In field experimentation the effects involved can often only be satisfactorily evaluated on the basis of dry matter yield. The size of plots usually renders the drying of the whole produce impracticable; this necessitates the determination of dry matter content by means of sampling. Since it is essential, on statistical grounds, that each plot should be separately sampled, an experiment may entail the determination of a large number of dry matter percentages. Agricultural produce is generally bulky and subject to fermentation, and therefore apparatus of a larger capacity than that usually found in laboratories is required. In the past much use has been made of uncovered gas heated hot plates, but these are unsatisfactory. Such hot plates do not lend themselves to accurate control of temperature, nor is uniformity of temperature over the plate easy to attain. It is therefore necessary either to run the risk of occasionally burning samples or to dry more slowly than is desirable. Hot plates are very wasteful of heat and the samples are unprotected during drying.

The exposure of turkey eggs during the latter part of incubation, to temperatures (uniform around the egg) ranging from 30–5 to 41–5° C, in intervals of one degree, showed that:

1. The hatchability was best at temperatures of from 36 to 38° C.; then it declined with a greater slope towards high than towards low temperature.

(2) The time of hatching was progressively delayed, from 1 to 3 days, towards high and low temperatures.

(3) The weight of birds at hatching from eggs exposed to various temperatures was fairly uniform.

1. A soil moisture meter which gives direct and continuous measurement of the soil moisture content is described. The instrument consists of a special porous pot filled with water, connected by a tube to a mercury manometer. The pot is buried in the soil, whose capillary pull causes the mercury to rise. The height to which the mercury rises depends on the amount of moisture in the soil, and also on the size of soil particles and the degree of compactness of the soil. (The last two factors remain constant for an instrument in one position.)

2. To read actual moisture percentage each instrument has to be calibrated for the soil in which it is placed. Once this is done, all sampling and weighing is eliminated.

For the purpose of describing the development of the Romney lambs’ coats it was found convenient to divide the skin into six areas, A, B, C, D, E and F, each being formed by the grouping of all regions that develop at the same time and rate.

These areas are determined by the following methods:

1. All regions where X and Y follicles begin growth at the same time belong to the same area.

2. All regions attaining the trio stage of development at the same time belong to the same area.

1. New and old seed beans have been compared for three years, in the last two of which precise field experiments have been conducted with two different strains.

2. In general new seed gave higher yields than old seed, but the difference was only of the order of 10 per cent. There was some evidence that conditions when the seed was harvested might be more important than age.

3. New seed produced more branches in early spring, and a greater number of pod-bearing stems at harvest; on the other hand, old seed produced stems that were more thickly podded at harvest, and pods that contained a greater number of beans.

4. In one case abnormally large seed produced very vigorous plants, and very large beans at harvest.

The experiment was designed to compare under Trinidad conditions three varieties of fodder grass and ascertain the correct stage at which each should be cut to give the maximum nutritive value per acre. It consisted of a yield trial in the form of a Latin square in which the treatment series included four cutting rotations on main plots and three varieties of fodder grass on subplots as appended

1. Exp. I was conducted with two pigs in each group, which pigs were kept during certain times in digestion boxes, permitting the separate collection of faeces and urine.

2. The total amount of food given to the pigs was slightly below the present standards.

3. The different rations contained different amounts of protein and different amounts of non-nitrogenous constituents.

4. Exp. II was conducted with one pig in each group and served to control and supplement the data collected in the previous experiment.

The original object of the breeding investigations described above was to secure a new variety of oats exhibiting the resistance to winter conditions and the grain quality characteristic of Grey Winter, in combination, if possible, with straw of better standing power.

The characters of the hybrids studied in the course of the investigations were accordingly resistance to winter conditions, standing power of the straw, quality of the grain, and the early growth habit, particularly in relation to these three features.

Attention has been drawn to the remarkable growth rates obtained in certain litters of pigs under farm conditions.

It has been pointed out that no explanation has been put forward to account for their occurrence.

The literature relating to the new dietary factor, physin (Mapson), essential for optimum growth and reproduction in experimental rats, trout and dogs, has been reviewed.

Experiments are reported in which rations, adequate as far as our present knowledge of essential dietary constituents goes, were fed to young growing swine. In each of three experiments, animals which received in addition 4 oz. of raw minced liver per day showed a 40 per cent. increase in growth rate compared with the controls.

When food intake was controlled according to the new method of individual feeding, the liver animals showed the same gains in weight as the animals receiving the basal diet alone.