1. The jaw movements of four sheep were recorded while they were consuming a daily diet consisting of a constant concentrate allowance along with a hay intake varying from 25 or 50 g. daily by daily differences of 25 or 50 g. up to maximum voluntary intake.

2. Rumination increased with hay intake in a characteristic way. The actual time devoted to chewing when plotted against hay intake produced a curve consisting of a rapid rise, a fairly level part, a further gradual rise and a final levelling-off. This was less clear when the total rumination time or the total number of regurgitations were compared to the hay eaten.

1. Lucerne growing in pots was defoliated once or at intervals of 3 weeks to either 1 or 5 in. Both height and frequency of cutting affected growth of tops and roots significantly; analysis of root weights also showed that these treatments had interacted. Cumulative yield of tops and leaf area per plant were linearly related.

1. The effects on forage yields as a result of the interaction between fertilizer management and stage of harvesting an oat companion crop were studied under the climatic conditions of northern Ontario.

2. Grain yields as well as silage yields were increased on the application of 400 lb. 4–24–12 per acre. Fertilization of the corffipanion crop seeded with a- hay mixture resulted in first- and secondyear yields that were significantly greater than those obtained without fertilization of the companion crop.

3. By harvesting oats at the silage stage rather than as mature grain only the succeeding firstyear hay yields were significantly greater on the application of additional phosphorus and potassium.

The grazing behaviour of village cattle in the Eastern Province of Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) was studied.

Usually, the cattle graze in the bush during the rains and on the dambos in the dry season. Where most of the upland was cultivated, the cattle were forced to graze in the dambos during the rains contrary to correct land use. The arable land and crop residues are grazed after the harvest in middry season.

In two earlier papers (Henderson, Edwards & Hammerton, 1962a, b) data on the yields of dry matter and crude protein obtained in an experiment carried out at Aberystwyth over the period 1954–56 were presented. The experiment compared the productivity of five leys, each based on a single grass species with white clover, at six levels of compound fertilizer, under a management regime of three cuts per annum. Subsequent to 1956 the fertilizer application and cutting regime were continued, but no yield data were collected. Early in 1960, the experimental area was ploughed up and sown to barley, in order to study the effects of the previous experimental treatments on arable productivity. Barley was also sown in 1961 and 1962, and the present paper is concerned with the yields of the three successive crops of barley.

Pregnancy toxaemia in ewes is a metabolic disorder which may occur during the last month of pregnancy. Typical symptoms are anorexia, hypoglycaemia, hyperketonaemia, blindness, ataxia and recumbency. The condition usually proves fatal. Reid & Hogan (1959) have put forward the suggestion that pregnancy toxaemia is an adrenal steroid diabetes. However, pregnancy toxaemia in ewes is generally associated with starvation or severe undernutrition, and McClymont & Setchell (1955) have suggested that under these conditions the symptoms of pregnancy toxaemia are due to cerebral depression caused by hypoglycaemia. As part of investigations on pregnancy toxaemia, adrenal steroid metabolism in ewes was studied. This paper presents data on plasma cortisol levels during the last month of pregnancy in ewes, and the possible effects of undernutrition and cold on these levels.

Ammonium sulphate alone and treated with the nitrification inhibitor 2-chloro-6-(trichloromethyl)- pyridine, at rates equivalent to 1 and 2% of the weight of N applied, was applied to sandy- and clay-loam soils. Ammonium sulphate was given in November 1962, and soil samples, taken in spring 1963, down to 36 in. on the sandy-loam and 18 in. on the clay-loam, were analysed. When the ammonium sulphate was broadcast on the soil surface, 2% of the inhibitor, inhibited nitrification of the ammonium-N more than 1%, but when it was placed in the soil both rates were equally effective.

1. The paper describes ten consecutive field experiments carried out between 1952 and 1961 investigating the action of F.Y.M. on the yield of maincrop potatoes. In all experiments high basal dressings of PK fertilizer were used.

2. Soil moisture deficits were estimated from meteorological data and the maximum deficit (M.S.M.D.) in a particular season used as an index of the dryness of the growing season.

1. An experiment is described in which the partition of calcium phosphorus, sodium, potassium and manganese in the excreta of the colostomized laying hen fed a diet adequate in these minerals is examined.

The total amount of pollen collected by colonies taken to crops of sweet cherry, field beans and red clover was greatly increased by feeding syrup to the colonies. Hence feeding colonies with sugar syrup increases their pollinating value.

The soil used in this experiment was a sandy clay low in phosphorus and in nitrogen from the College Farm. A (3 x 3 x 2) factorial experiment with three replications using an upland rice variety, Agbede, was carried out in the open on the College Farm between January and May 1963. Ten-litre plastic buckets 25 cm. deep and holding 11 kg. of soil, which was thoroughly mixed and the pH brought to 6.0 by liming, were used in growing the plants. These buckets were left standing on the ground, and there was no rain during the experimental period.

Castration of males is a long-established practice in animal husbandry, and although the use of boars rather than hogs was advocated by Fitzherbert in 1534 the use of castrates in pig production has continued to the present day.

1. During the winter of 1956-57, three levels of indoor feeding, high, mid, and low, were imposed on groups of North and South Country Cheviot ewe hoggs (sheep between 6 months and 1½ years) born 1956. During the winter of 1957-58, only two levels, high and mid, were fed indoors to groups of hoggs born 1957, with the low level being represented by hill wintering. After 12 months of age in each year, all were grazed together on the same hill pasture.

Many trials have been carried out in Australia to assess comparative values of breeds of rams and owes for fat lamb production in various environments and for different markets. Although general trends have appeared, there is much conflicting evidence in the reports of these trials as to the order of superiority of breed for a particular environmentmarket situation, especially for that of the rams. Much of this conflicting evidence arises because no completely satisfactory method of assessment of superiority has been used. Many of the studies undertaken to compare different breeds of ram have used as their basic criterion the returns per ewe (for example, McConnell, 1910; Elliot, 1926; Colebatch & Scott, 1927; Coleman, 1927; Cook, 1934; Thompson, 1951; Coleman & McDonald, 1952). In this situation random fluctuations in lambing percentages and in percentages of lambs surviving to slaughter can affect the order of superiority of the breeds. In view of the comparatively small numbers of sheep often used in the breed comparison groups (and this is, of course, particularly true in the case of rams), these deviations can bo sorious. For example, McConnell (1910) found that Border Leicester x lambs had a higher return per ewe than Southdown x lambs, but in 1911, the same author found the reverse situation which appears to have been due to a reversal in order of lambing percentages.

1. Two identical small plot experiments were done from 1961 to 1963, at the Hannah Dairy Research Institute, Ayr and at Boghall Farm, Midlothian to study the effects of applying nitrogen fertilizer at different times on total yield and its seasonal distribution.

2. Two perennial rye-grass plus white clover swards, one containing S23 and the other S24, were used at each site. On both swards a total of 10 cwt. of ‘Nitro-Chalk’ (15·5% N)/acre, applied at varying dates over the growing season, and a control treatment which received no nitrogen fertilizer were tested.

The importance of water for the function of the reticulo-rumen has been stressed by the classic work of Schalk & Amadon (1928). The aspiration theories of regurgitation of Chauveau & Toussaint (Toussaint, 1875) and of Wester (1926) differ, but both imply that before rumination can proceed normally there must be a sufficiency of fluid in the reticulo-rumen. However, Kick, Gerlaugh & Schalk (1937) noted that, with cattle, rumen contents which were so firm as to be almost impossible to break up by hand did not prevent rumination. The writer has noticed a similar phenomenon in sheep. In both cases the animals were given a high level of roughage and a low level of concentrates in their diet. But, even if apparently firm ingesta can be regurgitated, it is still likely that the regurgitate is in fact of a fluid consistency and therefore water intake will be a limiting factor. Transport of ingesta in suspension from the reticulo-rumen through the omasum likewise requires an adequate supply of water.

The effect of nitrogenous fertlizers on the watersoluble carbohydrate content of pure grass swards has been studied in three experiments.

1. In an experiment conducted at the Hannah Institute the effects of irrigation and fertilizer nitrogen treatments on four sward types were studied for 3 years. The swards were S 23 perennial rye-grass with S 100 white clover, S 23 rye-grass alone, S 37 cocksfoot with S 100 white clover, and S 37 cocksfoot alone.

2. The irrigation treatments were—a control (no water) treatment, and two treatments which were irrigated to planned deficit levels of 2 or 0·5 in. below field capacity.

Leys that lasted 3½ years, including grass/white clover, grass alone, white clover alone, lucerne alone, and lucerne/cocksfoot, and also including leys managed for seed production, were followed by two successive crops of winter wheat and then by marrow-stem kale. The first wheat crop that followed grazed leys of white clover, lucerne, or lucerne/cocksfoot yielded 32 cwt. of grain (dry matter)/acre, after cocksfoot or timothy/red clover seed-production leys the yield was 21 cwt./acre. The corresponding weights of N in the wheat were 105 and 57 lb./acre.