ELEMENTAL COMPOSITION OF THE CORN PLANT 1 
By W. L. Latshaw, Analytical Chemist, Department of Chemistry, and E. C. Miller, 
Plant Physiologist , Department of Botany, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station 
INTRODUCTION 
Our knowledge concerning the elemental composition of many of the 
more common agricultural plants is rather limited and fragmentary. 
The data on this subject have been obtained frequently from material 
that has been collected under no stated conditions and the earlier deter¬ 
minations are now open to criticism on account of the questionable 
accuracy of the methods of analysis employed. An accurate elemental 
analysis of a few mature plants of a given crop grown under well-defined 
conditions of soil and climate should furnish data from which the amount 
of the various elements removed from the soil by the crop could be fairly 
accurately estimated. For this reason it was thought advisable, in 
some of the experimental work with corn at the Kansas Agricultural 
Experiment Station, to make an elemental analysis of the plant. With 
this in view material was collected from mature Pride of Saline com 
plants grown in the field at Manhattan, Kans., during the summer 
of 1920. 
CULTURAL METHODS 
The plants used in this experiment were grown on plots that had 
been continuously cropped to corn for about 10 years. The soil was a 
fertile sandy loam and showed little difference in texture in the first 
4 feet. The ground was plowed to a depth of 6 inches in the late fall 
and received no other cultivation until the following spring, when it 
was worked into good condition just previous to planting. The seed 
was surface planted on May 12 in rows 42 inches apart, and after the 
plants had reached a height of about 3 inches, they were thinned in the 
row to a distance of 2 feet between each plant. The plot was kept free 
from weeds by hoeing, and with the exception of a shallow cultivation 
on June 3 the soil was not stirred during the growing season. Since no 
visible signs of wilting were evident at any time during the summer, it 
is assumed that the supply of water in the soil was adequate. A sum¬ 
mary of the general climatic conditions prevailing during the growing 
season is given in Table I. 
1 Received for publication Mar. i, 1924. Published with the approval of the Director as paper No. 219, 
Department of Botany, and paper No. 106, Department of Chemistry, Kansas Agricultural Experiment 
Station. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. XXVII, No. 11 
Washington, D. C. Mar. 15,1924 
Key No. Kans.-42 
85606—24-4 
(845) 
