A Study of Colorado Wheat 
47 
mealiness as wheat grown with irrigation. Water applied to the soil 
■up to 3 acre-feet in 102 days does not produce mealiness to any greater 
extent than i acre-foot, or than may occur in dry-land wheat. It is 
shown, further, that when the water is applied to the plant in a succes¬ 
sion of light rains very marked effects may be produced upon the com¬ 
position of the plant and the grain, but the question of flintiness and 
mealiness, and the characteristics of such kernels, remain unaffected. 
MEALINESS CAUSED BY TOO HIGH A RATIO OF POTASSIUM TO 
AVAILABLE NITROGEN 
It was stated in Bulletin 205 that the cause of mealiness was an un¬ 
favorable ratio of potassium to available nitrogen, which, for the wheat 
plant, is equivalent to nitric-nitrogen. By unfavorable ratio of potas¬ 
sium in this case is meant one which is too high. Just what too high 
a one is we have not determined, but in our soil the application of 40 
pounds of nitrogen in the form of sodic nitrate at the time of seeding 
spring-wheat is sufficient to change the product from a light colored 
one, in which plump, mealy berries, low in nitrogen are abundant, to 
one in which the berries are smaller, possibly shrunken, flinty, translu¬ 
cent, and richer in nitrogen. How much washing with irrigating water 
it may take to remove this nitrate beyond the reach of the plant and 
prevent its production of flinty grains has not been determined. Two 
feet of water, one applied on 12 June the other on 12 July, plus 7 
inches of rainfall during the season, will not suffice to do it, nor will 6 
inches of irrigating water plus 13 inches of rainfall prevent its pro¬ 
ducing flinty berries, even when no lodging takes place. Further, it 
has not been determined how small a quantity of nitrogen applied in 
this form may produce this effect, nor has it been determined at what 
period in the development of the plant its application will produce the 
most favorable result. We have demonstrated that application of 
nitrates made four weeks later still affect the growth of the plant, and 
further, that 80 pounds of nitrogen apphed in two equal dressings 
four weeks apart will almost certainly do injury by lodging the straw, 
shrivelling the wheat, and inducing an attack of rust. 
In Parts I and II of this study we have given much attention to 
the moisture, and also to the nitrates in the soil, their distribution, and 
the rate of their formation, because of their importance in this con¬ 
nection. 
There is another view of the yellow-berry subject which connects 
it still more intimately with our experiments. This is the question 
whether the composition of flinty berries, such as is produced by the 
application of nitrogen as sodic nitrate, is desirable or not, which we 
will consider after we have given further data pertaining to our crops. 
