The general principles regulating soil temperature are well known.

Measurements in deep mines and wells indicate the existence of a temperature gradient in the earth's crust from the interior outwards, which causes a flow of heat to the surface at a sensibly constant rate. Extensive measurements were carried out by Forbes1 and by William Thomson (afterwards Lord Kelvin) who worked up the former's experimental values, and later by a Committee of the British Association, which concluded that an average of “41·4 gramme-degrees of heat escape annually through a sq. cm. of a horizontal section of the earth's substance.” For our present purpose this source of heat is negligible.

In an attempt to estimate starch in the grain of wheat grown under varying manurial conditions the writer has obtained results which it seems desirable to put on record for the information of others who may be using or propose fco use the Taka-diastase method.

Before devoting attention to wheat, experiments were made with pure potato starch under the conditions advocated by Davis and Daish. At first, owing to the use of insufficient enzyme, the results were low but immediately 0·1 gm. was taken the results were satisfactory (Table I).

The rate of growth of the animal is a matter of considerable importance in the economics of meat production, but the subject does not appear to have been studied with the close scientific attention it deserves. The literature was reviewed in a recent paper by Hammond and need not be further referred to as it is scanty and uninteresting.

The probable error on one pig calculated on the average daily live weight increase was found to be for cross-bred pigs about 7 per cent.; for pure-bred pigs from the same litter and each of similar live weight about 3 per cent.; for cross-bred pigs each of similar live weight but from different parents about 4 per cent.

The error is greatest in experiments of short duration and it decreases as the period of the experiment is lengthened. The decrease is slight if the experiment is prolonged beyond seven weeks.

The errors on 18 separate pens containing four pigs to each pen (the total initial live weight of each pen being similar) varied from 2·3 per cent, to 12·08 per cent., the average being 6·21 per cent.

The percentage probable error is relatively low when the pigs are fattening rapidly and high when the pigs are fattening slowly. The average daily increase of the quicker fattening female pigs when un-speyed appears to be depressed as a result of periodic sexual disturbances.

The stage of fattening does not appear to influence the probable error. Animals in the later stages of fattening show a greater range in their rate of fattening than animals in the early stages, see Fig. 2, p. 284.

Weekly weighing of individual pigs is recommended as it gives an indication of the health of each pig. It also enables each experimenter to discriminate between differences in the rate of fattening due to individuality and differences due to ill health, etc.

The rate of fattening of pigs is very variable, periods of rapid fattening are followed by periods of depression.

In the year 1904, a grass field at Saxmundham Experiment Station was taken in hand by East Suffolk County Council. At that time the herbage in the field was very poor and consisted chiefly of weeds—largely Wild Carrot.

The soil is a typical chalky boulder clay of a poor type very stiff to work, but capable of producing good crops of wheat and beans when well drained.

1. The Sudan method for clay determination worked out by Dr Beam in 1911 has been critically examined and compared with the methods in general use in England and America.

2. The essential points of the method lie in (a) the use of sodium carbonate instead of ammonia as the deflocculating agent, and (b) the use of a camel-hair brush for puddling the clay. It differs from the English (and resembles the American) method in that no preliminary acid treatment is used, the height of the sedimentation column is 10 cms. and the time of subsidence 8 hours.

3. It can be applied to a sedimentation or centrifugal process: the results agree well with each other and with those obtained by the American method.

4. When modified by inclusion of acid treatment, by increasing the time of sedimentation from 8 to 24 hours and reducing the height of the column to 8·6 cms., the results agree well with those obtained by the English method.

5. Treatment with acid either in the preliminary operations or for deflocculating clay suspensions may lead to uncertainty in the results in some cases as it causes loss of “clay” by solution.

6. The Sudan sedimentation method can be carried out in about one-eighth the time required for the English method, and the centrifugal in about one-third the time required for the American. For general use the sedimentation method is preferred as requiring less attention.

During the last decade the production of silage has, in various parts of the country, become a matter of considerable importance, and many scientific investigations in connection with this practice have been carried out. The bulk of this work has been directed towards the study of the changes undergone by the crop in the silo, together with the determination of the character and the amount of the losses which occur. Little or no attention has been given to the question of the digestibility of silage, although it is of obvious interest to determine how the digestibilities of its ingredients compare with those of the green crop from which it has been made. The investigation to be described in this communication is preliminary to one of larger scope, which will have for its object the comparison of the digestibilities of the green fodder, hay and silage of the oat and tare crop. A knowledge of these comparative data, when considered in conjunction with the available information regarding the losses sustained by the crop in the making of hay and silage, will enable the question of the relative economy of hay and silage production to be settled.

By means of a suitable fluid and a low temperature, it has been possible to keep mammalian spermatozoa in a condition of potential motility for 9 days.

1. The work presented in this paper covers a period of 13 years and gives the results secured, by means of cylinder experiments, in a comparative test of nitrogen in nitrate of soda, stable manure, and leguminous green manure crops, on eight types of soil, seven of which are Coastal Plain soils.

2. The work was carried out at the Experiment Station in galvanised iron cylinders similar to those used in the availability work which was started in 1898. 320 such cylinders were used, making it possible to run a four-year rotation on the eight types of soil with five different treatments for each type.

3. The five treatments are as follows: Series I—no fertiliser. Series II—minerals only (phosphoric acid and potash). Series III—minerals and leguminous green manure crops to supply nitrogen for the four main crops. Series IV—minerals and stable manure.

All cylinders receive liberal applications of ground limestone every five years.

4. The rotation consists of rye, corn, potatoes and oats, all grown every year on the eight soils.

Crops are harvested at or near maturity, dry weights recorded, and samples prepared and nitrogen determinations made in duplicate.

5. Under all of the treatments the largest crops were obtained during the first two or three years of the period. From the point of maximum yield which in most cases occurred within the first three years, there has been a gradual decline in yields, both of total dry matter and total nitrogen.

This decline, however, is not without some exceptions.

Without exception the average yields for the 13 years are less than the average for the first seven years.

6. Of the eight types of soil used Quinton sandy loam has consistently given the largest crops and the largest nitrogen return, followed closely by Penn loam. Norfolk sand has likewise consistently given the lowest returns.

Windsor sand has shown a remarkable response to the green manure treatment.

7. Of the five different treatments the green manure series has given the highest average returns on all the soils, although in a few cases scattered through the 13 years (and for the majority of the soil types during the first two years) the nitrate of soda series gave the largest yield. In a very few cases the yield on the stable manure series has exceeded that of the green manure series.

The average yield of the nitrate series stands between the green manure and stable manure series.

8. It has thus been shown that for a period of 13 years nitrogen supplied by leguminous green manure crops, grown between the main crops of the rotation, has been more effective in crop production than 15 tons of manure every two years, while at the same time the nitrogen content of the soil of the green manure series was maintained, for a period of five years at least, on a level with that of the stable manure series.

9. It has also been shown that the green manure series yielded larger crops than the nitrate of soda series (160 lb. of nitrate per acre annually), while at the same time the nitrogen content of the soils of the former was maintained at a higher level than that of the latter.

10. It is pointed out that it may be possible to maintain crop yields at a rather high level, even when the total nitrogen content of the soil is not kept at quite so high a level as was found in the original soil. Under such conditions, however, a constant turnover of readily available nitrogen is necessary.