32 
COI.ORADO Experiment Station 
that the relative amount of nitrogen is determined by the climate. 
Lawes and Gilbert, in an article entitled, “Our Climate and Our Wheat' 
Crops’V'' quote from a preceding article which appeared in the Journal 
of the Royal Agricultural Society of England Vol. IX, Part i, p. 96: 
'Thus it is obvious that different seasons will differ almost infinitely at 
each succeeding- period of their advance, and that with each variation the 
character of development of the plant will also vary, tending to luxuriance, 
or to maturation, that is, to quantity or to quality as the case may be. 
Thence, only a very detailed consideration of climatic statistics, taken to- 
* 
gether with careful periodic observations in the field, can afford a really 
clear perception of the connection between the ever fluctuating characters 
of season and the equally fluctuating characters of growth and produce. 
It is, in fact, the distribution of the various elements making up the season, 
their mutual adaptations, and their adaptation to the growth of the plant 
which throughout influence the tendency to produce quantity or quality. 
It not infrequently happens, too, that some passing conditions, not indicated 
by a summary of the meteorological registry, may affect the crop very 
strikingly; and thus the cause will be overlooked, unless observations also 
be made and the: stage of progress and tendencies of grow-th of the crop 
itself at the time, be likewise taken into account." This article reviews 
the weather conditions and the wheat crops< in England from 1816 to 
1879, but more particularly from 1843-44 till 1878-79. During* the lat¬ 
ter period they select six seasons during which the yield of straw and 
grain were both high, four seasons with high yield of grain and low 
yield of straw, and four seasons during which the total produce was 
low. They give the total number of rainy days, i.e., days on which 
o.oi inch or more of rain fell. With 140 rainy days the yield of both 
straw and grain was high. With 136 rainy days the yield of grain was 
high, of straw low. With 199 rainy days the total produce was low. 
In discussing the wheat crop of 1878-79 at Rothamsted, one of the 
])Oorest crops on record at that time, they had 226 rainy days, with 
42.29 inches of rainfall. In comparing the two very bad seasons of 
1816 and 1879 these authors conclude: “Lastly, it would appear that any 
defect of our climate in appropriateness for the production of full and well- 
matured wheat crops is more connected with an excess of rain and) conse¬ 
quent wetness of soil and humidity of atmosphere, than with any deficiency 
of average summer temperature.*' In regard to the yield of grain in 
1879, it appears from the data given that it was about one-half of the 
average crop for the preceding 27 years. In regard to quality, the 
weight per bushel seems to have been taken as the measure. In fact, 
^o far as I can gather, they use the terms “quality” and “weight per 
* Rothamsted Memoirs, Vol. V. 11 th Article, j), 1 . or Journal Roy. Ag*. Soc. 
Engr. Vol. X\'r, .s. s. Part 1 . p. 
