grasses, especially the pasture grass, has been studied at the Pennsylvania State College Agricultural Experiment Station, by G. L. Holter (Agr. Sci., Vol. III, p. 285), in connection with studies on the yield per acre. Samples of grass were cut every few days during the season (of 1887), but the comparisons with rainfall and temperature showed no definite relation, except, perhaps, that the percentage of ash increased as the temperature diminished. The following table gives the figures showing the average rainfall and temperature from the middle of one period to the middle of the next, and for the average of seven plats of ground:

If we assume that the whole season extended from May 10 to September 29, we may compute the average daily growth, which will be found to be very large at first, but rather uniform from June 13 to September 16, after which it steadily diminishes. The irregularities in the growth from one week to the next have no simple connection with rainfall or temperature, but there is no evidence to show that other climatic elements, such as sunshine and evaporation, would not have thrown some light upon the subject.

Mr. Holter has also experimented on the yield per acre of pasture grass, as measured week by week during the growing season of 1888 and 1889 at the Pennsylvania State College Agricultural Experiment Station. (See Agr. Sci., Vol. V, p. 52.) The plat experimented upon represents an average of the uplands of the Allegheny Mountains. The weather of the season was most favorable for the growth of grass, having a heavy, evenly distributed rainfall. The following table shows the dates of cutting and the average daily growth between these dates, expressed in pounds of dried grass per acre. It will be seen that there was a rapid increase in growth up to May 21, after which there was a steady decline. The daily average for the whole season. of one hundred and seventy-eight days

is 32.13 pounds of fresh matter and 9.06 of dry matter. Evidently a pasture that is fairly well stocked with cattle in May and June will be overstocked in August and September.

C. Richardson (Agr. Sci. Vol. I, p. 125) states that the quality of the grain produced in any locality is dependent principally on three conditions-the climate, the soil, and the cultivation. Wheat is most susceptible to its environments; thus the Atlantic slope produces a wheat grain of medium size and with less than the average amount of nitrogenous constituents. In this part of the country latitude exerts a minor influence.

In the Central States-Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas-the grain is larger and contains more nitrogen.

In the Northwest a grain is harvested smaller than anywhere and richer in nitrogen.

In Colorado, where irrigation is practiced, a large grain is grown which is rich in nitrogen.

On the northwest Pacific slope the grain is large, very starchy, and with less nitrogen than anywhere else.

The above conditions, as at present existing, are probably in a state of transition.

The following table shows the difference in the composition of the crops of standard varieties of wheat in Minnesota and Dakota :

The following table shows the differences for the varieties raised in the respective States:

The effect of climate and soil on wheat is strikingly shown in that a soft plump yellow wheat from Oregon and a small hard red variety from Minnesota, when used as seed in Colorado, in three years' time had lost nearly all their differences, so as to look more like Colorado grain than like their own originals."

A study of 38 varieties grown during seven years on one farm in Colorado shows a progressive change, as in the following table:

These determinations show plainly that the soil and other conditions in 1885 would not produce as good a crop from introduced seed as in 1881, and that the drop in character of the crops as a whole is due as much or more to soil than to season. The seven varieties grown for several years in Colorado which showed no signs of deterioration are on this account worth considering, since they are perhaps the varieties to select for the locality, because they may be more suited to the conditions there existing than any others. Attention is called to the fact that deterioration in quality, as evidenced by diminution of albuminoids, is shown by the loss of weight per bushel. In the present case drop of 1.2 per cent in albuminoids was accompanied by a loss in weight of 3 pounds per bushel. No other cereal seems to be influenced by its environment in the same way as wheat. Oats are more changed, by climate and soil, in the outward physical appearance and properties of the grain; barley is modified in its

a There is nothing to show how much this may have been due to spread of pollen from one field to the other.-C. A.

chemical composition; maize is modified as to its size; rye varies very little with change of conditions, except as to the effect upon the straw; but, as we have seen, wheat changes both its external appearance and its chemical constituents.

With regard to maize, the high ripening temperature of the Southern States appears to diminish the size of the kernel and prevent a large formation of starch. But the variations in size peculiar to the varieties are much smaller than variations that are due to the climate and soil, thus Dent varieties of corn from Tennessee and Indiana have been found weighing, respectively, 64.1 and 13.9 grams per 100 kernels, or a ratio of 5 to 1 in the weights of the kernels. Hence a comparison of the yield per acre by the weights of the crops would differ very much from a comparison by volumes in bushels. The percentage of albuminoids varies very much less in the large and small kernels of maize.

As to oats, the climatic surroundings cause a very large variation in their physical appearance. The extreme weights per bushel are 48.8 and 24.7 pounds; the extreme ratios in the weight of the kernel, with reference to the weight of the kernel plus the hull, are 79 and 55 per cent. The average composition all over the country as to the percentage of albuminoids is between 12 and 10 per cent, except in a few extreme cases of 9 and 19 per cents, which are as liable to occur in one locality as in another.

Barley is not as variable in composition and appearance as wheat and oats; the extreme weights per bushel are 60.2 and 50.4 pounds, and the extreme weights of 100 kernels are 4.900 and 2.630 grams; the extreme percentages of albuminoids are 14.88 and 8.75. For malting purposes the large quantity of albuminoid is not desirable, while starch is desirable.

WHEAT-GENERAL RELATIONS TO CLIMATE AND SOIL.

In his tenth census report Professor Brewer says:

While the cultivation of wheat in a commercial sense is determined by a complicated set of conditions, in an agricultural sense the matter is very much simpler. The yield and quality of the crop practically depends upon but five conditions the climate, the soil, the variety cultivated, the method of cultivation, and the liability to destruction by insects. Even under poor cultivation and exemption from insect depredations, if the other three conditions are favorable good crops of wheat of good quality may be very often grown, and in a good climate and with a good variety of wheat an excellent quality may be grown even where the soil is comparatively poor. The yield may be small, but the grain itself will be good.

As regards soils, we may say in a general way that light clays and heavy loams are the best for wheat. On the one hand, very heavy

clays often produce good crops, both as to yield and as to quality, and on the other hand the lighter soils may yield a good quality. It is simply smaller in quantity. The best crops, however, come from moderately stiff soils, but any fertile soil will produce good wheat if all the other conditions are favorable.

Geologically considered, the most of the wheat grown in the United States is over the region of drift, but much of the wheat soil has been so modified by other geological influences that the geological factor is not an important one, the essential character which gives it its value being as largely physical as chemical. Good wheat lands agree in this, that they are sufficiently rolling for natural drainage; are at the same time level enough to admit of the use of field machinery, and are easily tilled, admitting the use of light field implements in their tillage and thus allowing of a very large production of grain in proportion to the amount of human labor employed. The facility of putting in the crop and harvesting it is really the controlling condition in many localities, so much so that the very important wheat regions, where some of the most speculative farming of the United States is practiced, are in regions where the climatic conditions are such that the average yield one year with another may be as low as 10 bushels per acre. In such cases this low average is usually due to climatic reasons rather than to a lack of fertility in the soil, and in favorable years the yield may be very much larger. The ease of cultivation, the facilities for gathering the crop, and its good qualities in favorable years incite to the hope that all years will be favorable, and in good years the profits are large. In color, in the amount of clay contained, in physical and in chemical characters, there is much difference in the different soils of the country. Some contain much vegetable matter, others but little. We may say that the soils of all the more important wheat regions (so far as we have chemical analyses) are rich in lime, as well as in those other elements of fertility, such as potash and phosphoric acid, which are necessary for a good crop and a good quality of grain.

For commercial as well as for agricultural success climate is an all-controlling condition. Wheat is normally a winter annual. For a good crop the seed must germinate and the young plant grow during the cool and moist part of the year, which season determines the ultimate density of growth on the ground and, consequently, mostly determines the yield. Wheat ripens in the warmer and drier parts of the year, which season more largely determines the quality, plumpness, and color of the grain. In climates with winters so cold that all vegetable growth is suspended we have two distinct classes of varieties, known, respectively, as spring and winter wheats. Throughout all the Northern States, from ocean to ocean, and to some extent in those Southern States which lie east of the Great Plains, these two classes of varieties are very distinct as regards their cultivation and to some extent also as regards their characters. In California and in similar climates, as in Egypt, this distinction does not exist in respect to their cultivation, although the varieties partake more of the character of winter wheats than of spring, both in their mode of growth and in the character of the flour made from them.

But in all climates and whatever variety may be grown, the crop must be sown and have its early growth in a cool part of the year.