92 
Colorado Experiment Station 
differences in the protein content of the three crops we will be justified 
in asserting that this is the cause that has determined the character of 
our wheats for 1914 and 1915* 
The yield, weight per bushel, and the physical properties of the 
1914 crop were all that we could wish, and I had no notion of the ex¬ 
istence of any such facts as we find, pertaining to the composition, till 
the analyses revealed them. This was also in part true of the 1915 
crop, for even in this crop 21 of the 24 plots planted to Red Fife and 
Kubanka yield from 21.95 40.83 bushels per acre, and the wheat from 
these 21 plots weighed from 60 to 63 pounds per bushel, but as appears 
from the average composition exhibited in the preceding table, the 
wheat is very inferior. 
CAUSES OF INFERIOR WHEAT GROWN IN 1914 
The causes which may have produced these results are, in the 
first place, lack of fertility, in the second place, excess of water and 
improper temperature which we will include under the term climatic 
conditions, and in the third place, the rust that developed upon the 
plants. 
Lack of Fertility Not Responsible 
In regard to the first cause, we have previously stated that we 
have no data of such convincing force that we feel entirely satisfied 
to assert that there might not have been something lacking in this re¬ 
spect, either in the quantity present or in its ratio to other plant foods. 
Nevertheless, these data convince me most thoroughly that this was not 
the case. The facts that appear to me as really conclusive that the very 
low protein content of the wheat in 1914 and 1915 was not due to this, 
i.e., lack of fertility, are the luxuriant growth of the plants, the yield 
of wheat, and its weight per bushel. 
On the theory that the carbohydrates are deposited at or near the 
end of the plant’s activity, and that the plumpness and weight per bushel 
depend upon the degree of perfection with which this process is car¬ 
ried out at the time of maturity, it may be suggested, as is frequently 
stated in the literature of this subject, that the volume of the crop 
would necessarily correspond to a low protein content. This sug¬ 
gestion does not apply, for in 1913 our Defiance checks plots yielded 
an average of 41.i bushels, weighing 62.3 pounds per bushel, with 11.86 
percent of protein; the same plots in 1914 yielded an average of 31*1 
bushels, weighing 56.7 pounds per bushel, with 9.383 percent protein. 
We need not confine this statement to the Defiance. The Fife plots 
treated with potassium in 1913 yielded 32.67 bushels per acre, weight 
per bushel 63.75 pounds, average protein 13.81 percent; the same plots 
with the same treatment yielded in 1915? 3 ^a 6 bushels per acre, weight 
