1. A detailed mineralogical analysis was carried out on soils, specially selected by members of the Soil Survey.

2. The heavy liquid separation showed a higher percentage of ferromagnesian minerals in soils from the Northern than the Southern Drift area.

3. The minerals identified in the soils may be referred to fairly local origins, but no close relationship with subjacent rock has been established.

4. The mineral assemblage was characteristically fresh and angular.

5. Hypersthene, sphalerite and hornblende are characteristic of the Southern Drift, while barkevikite is more pronounced in the Northern Drift.

6. Comparisons are made with results obtained by investigators in other areas.

The need for physical measurements of soil structure to assist in studies of the relation between cultivation implements and plant growth is pressing.

The nature and measurement of soil compactness and consolidation are briefly discussed. Measurements of soil resistance give an indication of consolidation rather than of compactness.

An instrument used for the measurement of soil resistance is described, with some notes upon its performance.

A brief outline is given of studies on soil structure in relation to gyrotilling. It is shown that the soil-resistance apparatus described gives results similar to those obtained by the use of the drawbar dynamometer in ploughing. A relation between soil resistance and plant growth is demonstrated.

That extreme environmental temperatures have a marked influence on metabolism is a well-established fact. The early investigators, Kellner, Atwater, Armsby and others, studied the energy income and output of farm animals in relation to various conditions of the environment, and from these studies the principles of basal metabolism, critical temperature, and physical and chemical regulation of body temperature have evolved.

A general account is given of four experiments in which the action on the soil of the Fowler “Gyrotiller” has been compared with that of the traditional cultivation implements. The gyrotiller has produced well-marked changes in the soil on both heavy and light land. These changes have been demonstrated and recorded by tests of the compactness, the resistance, the degree of comminution and the permeability of the soil.

On the heavy land, the initial effect has been to produce a very loose and open soil. This has gradually settled down until, after the end of the first winter, no difference in compactness was demonstrable by means of the revolver test. But the resistance of the soil, measured by a special recorder and by plough drawbar tests, has remained demonstrably lower on the gyrotilled plots than on the controls for a considerable time after this, and a method of soil fixation has shown that small cavities persisted for more than a year. In one experiment, differences in resistance have been shown to exist up to 19 months after gyrotilling.

1. An account is given of Marsh Spot in the seeds of the green pea (Pisum sativum L.); its economic importance and its effect on the plant, including the germination of the seed, are discussed.

2. Hypotheses advanced by seedsmen and growers to account for the presence of Marsh Spot are discussed.

3. The soils of 165 fields upon which green peas were grown under contract for seed in east Kent during 1933 and 1934, were surveyed in detail and are classified under the American system. A brief description of each is given.

4. The occurrence of Marsh Spot is correlated with the presence of a water table in the soil. A high percentage of Marsh Spot was encountered only in crops grown on fields with a water table within 52 in. of the surface. Thus, in the presence of a water table, the intensity of Marsh Spot reached a maximum of 100 per cent. of the seeds of a sample affected, whereas in the absence of a water table the maximum was only 3 per cent.

1. Where heavy phosphorus excretion accompanies egg laying in the pullet the excretion of ammonia nitrogen is simultaneously increased. It is probable that this indicates an excretion of excess phosphate in the urine as ammonium phosphate.

2. It is shown that heavy phosphorus excretion does not accompany egg laying provided the calcium carbonate intake is sufficiently high.

3. The origin of the excess of phosphorus excretion is discussed in relation to calcium-phosphorus metabolism.

4. Pullets on a ration containing 5 per cent, calcium carbonate laid eggs containing a higher percentage of P2O5 than pullets receiving a similar ration but from which the calcium carbonate supplement was omitted.

5. Some evidence is put forward in support of the view that current standards pitch the requirements of digestible protein for egg production at too high a level.

1. In both Barred Plymouth Rocks and White Leghorns, the birds which died in Canadian Egg-Laying Contests during the year 1929–30 were, on the average, poorer layers than pen mates which survived.

2. The majority of deaths occurred in the lower producing pens.

3. The rise which has occurred in the death-rate since the inception of egg-laying contests in Canada is not connected with the rise in production which has occurred during the same period.

4. During the year 1929–30, although there is a tendency for the rate of production to parallel the rate of mortality throughout the year, a critical analysis of the data shows that the two rates are, in reality, independent.

5. It would appear that practices which contribute towards increased production, in the aggregate at least, contribute also toward health and lowered mortality.

Assuming a uniform heavy soil, without tilth, the water movement in which obeys diffusion laws, expressions have been deduced for four quantities, starting with a known moisture profile.

(a) The moisture profile at any subsequent time in the absence of rainfall or irrigation (neglecting evaporation, transpiration, and any other source of loss of moisture).

(b) The moisture profile at any subsequent time during such rainfall as causes flushing of the drains.

(c) The minimum rainfall necessary to cause flushing of the drains (maximum acceptable rainfall).

(d) The acceptable rainfall after a period of recovery following the previous drainage period.

In a preceding paper(1) were deduced some of the consequences of assuming that water movement in a heavy clay soil is a process akin to diffusion. The only idealisation of the medium was the assumption that the ratio of k, the diffusion coefficient, to σ, the apparent specific gravity of the dry matter in the soil, is constant, independent of depth, and we shall see that this is justified by the experimental evidence. As long ago as 1907, Buckingham(2) showed that the quantity of moisture moving in a given time from a block of wet soil to a drier block in contact with it was dependent mainly on the difference between the respective water contents, and that there was no definite dependence on the actual water contents themselves. Veihmeyer(3), in 1927, placed blocks of wet soil between blocks of drier soil, arranged in a vertical column. Subsequent moisture profiles were typical of a redistribution obeying diffusion laws, and were nearly the same both for upward and downward movement. He demonstrated furthermore that the movement of the water in these conditions was extremely slow, and that the rate of movement was related to the difference in moisture content between the dry and wet soil. Unfortunately insufficient numerical data were given to apply diffusion theory to Veihmeyer's experimental results.

The composition, digestibility coefficients and digestible nutrients of a large number of samples of fresh grass, silage, hay and artificially dried grass are tabulated. Curves have been prepared from these figures which enable the starch equivalent and protein equivalent to be obtained, by interpolation, from the value for crude protein determined by analysis.

The method of calculating the starch equivalent of artificially dried grass from the data for digestibility and composition is discussed with particular reference to the fibre correction factor. It is considered that this should be the same as that used for the fresh grass prior to drying.

A number of miscellaneous samples—mostly of home-grown foods—are included in the tables.

1. The effect of low-temperature treatment on some varieties of wheat, barley and oats has been found to be profoundly affected by the time of sowing of the treated grain.

2. Winter sowing showed the least vernalisation effect, while in the spring the stimulative action became more pronounced as far as earing acceleration is concerned, as the sowing was made progressively later. This was particularly marked in winter varieties.

3. Developmental studies of the control and vernalised plants showed the stimulative action on early growth and growing point development in the winter varieties.

4. Tiller counts on control and vernalised plants of three winter wheat varieties demonstrated the fact that each variety was stimulated to earlier tiller production, but in two of the varieties this resulted in a reduction of surviving ears at harvest.