Or we may express the results in another form, the amount contained in one ton of straw, and the products of 30 bushels of wheat, which may be reckoned as an average crop, expressing the amounts in pounds as follows:
AMOUNTS OF SELECTED CONSTITUENTS
IN THIRTY
BUSHELS OF WHEAT AND ITS PROPORTION OF
STRAW.
_____________________________________________________
| | | |
|
|Nitrogen.|Phosphoric| Potash. | Lime.
|
| | Acid. | |
|
| | | |
|
+---------+----------+---------+---------+
| | | |
|
Straw. | 11.20 | 2.67 | 13.76 | 6.20
|
Flour. | 22.17 | 2.76 | 1.62 | 0.39
|
Middlings. | 3.15 | 2.01 | 0.72 | 0.06
|
Shipstuff. | 1.68 | 1.32 | 0.63 | 0.09
|
Bran. | 6.84 | 7.53 | 2.49 | 0.36
|
+---------+----------+---------+---------+
Totals. | 45.04 | 16.29 | 19.22 | 7.10
|
____________|_________|__________|_________|_________|
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From numerous investigations it has been found that in regard to the nitrogen and the ash constituents, there is striking evidence of the much greater influence of season than of manuring on the composition of a ripened wheat plant, and especially of its final product—the seed. Further, under equal circumstances the mineral composition of the wheat grain, excepting in cases of very abnormal exhaustion, is very little affected by different conditions as to manuring, provided only that the grain is well and normally ripened. Again, it is found that the composition may vary very greatly with variations of season, that is, with variations in the conditions of seed formation and maturation, upon which the organic composition of the grain depends. In other words, differences in the mineral composition of the ripened grain are associated with differences in its organic composition, and hence the great value of proper selection both for seed and for milling purposes.
AMERICAN WHEATS.
In a comprehensive treatise on the composition of American wheats, Mr. Clifford Richardson says we cannot attribute the poverty of American wheats in nitrogen as a whole to an enhanced starch formation, and for the following reasons: An enhanced formation of starch, there being no poverty of nitrogen in the soil, increases the weight of the grain and diminishes the relative percentage of nitrogen. Were this the cause of the relatively low percentage of nitrogen in the American wheats, the grain from the Eastern States, which are poorest in this respect, would be