the 2i st of April and the second, B, on the 31st of May. 
Set A. Six pots — 8^ in. x 11 in. each — of each of the soils referred 
to below were taken. Three of these were watered from above as usual, 
and three were watered from below as explained later on. These thirty pots 
were divided into three lots of ten similar pots each, from which the wheat 
roots were washed out at three different stages of the growth of the plants, 
i. e. 35, 55, and 88 days after sowing. The pots were numbered as 
follows : 
1. Heavy Rothamsted soil watered from below. 
2. ., watered from above. 
3. 25 per cent, sand + 75 per cent, soil No. 1 watered from below. 
4. „ „ watered from above. 
5. Brick-powder watered from below. 
6 . „ watered from above. 
7. 50 per cent, sand + 50 per cent, soil No. 1 watered from below. 
8. ,, ,, watered from above. 
9. Sand lying on 3 in. of farm-yard manure watered from below. 
10. „ „ watered from above. 
Sowing . — Seeds of wheat (Red Standard) were graded between 0-06 and 
0-07 grm. Two seeds were sown in the centre of each pot, and as the 
seedlings came up they were reduced to one in each pot on the 9th of May. 
They were watered as required, the same amount of water being applied to 
all the pots. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXXVI. No. CXLIII. July, 1922.] 
