A Study of Colorado Wheat 
51 
only partially successful. One must acknowledge, however, that no 
one of the 21 samples of this variety tested showed more than a me¬ 
dium degree of hardness, according to this test. The maximum crush¬ 
ing strength, 11,212 grams, is found in the air-dried sample grown with 
the application of 80 pounds of nitrogen. This sample is to all appear¬ 
ances an unexceptional one. 
PLANT’S NOURISHMENT INFLUENCES CRUSHING STRENGTH 
Whether the result of classification by this method corresponds 
to the milling or flour-making qualities of the wheat or not, it serves 
to show according to the table given, that the plant’s nourishment act¬ 
ually influences the crushing strength of the average kernel, and that 
yellow-berries are more easily crushed than the flinty ones. This is 
a conclusion at which one arrives with just as satisfactory a degree of 
certainty by crushing the berries between his teeth, but this method 
gives no measure of the difference. The differences in the cases given 
in thej table, vary, from 1,400 to 5,000 grams, in favor of the flinty 
berries, and if a variation of 200 or even 300 grams from the true 
average exists, it scarcely lessens the value of the result, for it is only 
an approximation to the true average. 
The results obtained with the Defiance samples, would seem to 
contradict all that we have affirmed concerning the effects of nitrates 
upon this feature of the kernels. An examination of the samples, how¬ 
ever, suggests a ready explanation for the results. The sample grown 
with the application of potassium, consists of light-colored, plump 
kernels with a very low percentage of mealiness, while that grown with 
the application of nitrogen, consists of dark-colored, small, and to a 
large extent, badly shrunken kernels, so that the results given by the 
testing machine are just what one would expect from a simple exam¬ 
ination of the samples. Had we picked out the shrunken kernels from 
the sample grown with nitrogen, or even sifted out the small kernels, 
and compared kernels of equal size we, undoubtedly, would have had a 
very different result. Such a procedure was, of course, not to be 
thought of; it would, however, have given us results for kernels more 
nearly normal and equal in size. How, significant this factor is, may 
be inferred from the fact that the crushing strength of the individual 
kernels in the case of the nitrate sample varies from 5,000 to 17,000 
grams. The difference in the size of the kernels is indicated by the 
weight for 1,000 kernels. The wheat grown with nitrate weighed 31-5 
grams and that grown with potassium weighed 38.77, a difference of 
23.0 percent. There was more difference! than is suggested by these 
weights, for the wheat grown with the application of nitrogen is 
shrunken while that grown under other conditions is full and round; 
