28 
Colorado Experiment Station 
219 of this station and we here have it expressing itself in the baking 
qualities of the flour. 
These results are independent of the weather conditions. In 1914 
we had an abundant crop of low quality of wheat, the cause of which 
was probably a spell of wet weather late in July which induced an 
abundant development of rust. I say probably because I cannot def¬ 
initely assert that this was the cause. But all other conditions were 
so favorable throughout the season that the low quality of the wheat 
and, as we now see, of the flour too, is a matter of surprise. This wet 
spell, followed by the rusting of the plants, is the only untoward con¬ 
dition that we have to offer in explanation. In 1915 we can state with 
full confidence that much rainv weather and a very severe attack of 
rust practically ruined some of our plots and injured all of them. 
These are climatic effects that are evident but they are fortunate events 
instead of regrettable ones from the standpoint of our study, for while 
they injured*our crops, this injury was concurrent with the develop¬ 
ment of the rust, as is shown in Bulletin No. 217, in which we discuss 
the development of the crop for 1915. They scarcely obscured the 
specific effects of the soil factors, i.e., those of the nitrate and potas¬ 
sium in any degree. The flintiness produced by the nitrate was char¬ 
acteristic in the one case and the mealiness in the other though some 
of the nitrate wheat was badly shrunken and most of the samples in a 
less degree. The flours made from these crops also show quite as 
pronouncedly as the better crops of 1913 and 1917 the effects of the 
nitrate upon the baking quality of the flour. This statement relative 
to the flour is true even in the case of the Defiance wheat grown with 
the application of nitrates, which was so shrunken that I could not sell 
it for milling purposes, but only as chicken feed. 
SHRUNKEN GRAIN YIELDED AS MUCH FLOUR AS OTHER SAMPLES 
Our experience with this excessively shrunken grain was a sur¬ 
prise to us in that it yielded as much flouE as the other samples of the 
same variety per 100 pounds. In the second place, this flour showed 
the characteristic effects of the nitrate as markedly as other samples 
of nitrate flour and this was also true of its baking qualities. This 
flour gave a better loaf than that prepared from the check plot or from 
the one dressed with phosphorus but inferior to the one prepared from 
the plot receiving ])Otassium. This is the only instance in which the 
nitrate flour did not yield the best loaf in every respect, but even in 
this worst case the climatic conditions, including the rust, did not con¬ 
ceal and scarcely modified in any degree the effects of the nitrate ap¬ 
plied to the soil. 
SERIES OF FACTS ESTABLISHED 
AVe have established a series of facts pertaining to tlie effects of 
the soil conditions upon the composition of the plants and upon the 
