Jan. io, 1914 
Environmental Influences on Wheat 
287 
Table IV.) These averages agree with one another more closely than 
do those in Table III, proving that soils play a minor role in influencing 
the fiber content. 
PENTOSANS 
The pentosan content followed generally the fiber content, being high 
where the fiber content was high and low where the fiber content was low. 
SUGARS 
The sugar content of the samples grown in California was somewhat 
higher than that of those grown in Kansas or in Maryland. 
ASH 
If soil itself has any influence on the composition of the wheat, it is 
reasonable to expect that the mineral constituents especially will be thus 
influenced. Even here, however, in the case of ash, the soil factor is a 
minor or negligible one. There was a decided regularity in the ash 
content, and, like the physical properties and the protein content, this 
regularity consisted in an approximately uniform ash content of the 
samples grown during any one year in any one locality. Thus, during 
each of the four years California produced from all soils crops with a low 
ash content of about 1.9 per cent, while Kansas produced crops rela¬ 
tively higher in ash, averaging 2.30 per cent, and Maryland nearly as 
high, Varying somewhat, however, from year to year, with an average of 
2.22 per cent. The average ash content of all crops grown on each of 
the three soils, irrespective of the locality, showed but slight variation, 
being 2.13, 2.08, and 2.16 per cent for California, Kansas, and Maryland 
soils, respectively. 
PHOSPHORIC-ACID CONTENT OP THE WHOLE WHEAT AND OF THE ASH 
In most cases the amount of phosphoric acid rose or fell in the same 
proportion as the ash, so that the percentage of phosphoric acid in the 
ash remained practically constant, averaging 47 per cent for California, 
45 per cent for Kansas, and varying from 41 to 51 per cent in these two 
localities. The crops grown in Maryland, however, on all soils had a 
strangely high amount of phosphoric acid, averaging 53 per cent of the 
ash and varying from 51 to 59 per cent. There is no explanation for 
the fact that in Maryland all the soils used in this experiment supplied 
to the grain mineral constituents with a percentage of phosphoric acid 
much higher than that supplied by the same soils in California and in 
Kansas. It was apparently due to some climatic or seasonal conditions 
prevailing in Maryland. The kind of soil did not, however, affect the 
amount of phosphoric acid in the wheat or in the ash, for Table IV shows 
that the average in the wheat grown in the three localities on plats of 
California soil was 1.04 per cent, on plats of Kansas soil, 1.03 per cent, 
and on plats of Maryland soil, 1.05 per cent, and the phosphoric acid in 
the ash was 48 per cent in each case. 
