1. The potency of balancing interactions between the protein of herring press-cake (dried) and solubles (condensed) on one side, and certain vegetable feeds on the other, has been examined on 2- to 4-week-old chicks:

(a) Initially by comparing the co-effect of a series of different combinations of the herring products when ingested together with certain cereals plus extracted ground-nut meal, to that estimated earlier when the same combinations of herring products formed the sole dietary protein.

(b) Thereafter by studying whether the co-effect of the herring products was influenced or not by substituting extracted soya-bean meal for the ground-nut meal.

(c) Further by tentative trials to show that registered interactions were caused by some keystone amino acids.

2. A special dietary system was devised for the purpose (a basal diet of actual feeds + a synthetic, practically protein-free basal diet + the tested feed, eventually + adjustments), the results being recorded as combinative protein value = c.p.v.

3. Interactions between dietary constituents not only were shown under the circumstances, but proved to be an easily acting factor of great power. Herring solubles in proportions of 15–45% were formerly found to bring about a statistically significant improvement of the meal when fed together with this as the only protein of the diet. But: (a) the introduction of certain cereals and ground-nut readily converted the beneficial effect of the solubles into a significantly negative one. (b) Whereas soya-beans instead of ground-nut evidently reversed the situation again. In this third grouping solubles at moderate levels appeared neutral, meaning that herring solubles combined significantly better with soya-bean than with ground-nut when fed to young chicks in presence of a set of cereals and herring meal, (c) Responses to supplemental, crystalline amino acids showed that the interactions between the protein sources could be attributed to their constituent amino acids. Thus the little efficient combination of solubles and ground-nut plus certain cereals could be greatly improved by small quantities of all ten essential amino acids together, and equally much by lysine plus threonine only. Contrarily, the diet appeared weakened when lysine, threonine or isoloucine were omitted singly or together from the whole ten. The same was the case with single addition of leucine.

4. The discussion stresses the pre-eminent importance of the diet in biological estimations of protein value. It also points out the practical significance of skilful combination of different protein sources.

Three experiments each utilizing four buffalo heifers in 4 × 4 latin square designs were conducted over a period of 84 days to estimate the voluntary consumption of eight long-chopped and four ground roughages. Voluntary intake and rate of passage were determined during the last 10 days and digestibility of feed nutrients during the last 6 days of a 21-day experimental period.

The mean daily dry-matter intake (DMI, g/kg W0·75), D.M. digestibility (%) and mean retention time (h) of long and chopped foods were 81·6, 65·7, 75·2; 81·4, 54·2, 60·3; 78·0, 58·6, 66·0; 75·8, 58·5, 66·3; 67·5, 68·1, 87·9; 62·1, 40·9, 73·3; 56·3, 50·6, 70·9 and 55·5, 58·8, 82·4, respectively for maize silage, sorghum stover, dry grass, maize stover, berseem hay, wheat straw, pearl-millet stover and cowpea hay. Appreciable differences were observed between feeds in the digestibility of D.M., organic matter (OM) and crude protein (CP). No consistent pattern in level of intake and either CP or crude fibre (CF) contents of feeds or their D.M. digestibilities was discernible. The relationship between DMI and D.M. digestibility was low (r = 0·29). Higher DMI of feeds tended to be associated with faster rate of passage excepting maize silage and berseem hay. The relationship between D.M. digestibility and mean retention time was low (r = 0·46) and between total digestible nutrient intake and body weight was high (r = 0·79).

The mean daily DMI (g/kg W0·75), D.M. digestibility (%) and mean retention time (h) of ground roughages were 68·7, 51·3, 58·0; 62·9, 38·4, 60·0; 62·4, 40·1, 63·0; 53·1, 66·6, 72·0, respectively for ground maize stover, wheat straw, dry grass and berseem hay. Ground roughages appeared to be utilized less efficiently by buffaloes than longchopped roughages.

Ergots are the sclerotia of Claviceps purpurea (Fr.) Tul., which periodically infects certain cereals especially wheat and rye, and frequently infects numerous grasses (Mantle, 1977a). The ergots are produced in the seeding heads of the plant and are harvested with, and thus contaminate, the grain, causing the mycotoxicosis known as ‘ergotism’ in livestock fed contaminated cereals, or in humans eating bread made from contaminated flour (Mantle, 19776). The disease is caused by certain alkaloid constituents of the ergots which are derived from lysergic acid. Symptoms in humans are hallucinations, convulsions, gangrene of the limbs and other extremities, and eventually death. Seven isomeric pairs of indole alkaloids have been isolated from ergot, ergocristine and ergocristinine, ergotamine and ergotaminine, ergocryptine and ergocryptinine, ergocornine and ergocorninine, ergosine and ergosinine, ergostine and ergostinine, and ergometrine and ergometrinine. The first named of each pair is derived from lysergic acid and is physiologically active, while the second is derived from isolysergic acid and has little physiological activity.

Workers on Virus Diseases of the Potato labour under a disadvantage inasmuch as they are frequently confronted with the difficulty of obtaining positive results of infection in one and the same season. Moreover, tubers resulting from a plant which has been artificially infected in one season, retain the secret of the success or otherwise of the operation until adult plants have been grown from them in the succeeding year. Any method which will sensibly curtail this long waiting period is welcome. As long ago as 1788, Joseph Webb, writing on “Curl” in potatoes, recommended that a sample of the seed-tubers intended for planting in the following season should be planted in a hot-bed before Christmas, and that if 2 per cent, or more of the plants exhibited Curl, the stock should be destroyed.

In a previous publication (Edwards & Duthie, 1971) the metabolizable energy values for broiler chicks of 11 samples of winter-sown Throws M. S. field beans from the 1968 harvest were reported. The samples had been grown at different locations in England which represented a variety of soil types. The mean ‘classical’ and nitrogen-corrected metabolizable energy values were 2–40 ± 0–09 kcal/g and 2–26 ±0-11 kcal/g respectively, with as much as 27 % difference between the highest and lowest individual values.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of supplementing different amounts of daidzein in a diet on the growth performance, blood biochemical parameters and meat quality of finishing beef cattle. Thirty finishing Xianan steers were distributed in three groups equilibrated by weight and fed three different dietary treatments (concentrate ratio = 80%): (1) control; (2) 500 mg/kg daidzein and (3) 1000 mg/kg daidzein, respectively. Steers were slaughtered after an 80-day feeding trial. Results showed that daidzein supplementation had no effect on the final body weight, average daily gain and feed conversion rate of steers. Steers fed with 1000 mg/kg daidzein had greater dry matter intake than those fed with control diets. Compared with the control group, the 1000 mg/kg daidzein group had a higher fat thickness, lower shear force and lightness. The pH, drip loss, cooking loss, redness (a*), yellowness (b*), moisture, ash, crude protein and intramuscular fat of the Longissimus dorsi muscle were unaffected by daidzein supplementation. Compared with the control group, the 1000 mg/kg daidzein group significantly increased the serum concentrations of insulin, free fatty acid and Glutamic-pyruvic transaminase. The 500 mg/kg daidzein group significantly increased the serum concentration of tetraiodothyronine compared with the control group. Supplemental daidzein did not affect the blood antioxidant ability and blood immune parameters in serum. In conclusion, daidzein supplementation above 500 mg/day modifies feed intake and metabolic and hormonal profile, with positive and negative effects on meat quality.

The inheritance of the units of the character complex which differentiates Avena nuda from Avena sativa was studied in F1 hybrids and in the F2 generation derived from inter-crossing five cultivars of A. saliva with four cultivars of A. nuda. The 14 derived F1 hybrids could be classified into four types depending on the level of dominance of the sativa or nuda character expression. Type-I hybrids involving the cultivar Milford as parent showed a high level of dominance of the sativa-type expression, whereas the F1 hybrid from the cross, Condor × China, type IV, had the character expression typical of the A. nuda parent. Segregation in the F2 generation indicated that the entire character complex was under the control of a major gene, and supported the suggestion from previous work that modifying genes interact with the major gene to alter the expression of the homozygous nuda genotype towards the heterozygous phenotype

Homozygous nuda and heterozygous genotypes were shown to exhibit a gradient in the expression of the nuda character complex from the apex to the base of the panicle, the nuda-type characters being most pronounced in the apical spikelets. It is suggested that the variation of character expression within single panicles of homozygous nuda and heterozygous genotypes indicates the operation of an inhibitor-type gene action rather than a mutation to loss of function.

Increasing herd size and fragmented or non-uniform land challenge pasture-based milk production systems. Therefore, part-time grazing combined with indoor feeding of fresh herbage (‘cut-and-carry’) allows to maintain the advantages of fresh-herbage-based diets. However, consequences for environmental nitrogen losses, animal behaviour and ruminal metabolism are decisive for its implementation. Animal performance, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), reticulo-ruminal pH and feeding/locomotive behaviour were compared in six cows subjected either to full-time grazing (system F) or to part-time grazing system with indoor feeding of fresh herbage and concentrate (system P). Biweekly samplings were performed on six lactating cows per treatment in spring, summer and autumn. Nitrogen (N) balance was calculated from estimated N intake and N output via faeces, urine and milk. Reticulo-ruminal pH was recorded using a wireless data recorder. Eating and locomotive behaviour were measured with noseband sensors and pedometers. In spring, but not later, herbage intake per unit of body weight was higher for system F compared to system P cows. Eating time was shorter by 15% in P compared to F cows. Across systems, NUE declined from spring to summer/autumn from about 300 to 200 g milk protein N/kg N intake. Reticulo-ruminal pH was more variable under part-time grazing conditions, with a pronounced decrease subsequent to offering the herbage indoors. The part-time grazing system resulted in similar or higher NUE than full-time grazing. Additional studies with larger numbers of experimental units are required to be able to develop comprehensive recommendations for the improvement of the two grazing systems.

Adult Finn-cross ewes, pregnant from September matings, were kept under natural photoperiod (control, 30 animals) or with an additional exposure to a 1 h long. 300 lux light pulse, 16–17 h after an artificial dawn (light-pulse treatment, 32 ewes) for 2·5 months. After lambing, the supplementary light was discontinued and half of the ewes from each group were injected daily with 2 mg melatonin for an additional 2·5 months.

The light-pulse ewes produced heavier lambs and more milk, as can be deduced from the higher rate of growth of their lambs during the first 10 days of life, than the control animals. The light-pulse and/or melatonin treatments delayed the occurrence of the first post-partum ovulation and oestrus (which occurred in the untreated animals about 4 and 6 weeks, respectively, after lambing), by 1–3 weeks. However, more ewes exhibited oestrus and cyclic activity in the light-treated than in the other groups. The fertility in the light-treated group was, consequently, superior to that in the group kept under natural photoperiod, in spite of the similar lambing rate of the mated ewes of the different groups.

It is concluded that the light-pulse, but not the melatonin treatment, had a beneficial effect on the reproductive performance of the ewes, as measured by the weight of the newborn lambs, the milk production of the dams during the first 10 days post-partum, and the cyclic activity of the ewes after February lambing in Israel.

In 1904, Sir James Blyth, Bart., a member of the Cambridge University Board of Agricultural Studies, offered a Scholarship tenable by a student who had taken the University Diploma in Agriculture, for the purpose of enabling him to spend a year in research. The offer was gratefully accepted, and the Scholarship was awarded to Mr F. W. Foreman. Mr Foreman submitted as a subject for investigation the Composition of certain of the Soils of Cambridgeshire. This subject was approved, and the work was carried out in the winter months of 1904—1905. The results are given in the following pages.

In the inbred lines of a flock of Brown Leghorns, it was noted that the line means for albumen weight ranked in the same order as those for shank width. The parallelism was not due to the large differences in body weight existing between the lines.

It was established that variations in albumen weight were more closely associated with changes in shank width than were those of yolk weight. It is possible, but not definitely established, that shell weight follows the behaviour of albumen in this respect.

The CO2 concentration in the atmosphere of a potato clamp varied between 0·06 and 0·86%. The sum of CO2 and oxygen concentrations remained approximately constant at 21%. The CO2 concentration increased with time from December to April. This was attributed to increase in the rate of respiration of the potatoes caused by rise of temperature. Wind blowing in the direction normal to the face of the clamp reduced the COa concentration, presumably by causing external air to flow through the clamp coverings. A multiple regression of CO2 concentration on temperature of the potatoes at the time of sampling, and on the mean component of wind velocity normal to the clamp face estimated over a period of 3 hr. before the time of sampling, accounted for 64% of the variance between sampling occasions.

Unsaturated compounds were detected in the clamp atmosphere by absorption in bromine; the concentration of these, expressed as ethylene, varied between 0·004 and 0·025%.

The magnitude of CO2 accumulation and oxygen depletion in the clamp atmosphere was too small to produce effects of practical importance on the storage behaviour of the potatoes. If the unsaturated compounds were ethylene, the concentration present was sufficient to cause appreciable retardation of sprouting.

Chick pea Rhizobiumstrain RG 4 was treated with 30 /tg/ml of N-nitrosoguanidine and four mutants isolated were resistant to 400 /tg carbendazim/ml. Only two of the mutants (M 1 and M 4) retained the capacity to form nodules. On the basis of number of nodules, their dry weight, nitrogenase activity, triphenyl tetrazolium chloride reductase activity and active iron content of nodules, mutant strains M 1 and M 4 were found to be equally effective for nitrogen fixation both with and without carbendazim (bavistine) and resulted in significantly greater grain yield than the corresponding uninoculated treatments.

(1) The mineralogical composition of the fine sand fraction of certain soils from the south-east of Scotland is described.

(2) The soils are shown to possess a fairly high content of silicate minerals in a comparatively fresh state.

(3) The distribution and amount of potash, phosphate and lime-bearing minerals in the soils is discussed.

(4) The soils can be grouped according to their mineral content and this grouping is found to depend on the geology of the parent material.

(5) All the soils are formed on glacial drift and the results suggest that the local rocks have a preponderating influence on the composition of the matrix of the drift.

MCPA and 2,4-D sprays at up to 1/20 the dosage normally vised for weed control in cereals severely distorted sugar beet, which subsequently grew at near normal rate but remained distorted. The severity of symptoms and yield depression depended on the stage of growth of the beet when sprayed. Sugar-yield loss was greatest when plants were sprayed at the 6–8 leaf stage.

Body weights at birth, weaning, yearling and 2 years of age were studied on 710 lambs born from 1956 to 1967 and representing Barki, Merino and their F1 and backcross. Body weights ofthe lambs of the two cross-bred groups were intermediate between those of the two pure-breds at birth and exceeded them at weaning. Merino lambs were 0·61 kg heavier than Barki lambs at birth and maintained that advantage throughout the study.

Age of dam, type of birth, sex, and year of birth were significant sources of variation on the weights studied. The effect of age of dam and type of birth declined after weaning while that of sex increased.

The magnitude of response to fertilizer-N and fertilizer-P decreased with increasing amounts of total soil-N and available soil-P, respectively. Attempts have been made to group the soils into N- and P-fertility classes based on the magnitude of response to applied fertilizers on soils of different fertility with respect to these two nutrient elements.

Field experiments made for 2 years under semi-arid unirrigated conditions of north India examined the physiological factors affecting the growth and yield of sorghum when intercropped with groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), mung (Vigna radiata) or cow pea (V. unguiculata). Dry-matter production and leaf area index of sorghum were increased when intercropped with any of the legumes. The mixture advantage was reflected in delaying the senescence of sorghum leaves. Maximum grain and stover yields of sorghum were obtained in a mixture with mung or cow pea. The higher seed yield resulted from more seeds per panicle and greater panicle and 1000-grain weight.