A review of the literature gave conflicting evidence as to the effect of sulphites on plant growth, so that a pot culture experiment was conducted to study the effects of the addition to ammonium sulphate of varying amounts of ammonium sulphite on the germination, growth and yield of mustard and rye on a heavy loam soil.

Under the conditions of the experiment described, ammonium sulphite had no adverse effect on the germination, growth and yield of dry matter of mustard or rye.

1. Series of yields (root weight) of twenty-five plots of Barnfield mangold field are analysed into components representing (a) deterioration, (b) slow changes other than steady deterioration, (c) annual fluctuations. The two first of these components are exhibited graphically from 1876 to 1930.

2. Yields are well maintained on the dunged strip, except for the last few years. This falling off does not appear in the other strips, and may be due to a falling off in the quality of the farmyard manure in the last five years.

3. On the strip receiving farmyard manure and on that receiving superphosphate the plots receiving nitrate of soda yielded more highly than any others; on the strips receiving complete minerals, and on that receiving superphosphate and potash, the two plots receiving rape cake in one case, and sulphate of ammonia and rape cake in the other, gave higher yields than nitrate of soda; on the strip receiving no minerals the result is intermediate, there being little to choose between these three plots. On all strips sulphate of ammonia is the least satisfactory of the four nitrogenous dressings tested.

This paper presents an analysis of the relation borne by eight body measurements and age to the cow's milk-secreting ability. The analysis is first presented from the viewpoint of conformation as related to milk secretion without regard to age. The data are then utilised to determine the relation of conformation to milk secretion when age is considered. In the last section we have attempted to consider conformation as a whole and to relate this to milk secretion. Defining the ideal as quantity production of milk or butter-fat the following points of conformation are important. First, the cow should be of better than average weight for her breed and age; second, she should be of good wedge-shaped form particularly in the region of the shoulders; third, her milk veins should be of good size; and fourth, her udder should be of good size and quality. Time has brought about the inclusion in the animal husbandry text-books of many other points asserted on a priori grounds to be of significance in determining the cow's milk secreting capacity. The effect of several of these points on milk secretion has been analysed in these data, the results showing them to be without significance.

1. A mixture of sand and bentonite (after converting it to the calcium clay), containing 6 per cent, by weight of the latter, was found to be a suitable medium in pot cultures for the growth of grass. A good sward of perennial rye grass was established in the medium by suitable watering, manuring and cutting of the grass, within 11 weeks of sowing.

2. The mixture allowed of easy control of the moisture content, and appeared to possess a moisture-retaining capacity comparable with that of a natural soil.

3. The mixture is almost totally deficient in both nitrogen and phosphoric acid, and markedly deficient in potash and in some of the less common elements necessary for plant growth.

4. In view of the above properties and of the buffering action due to the presence of the bentonite, the mixture would appear to be suited to the more general study in pot culture of plant nutrition problems, and to offer several important advantages over either sand alone or natural soil for this purpose.

1. Previous work on the validity of the t and z tests on non-normal distributions is described. The question as to whether these tests, which are all on small samples from theoretical distributions, are really apposite is discussed.

2. The necessity of making a practical test with actual data which shall comply with the usual conditions obtaining in agricultural experiments is urged.

3. A practical test has been made on a skew distribution obtained from the observation of 256 height measurements on wheat. The distribution of the values of R. A. Fisher's z from a thousand random samples has been obtained and found to agree satisfactorily with the theoretical distribution.

The variable viscosity which is shown by colloids generally as the rate at which they are sheared is varied leads to more striking anomalies in the behaviour of concentrated suspensions such as clay pastes when they are subjected to forces tending to make them flow. Bingham and Durham (l) first showed that when clay pastes were forced through capillary tubes, not only did the amount of clay squeezed out per second increase more slowly than the pressure applied, indicating a diminishing coefficient of viscosity, but also that there was evidence of a limiting shear, due to the consistency or cohesion of the particles, below which no flow would take place. It is the existence of this latter criterion that distinguishes clay from a weak suspension, e.g. of sand grains in water. This combined effect of cohesion and viscosity Bingham calls plasticity, and modifies Newton's law of viscous flow by the addition of a constant to allow for the cohesive force. Nevertheless, owing to the fact that the coefficient of viscosity is a function of the velocity gradient instead of being constant as in a homogeneous liquid, and that this velocity gradient is not known in the capillary tube viscometer, results as between one viscometer and another, or between two flow tubes of different size cannot be reduced to a common basis for comparison except by empirical trial. Keen and Scott Blair(2), Scott Blair and Crowther(3), and Schofield and Scott Blair(4) have repeated Bingham's experiments in an improved apparatus of the flow tube type, which they call a “plastometer.”

The above data on the sire's conformation and on the dam's conformation in relation to their daughter's production of milk are concordant in showing that with the possible exception of weight, there is no correlation of practical significance between the body type of the sire or the dam and the productive capacity of the daughter in milk, butter-fat or butter-fat percentage.

1. B. mycoides is an organism which energetically decomposes organic nitrogenous matter forming large amounts of ammonia. When soil was inoculated with a culture of this organism, active ammonification took place and the rate of nitrification was raised.

2. The first effects of the inoculation of soil by B. mycoides were a parallel development of ammonification and nitrification; later the rate of ammonification fell off, but nitrifying organisms continued to transform ammonia into nitrate.

3. The degree of nitrification in chernosiom soils is a function of the activity of B. mycoides. By creating conditions appropriate to these bacteria, both ammonifying and nitrifying processes are likewise intensified.

4. Fertilisation with dung is beneficial not solely on account of the nutrients supplied ad hoc, but also because it leads to an increase in the numbers of B. mycoides. Farmyard manure is a source of B. mycoides, and acts similarly to an inoculation with those bacteria.

1. The results are recorded of an investigation of the exchangeable bases of some East Anglian soils derived from the Oxford, Ampthill, Kimeridge and Gault formations of the Jurassic and Cretaceous ages.

2. As they were formed under the sea the original sediments contained sodium-clays but on the return of terrestrial and fresh-water conditions the character of the deposits was completely changed and they now contain only traces of exchangeable sodium.

3. In the unweathered clay, represented by the 2 ft. below the top 18 in., exchangeable calcium forms only 75 per cent. of the total, and magnesium 20 per cent. As a result of leaching and weathering the magnesium on the surface is replaced by calcium which in the top 18 in. forms 85 per cent., while the magnesium is only 10 per cent. Thus the surface and deeper soils are distinguished by characteristic calcium: magnesium ratios.

1. A method for the weekly determination of the amount of hair produced on defined areas of skin is described.

2. The normal hair growth in adult male and female guinea-pigs has been determined. It is shown that the amount of hair produced on a defined area of skin in equal intervals of time is not constant. The fluctuations are mainly due to variations in the number of follicles which are active.

3. There seem to be two periods during the year when an increased production occurs in most animals, in late spring and autumn. The times of increased hair growth correspond approximately to the occurrence of the moult.

4. Measurements have been made of the length of the fibres at the end of a week's growth. It is found that fibres of all lengths are present and that the maximum length at the end of any week in any stage of the cycle is 5 mm.

Nutritive values can be resolved into two factors-quantity and quality. The former is represented by the gross energy and the latter by the coefficient of availability (D/T – 0·35), where T is total and D digestible organic matter.

In the natural, vegetable feeding stuffs the gross energy of the total organic matter is practically the same in all cases except those which are peculiarly rich in oil and protein (cakes, etc.). The coefficient may therefore be applied directly to the total organic matter and, subject to a correction in the case of cakes, nutritive values may be expressed in terms of available organic matter (D–0·35T). These terms may be translated into energy values or starch equivalents by simple multiplication.

The method is simple and illuminating. It shows that the nutritive value of the total organic matter depends almost entirely upon its digestibility and, except in the case of cakes, only to a negligible extent upon its chemical composition. Nutritive value is not proportional to digestibility but a linear function of the same, and in substances of low digestibility, slight change in digestibility may cause manifold alteration in nutritive value.

1. Comparisons are made of the results obtained in the analysis of clays, especially of clay fractions separated from soils, by the standard sodium carbonate fusion method and by attack by means of mixed acids. Provided certain precautions are taken, in the latter case, the percentages of silica obtained are shown to be comparable with those given by the fusion method.

2. A possible disadvantage of the acid method is that the attack of the clay is not invariably successful, but treatment of the silica with hydrofluoric acid provides a convenient and reliable means of detecting those cases in which failure occurs. Such clays must be decomposed by fusion with sodium carbonate.

The effect of pregnancy on hair growth and shedding in the short-haired guinea-pig has been studied. It is shown that during pregnancy the amount of hair produced on defined areas of skin decreases until at the time of parturition and for 2 weeks afterwards practically no hair growth is taking place. This is followed by an increased output of hair substance, and hair production returns to its normal level after 11 weeks.

Since the publication of the classical report of Lawes, Gilbert and Pugh (15), it has been generally accepted that the Gramineae obtain all the nitrogen they require in the combined form from the soil solution. The results of recent investigations on the relation between the fungus endophyte and the host have suggested the possibility of an atmospheric origin for part of the nitrogen present in the host. Hannig(10) isolated fungus-free races of Lolium temulentum, and showed that the infected plants had a slight power of assimilating molecular nitrogen. Hiltner(11) grew plants of Lolium temulentum under culture conditions with, and without, nitrate nitrogen, and he found that those without did as well as those with nitrate nitrogen, from which he concluded that plants grown without nitrate nitrogen must be meeting their nitrogen requirements from atmospheric sources. It appears, however, that Hiltner's cultures were not sterile, and no special precautions were taken to ensure that the sand and water were nitrogen free. McLennan(20) repeated Hiltner's work using Lolium perenne, but great care was taken to ensure that all ingredients of the cultures were nitrogen free, and that the cultures were sterile. Under these conditions the results were negative, pointing to an absence of fixation. McLennan, however, states that her results do not preclude the possibility of fixation when small quantities of combined nitrogen are available in the medium.

1. The object of this investigation was to determine the extent to which the decomposing power of soils within a climatic region is influenced by:

(a) the geological character of the rocks from which the soils are derived,

(b) the nature of the vegetative covering.

2. A short account is given of the geography, climatology, geology and pedology of Glamorgan. The soils of South Glamorgan appear in general to be Brown Earth types.

3. In studying the rate of decay it is necessary to obtain an index of the intensity of the total biochemical processes taking place. One of the best and most suitable of indices for this purpose is CO2 evolution.

4. A type of apparatus used by a previous investigator (Neller) to measure the CO2 evolved from soil was tested and found to be unsatisfactory. Thus a suitable apparatus had to be evolved. This apparatus is described in detail.

The results discussed in this paper are based on the weights and composition of the excrements of eight pullets, fed for the periods stated on three rations, which differed only in the amounts of calcium and phosphorus supplied in various combinations. The total amounts of calcium and phosphorus supplied daily were approximately the same in all cases.

The birds were 5 months old White Wyandottes, and increased considerably in weight during the experimental period. No eggs were laid, but Pullet No. 2 died of prolapsus of the oviduct, and was found to have seven nearly full-sized yolks and one unshelled egg in the oviduct.

1. Sexual periodicity in many animals is largely conditioned by variations in the daily light period. That egg production in hens may be controlled by the use of artificial lights has long been known.

2. The action of light is probably connected with the activity of the anterior lobe of the pituitary.

3. The natural variation in daily light period at different latitudes has been used to study the effect of light on egg production throughout the world. Curves have been constructed of egg production grouped in 5° of latitude and the correlation with the hours of daylight at those latitudes studied.

1. In a preliminary investigation of the obligate anaerobic microflora of samples of ordinary farmyard manure and of Edelmist strains of Bac. sporogenes, Bac. bifermentans, Bac. tertius, Bac. tetanomorphus and Bac. saccharobutyricus were isolated and characterised.

2. Anaerobic decomposition of cellulose was observed in media inoculated from both of the samples of Edelmist examined.

3. For the cultivation and enumeration of the anaerobic bacilli in samples of farmyard manure the superiority of liquid over solid media was demonstrated. Of the liquid enrichment media tested egg meat and liver-liver broth proved to be the best.

1. Two profiles of a drift soil at Craibstone, Aberdeenshire, have been examined in the field and in the laboratory. Both profiles have been derived from parent material of the same geological origin—a somewhat gravelly drift consisting of the granitic and metamorphic rocks of the district. One of the profiles was taken in uncultivated land and the other from arable land in the same area.

2. The chief results obtained in the present investigation may be summarised as follows:

Copper has been detected in a large number of plants, and is probably present in very minute amounts in all vegetation. Estimations of copper content of a number of plants have been made, notably by Fleurent and Levi(1), Maquenne and Demoussy(2) and McHargue(3).