The object of the present communication is to collect together and compare the data obtained in the principal investigations which have been carried out in this country during the past five years into the variations in composition of the milk of the cow. The results of many of these experiments have been published only in annual reports or as special bulletins with limited and more or less exclusively local circulation.

Below is a brief summary of the chief points of interest which our investigations appear to have suggested so far:

That the most convenient method of sampling roots for analysis is to remove a core from each root, and that when using this method at least 50 roots must be cored in order to obtain a sample representing the composition of the bulk of roots grown on a field.

That a large proportion of the commonly grown strains of mangels may be assigned to one or other of five types.

That of these types, four have their cropping power and percentage of dry matter so nearly in inverse proportion that they yield practically the same weight of dry matter per acre.

That the fifth type, Long Bed, yields considerably more dry matter per acre than the other four varieties.

That large roots on the average contain more water and less dry matter than smaller ones.

That there is a considerable variation in the composition of mangels from year to year, probably depending on such conditions as rainfall and sunshine at particular periods of growth.

That manurial treatment causes distinct variations in composition, the most noticeable point being that excessive applications of nitrogen delay ripening and decrease the percentage of dry matter.

That different farms grow roots of different composition.

That there is very great variation among individual roots of the same variety grown side by side, in content of dry matter, sugar, and nitrogen, and in size, shape, colour; in fact, in all the characters which we have been able to observe.

That there is so little correlation between the different characters that it is possible to pick out for seed-mothers large roots containing high percentages of dry matter rich in any desired constituent, and it is suggested that, from analogy with the sugar beet, continuous selection carried out in this manner may result in improvement in any desired direction.

That since colour, shape, and specific gravity of root or of juice are shown not to be correlated with percentage of dry matter, sugar, or nitrogen, selection for these characters is not likely to lead to any improvement.

An agricultural problem to which little attention has been directed is the relation of the supply of combined sulphuric acid in the soil to the growth of crops. Field experiments upon the value of gypsum and sulphate of iron have been made, and artificial manures containing sulphates are constantly being used, but the specific effect of the combined sulphuric acid in these materials seems never to have been sufficiently investigated. Indeed, any useful effect produced by gypsum has been ascribed to indirect action, e.g., the liberation of other constituents from insoluble soil compounds.

At the beginning of 1902 I was asked to investigate the nature and causation of a disease of sheep, locally termed “struck,” with the hope of finding some suitable form of preventive treatment.

It is well known that the fertility of “virgin” soils is due to the accumulation of the débris of a natural vegetation which has been in occupation of the soil for a long epoch previously. Only when the climate and rainfall are suitable to the growth of the plants and the partial preservation of their residues does a virgin soil of any richness arise; on the one hand, virgin soil may be as poverty stricken as the most worn-out European field because it has never carried any vegetation; on the other hand, as in the tropics, the débris of an extensive vegetation may decay with such rapidity that no reserve of fertility accumulates.

The following note is concerned solely with the behaviour of certain characters in hybrid barleys which bear on the inheritance of sterility and the question whether sex is, as it seems possible, a phenomenon of gametic segregation. I have used the term “sterility” in a broader sense than usual to include cases in which certain florets set no grain owing to the suppression of either the female or both the male and female reproductive organs. The plants themselves are in no cases completely sterile. The other characters occurring in the numerous varieties of barley will be considered in detail later.