38 
Colorado Experiment Station 
ditioiis. While there is no doubt but that lack of sunshine and excessive 
moisture, especially as rainfall, influence the composition of the wheat 
kernel, it is probably seldom the case that it goes so far as to determine 
the flintiness or mealiness of the kernel, or if it does, it is probably by 
its direct influence upon* the food supply in the soil in washing the 
nitrates below the feeding area of the plant roots, rather than by its 
direct action upon the plant itself. There is no doubt but that these 
agents, frequent rains and cloudy weather, have a direct influence upon 
the plant which follows from the data given in our Bulletin 217,' but 
it is not so great nor in the direction assigned to it in these quotations* 
We shall further give some data to show that it is difficult to remove 
enough nitrates by the application of water to produce the effects at¬ 
tributed to it, and it is for this reason that I have just said that it 
is probably seldom the case that it goes so far as to determine the 
flintiness or mealiness of the kernel. This effect of excessive rain, 
the washing out or reducing the amount of nitrates in the soil, was 
pointed out by Lawes and Gilbert in their article ‘‘Our Climate and 
Our Wheat-Crops” and again, in the article “On the Rain and Drainage 
Waters of Rothamsted”. 
I wish in this connection to emphasize the statement previously 
insisted upon that analytical results obtained with samples of wheats 
unaccompanied by a full account of all of the conditions under which 
they were grown are too difficult of correct interpretation to justify 
reliance upon any interpretation offered for such analytical facts. In 
this connection I appreciate that the conditions under which the crops 
of which Lawes and Gilbert wrote, grew, were wholly different from 
those under which my samples were grown. They wrote of winter- 
wheat which seemingly had a growing period, i.e., from planting till 
harvest, of ten months or more. My observations have been made, 
principally, on spring-wheats with growing periods varying from loi 
to 128 days. The rainfall given for 1878-79 at Rothamsted is 42.29 
inches. The average annual rainfall at Fort Collins is 14.9 inches, in 
the exceptional year of 1915 it was about 22.5 inches. The rainfall 
during the total growing period of our spring-wheat is usually about 
7 inches; in 1915 it was a little over 13 inches. Our mean temperature 
for the growing period is higher than the mean temperature under 
ivhick their crops were grown. It would seem to be unnecessary to 
state these facts, but it is, perhaps, wise to do so lest it be thought 
that I failed to consider them. 
EFFECTS OF NITROGEN AND PHOSPHORUS ON FLINTINESS OR 
MEALINESS 
In Bulletin 205 I aimed to do exactly what is suggested by its 
title, to point out the cause of flintiness and mealiness in our grains 
