28 
Colorado Experiment Station 
acid and 30,000 pounds for the potash. With such quantities present 
the variations shown by our analytical results, even if these be ab¬ 
solutely correct, are too uncertain in their significance to justify us 
in seriously undertaking to interpret them. These samples show so 
little variation, even though quantities greatly in excess of those 
available to the plants may be involved, that there can be but little 
object in considering them further. Reference to the analyses of 
this soil given on a preceding page (11) will further justify 
us in assuming that, while there may be some variation in the supply 
of phosphoric acid and potash in small and adjacent pieces of this 
land, the range is too small to admit of definite assertions in regard 
to its effects, especially as our knowledge of results obtained with 
the application of these individual fertilizers to this land leads us to 
believe that there is an abundant available supply of them present. 
This is the testimony of the crops raised and not simply an opinion. 
We have presented the last few paragraphs to exhibit, as far 
as we can depend upon our data, the variation in the amounts of 
nitrogen, nitric nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash from foot to 
foot within a small area. We could not, because of lack of time, 
examine plants, especially the wheat grown on a similar plot, to 
learn whether the composition of the wheat varied in a correspond¬ 
ing manner. We find, however, in Bulletin No. 269 of the Bureau 
of Plant Industry, that Prof. E. G. Montgomery, in trying to deter¬ 
mine the ‘'Experimental Error in the Nursery and Variation in 
Nitrogen and Yield," has practicaly done this and finds, using the 
nitrogen content as his measure, that there is a decided variation 
from place to place within very small areas. Prof. Montgomery 
determined this difference in quadrangular areas and also in 
parallel rows. He adopted as his standards of classification all 
plants yielding grain below 2.2 percent—from 2.2 to 2.8; from 
2.8 to 3; and all plants above 3 per cent. While these standards 
seem high they served his purpose well. The general result ob¬ 
tained was that the “highs” and “lows” tend to segregate, that is, 
there would be an area in which they would obtain, as a rule, high 
results, again an area in which they obtained low results. Con¬ 
cerning these variations he says: “Just why these wide fluctua¬ 
tions occur when every precaution is taken to grow plants under 
uniform conditions is not very apparent.” Again he says: “It is 
difficult to explain why such great variations exist when there 
seems to be little or no tendency to transmit them. It seems ap¬ 
parent that the variations must be due to differences in environ¬ 
ment. Since the ordinary factors of environment, as sunlight, 
warmth, moisture and apparent fertility of the soil, are constant 
for all plants under our nursery conditions, we must conclude that 
