46 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
percentages of the average of the yields from the two mineral 
plots. This comparison of results obtained on the sections 
having mineral fertilizers only with the results obtained on 
sections having different quantities of nitrogen in addition to 
the mineral fertilizers serves to show the relative increase of 
dry matter and of protein which follows the use of nitrogen in 
the fertilizer. 
In the discussion of results it seems best to omit the con- 
sideration of those obtained on the sections to which no 
fertilizer was applied, as they are apparently abnormal, the 
proportion of protein in the crops being in some cases higher 
than that in the crops grown with considerable quantities of 
nitrogenous fertilizers. This same thing has been observed 
in previous experiments, and is explained in former Re- 
ports* as probably due to the fact that in the grain grown 
without fertilizers there is a large proportion of ‘“‘ poor’’ or 
‘“soft’’? kernels. These latter have been shown by analysis to 
contain a larger percentage of protein than is found in matured 
corn, owing possibly to an incomplete development of starch 
and oil in the immature seeds. In the crop from the sections 
supplied with mineral fertilizers only, the percentages of protein 
in the grain and in the stover were less in nearly all cases than 
in the crop obtained from those sections supplied with nitrogen. 
It will be noticed, too, that the percentages of protein in the 
grain and in the stover from the mineral sections were quite 
uniform for the same series of sections. This would seem to 
indicate that the conditions of soil were quite uniform on the 
sections to which the mineral fertilizers only were applied. In 
the case of the sections supplied with nitrogen in addition to the 
minerals the percentages of protein increase gradually (with 
one exception, section A, plot 12) with the increase in the 
quantities of nitrogen used. ‘This accords quite well with the 
results obtained in similar experiments in previous years, and 
shows that, up to a certain limit at least, the proportion of 
protein in the grain and in the stover tends to increase with 
the amounts of nitrogen used in the fertilizer. 

* See p. 28 of the Report of this Station for 1890; also p. 136 of the Report sor 1898. 
