4 8 
Colorado Experiment Station 
effects of “climatic conditions" as influencing the composition of the 
wheat kernels, which has been and will doubtlessly continue to be the 
chief object of study in connection with this plant, that the influ¬ 
ence of the soil and its composition has been relegated to a com¬ 
paratively subordinate position. 
The application of sodic nitrate has increased the total amount 
of ash and produced, in addition to its effects upon the nitrogenous 
constituents, three effects upon the mineral constituents of the 
plants, which appear from data given in this connection. The three 
effects here alluded to are the depression of the silicon and the in¬ 
crease of the potassium and calcium. The increase of the latter 
two elements is very pronounced in two of the three vareties of 
wheat used in the experiments. Another result is that the sodium 
is uniformly increased by the application of sodic nitrate, but the 
total amount of sodium present in any case is so small and our 
ignorance of the part that sodium may play in the nutrition of the 
plant is so great that we are compelled to consider it an open ques¬ 
tion whether this is not to be considered an accidental constituent 
which has been increased by its association with the nitrogen applied. 
The application of the sodic nitrate has also, as a rule, increased the 
magnesium while its effect upon the amount of phosphorus in the 
plant seems to be nil. 
The application of phosphorus and potassium to the soil seem 
uniformly to have lowered the amount of phosphorus in the plant 
which is, perhaps, a matter for some surprise. 
The amount of potassium in the plant does not appear to have 
been influenced perceptibly by the application of either phosphorus 
or potassium. That the variety experimented with has some influ¬ 
ence is suggested rather strongly by the results obtained with the 
Kubanka, though these samples were grown in 1914 and were 
entirely ripe when gathered. 
We have now given the composition of our soil, the soil 
moisture, the total water received during the season of 1913, the 
nitric nitrogen in the soil for different dates throughout the season 
(1913) to two depths, namely, to the depth of four feet, represent¬ 
ed by series of samples taken on ten different dates, and to the depth 
of twelve feet represented by five series of samples taken on two 
dates, also the total nitrogen in the soil at different dates. Con¬ 
cerning the ash of the plant, w^e have given the amount soluble in 
water, the total, the distribution of silicon in the plant and the rela¬ 
tive quantities of the constituents. 
The data so far given are almost wholly for the experiments of 
1913 and the results represent the effects of our conditions of soil 
under identical climatic conditions. 
