A Study of Colorado Wheat 113 
7.87 percent true gluten for those grown with the application of the 
nitrates. We have, then, a characteristic distinction in the composition 
of these wheats which is independent of the weather conditions, at 
least within the extent that they varied in these three seasons, and 
also independent of the pathological effects produced by the rust. I 
have explained that I attribute the depression of the average percent¬ 
age of protein from 12.53 19^3 to 8.95 in 1915 to the direct influ¬ 
ence of the rust and do not believe that the weather has much direct 
influence upon it. Of course, I do not assert that it had no influence, 
but I think that this influence was negligible compared with that of the 
rust. The effect of the rust was certainly as severe in the case of the 
grain produced with the application of nitrates as in that of the others, 
in fact it was certainly much more severe if the effect is proportional 
to the abundance of the parasite on the plant* The differences given 
for the protein in the wheats grown with and without nitrates are 1.64 
percent in 1913, 2.22 in 1914, and 2.55 in 1915* These figures repre¬ 
sent the crop. There were almost no mealy berries in the samples 
grown with the nitrate, but in the other samples there were a great 
many, up to 96 percent, mealy or half-mealy berries. The differences 
found in the crops, taken in mass, are about the same as those found 
for the flinty and mealy berries selected out of the same samples. The 
table given to show this difference shows that the Kubanka, in which 
a much sharper division of the flinty and mealy kernels is possible than 
in the case of the Fife, presents a variation of this difference, ranging 
from 1.9 to 2.7 percent. We produced the flintiness in one crop, and 
with it the increase of nitrogen, by the application of sodic nitrate or 
nitric-nitrogen. The same difference is found in the flinty kernels 
selected from the produce of the other plots. I attribute it to the same 
cause. If it be asked whether I assert that the nitric-nitrogen varies 
enough from place to place in a piece of land to produce this result, I 
answer yes. This is the explanation that I offer for the facts pre¬ 
sented by Prof. Montgomery in Bulletin 269 of the Bureau ofi Plant 
Industry, and is my answer to the questions which he formulates as 
follows: “Why should one plant growing under practically the same en- 
viroment as another, collect from the soil two or three times as much nitro¬ 
gen?” Prof. Montgomery continues, giving answer to suggested, but 
unexpressed questions: “The three plants are from the same mother 
growing in the same centgener probably less than two feet apart, yet 
the actual grams of nitrogen gathered differ more than 100 percent. This 
difference is not inherited as these plants rarely transmit this qualiy.” 
The uniformity of enviroment, the fertility of the soil being included, 
was only apparent. The temperature, moisture, winds, sunshine may 
have been identical, but not the supply of available nitrogen. The wit¬ 
nesses to this fact are the percentages of nitrogen in the mature wheat* 
This is in perfect accord with the facts that we find pertaining to the 
