I lO 
Colorado Expe;riment Station 
the grain. Associated with this increased amount of phosphorus there Is 
an increased quantity of potassium and a decreased amount of nitrogen.” 
Another conclusion is formulated as follows: ^‘The percentage of nit¬ 
rogen in the w^heat plant varies with the supply at its disposal, and is also 
influenced to a considerable extent by the supply of phosphorus.” p. 23 . 
This observation of Ames is undoubtedly correct, but I have omitted, 
in the preceding discussion, reference to these facts, preferring to 
consider the more evident and commonly considered features, though 
not necessarily the more important ones. 
THE EFFECTS OF THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF PLANT FOOD 
UNDER OUR CONDITIONS 
Nearly all of' our data has been presentel but up to the present time 
I have given consideration to such subjects as have been forced upon 
me by the questions arising from the conditions that prevailed in the 
different seasons. There has been no neglect of the object had in view 
when we planned the experiments, but the questions presented had to 
be answered in some manner before we could discuss those which our 
experiments were made to answer. Without first answering the ques¬ 
tions that we have present we could not answer the ones that we wished 
to discuss, i.e.. What are the effects of the respective elements of 
plant food under our conditions ? The answer tO' this question is neces¬ 
sary in order to approach the primary question of our investigation, to- 
wit: Why do wheats soften, if they do, under our conditions? 
At the present time we can discuss only the questions of compo¬ 
sition and physical properties, and if to any degree at all, only incident¬ 
ally, any matter pertaining to the baking qualities of the flour. Our 
experiments resolve themselves into' three experiments repeated four 
times with each of three varieties of wheat each year; namely, a check 
plot and three others, one of which received an application of potass¬ 
ium, one phosphorus and one nitrogen. The fundamental data are, of 
course, taken to be those furnished by the check plots. In making this 
choice of arrangements I fully appreciated that it was a purely gratuit¬ 
ous assumption that our check plots would yield normal wheat for our 
conditions- But this seemed to be a matter of some indifference, for 
the character of the wheat produced on the plots receiving the individ¬ 
ual fertilizer would be like that produced on the check plot or they 
would be either better or worse, and as we repeated this nine times 
a year with each of the fertilizers we hoped to find out what effect the 
individual plant foods produce under our conditions. As has already 
been pointed out, climatic and pathological conditions intervened which 
produced very serious results. I have presented these results to the 
best of my ability and I hope in an entirely unprejudiced manner. It 
remains for me to present the effects produced by these fertilizers as 
I believe them to be shown by our data. 
