The nutrition of the carrot in a light gravel soil of known analysis with high available phosphate has been studied by statistical pot-culture methods, and the responses, linear and curvature components, etc., due to nitrogen, phosphate, and potash, have been calculated.

No hard and fast rule can be made as to the adequacy or otherwise of any particular fertilizer in a soil, as the different parts of the plant (top and root) were shown to be capable of responding quite differently to that fertilizer.

In a greenhouse experiment, the effect of soil sodicity (exchangeable Na percentage 3, 10, 20, 40 and 60) and Zn (0 and 10 mg Zn/kg soil) on soil solution chemistry of Mn was investigated under submerged conditions. Calculated amounts of NaHCO3 were added to Typic Ustifluvent sandy loam soil to obtain required sodicity levels. The soil solutions collected under the atmosphere of N2 gas by gravity were analysed for pH, pE, EC and Mn. Soil submergence decreased pH and pE, and increased Mn concentrations in all the treatments. Maximum Mn concentration was obtained at 14-day submergence. Increasing sodicity levels increased soil solution pH and decreased Mn concentrations. A significant negative correlation (r = -0·74**) was observed between soil solution Mn and pH. Despite large variations in pH, pE, ionic strength and Mn concentration in soil solution, the values of expressions: pH+½log Mn2+ + ½log Pco2 and pMn+2pOH were fairly constant and close to the theoretical values of 4·4 and 17·2 respectively, indicating that the MnCO3-Mn2+ system regulated the solubility of Mn2+ in the sodic soils. Addition of ZnSO4 did not have appreciable effects on the soil solution pH, Mn and solid phases of Mn.

Five Suffolk crossbred ram lambs were administered ritodrine, a β2-agonist drug, by continuous intravenous infusion at 0·5 μg/kg per min for 9 days to determine effects of prolonged β-agonist infusion on metabolism and on the responsiveness of the animals to short-term infusions of adrenaline. Consistent with other investigations, this study showed that initially the drug caused rapid increases in heart rate and plasma concentrations of free fatty acids (FFA), lactate and insulin, but decreased plasma growth hormone. There was no effect on plasma glucose or pancreatic glucagon concentrations. After 24 h of ritodrine infusion, these effects were attenuated as tachyphylaxis to the drug developed. On days 2–9 of the infusion, heart rate remained significantly higher than preinfusion values, but plasma glucose concentration was significantly lower than before infusion. Despite the rapid disappearance of these ‘side-effects’ of the drug and the apparent normality of most metabolic parameters, short-term infusion of adrenaline (50 ng/kg per min for 60 min then 500 ng/kg per min for a further 60 min) after 9 days of ritodrine infusion showed that the responses of lactate, FFA and heart rate to adrenaline were significantly attenuated in comparison with the responses determined before β-agonist infusion. This result, together with similar earlier observations on fetal lambs, implies that selective attenuation of β-receptor mediated cardiovascular, metabolic and endocrine responses to the endogenous catecholamines could play an important role in determining how β-agonist drugs act to modify carcass development.

The mechanisms responsible for moving K from soil to root were studied by growing perennial ryegrass in pots containing a flinty silt loam from Rothamsted and a sandy Woburn soil, with and without added K, at 0.75 water-holding capacity. More water was taken up from the Rothamsted soil than from the Woburn soil, and less was taken up when K was added without affecting dry-matter production. After 25, 52, 83, 122, 194 and 276 days, K uptake, water uptake and the K concentration in the soil solution were measured and the mass-flow contributionto K uptake calculated.

Without added K, mass-flow accounted for only about one-sixth of the K taken up from the Rothamsted soil and about one-third from the Woburn soil. Except at first, diffusion probably accounted for the remainder of uptake but was the rate-controlling step for uptake from the Woburn soil only. With added K, mass-flow became much more important relative to diffusion in both soils, and transported more than enough K to account for the measured K uptake. Root interception probably did not contribute to K uptake after the early part of the experiment, because the pots used were small.

Wool-growth rates were measured at monthly intervals on eight free-grazing Cheviot wethers. Nutrient intakes provided by the upland environment were measured at the same intervals during the 2½ years. Analysis of periodic regression disclosed that both intake and wool growth had similar seasonal cycles but were slightly out of phase. It was concluded that the similarity was largely due to the relationship of both characters with some independent seasonal variable. The seasonal cycle of efficiency of wool growth depends on the time relationship between its two components, but it was found that variation amongst sheep in wool production was greater in the summer months and this depended more on variation in overall efficiency than on variation in grazing intake.

The account given by Wood and Yule of their investigation of the records of British Feeding Trials and the Starch Equivalent Theory in part 2 vol. VI of this Journal is a valuable and timely paper. It contains abundant material for reflection. Consideration of the data suggests that there is room for doubt in regard to the conclusions for which a claim to “certainty” has been advanced. It is not, however, the immediate purpose of this article to discuss these conclusions—though incidentally certain points in the investigation come under review—but rather to discern, as far as possible, the direction in which the methods and arguments employed lead, and more particularly what is their bearing on the starch equivalent theory as a practical system.

1. Some data are given for the relative buffer-index values of saps from underground parts of wheat, barley, oats, potatoes and turnips.

2. The correlation of these values with limits of tolerances of soil-pHranges by the plants is discussed.

3. Some possible practical applications for these data are indicated.

An experiment to study the effect of row direction on the light interception, growth and yield of three wheat cultivars sown at three different dates was conducted at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana during rabi seasons 1982–3 and 1983–4. The results showed that sowing in a north-south direction resulted in 0·20 and 0·22 t/ha higher yield than sowing east-west. Bi-directional sowing gave further increases of 0·30 and 0·18 t/ha over north-south direction during 1982–3 and 1983–4 respectively. Late sowing significantly reduced yield.

1. Two groups of Rhode Island Red × Light Sussex pullets were housed respectively in batteries and in a fold unit.

2. Samples of the eggs produced were collected monthly and weights of egg fractions, quality tests on yolk and thick white, and porosity coefficients were determined.

3. The tests were continued for a 9-month period and no consistent differences were found in the quality of the eggs produced under the two systems of housing.

4. Colours of yolks produced by battery pullets were paler than those produced in the fold unit on grass. Yolk colour was improved by increasing the proportion of grass meal in the diet of battery birds.

The intensive finishing of steers on simple rations of 10% sorghum stubble and 90% sorghum grain plus urea was investigated. Fine grinding of the grain resulted in a lower mean daily intake, but a significantly greater efficiency of conversion of feed to carcass weight gain (P < 0·01) than coarse grinding the grain. Coarse chaffing of the stubble significantly reduced the intake of the stubble in comparison with hammer milling, but had no significant effect on rate of body weight gain, total feed intake or efficiency of feed conversion.

The addition to the ration of either 1 mg of selenium, or 200 mg vitamin E, 200 mg vitamin E and 100 mg vitamin K per day had no significant effect on rate or efficiency of body or carcass weight gain. Seven out of 32 steers which were not injected with 3 million i.u. of vitamin A at the start of the experiment exhibited nyctalopia. None of the 32 steers which received the vitamin A injection had hepatic vitamin A concentrations less than 33 μg/g. Vitamin A injection did not have a significant effect on the rate of body weight gain (mean ±S.E. 1·3 ± 0·03 kg per day), efficiency of feed conversion (10·4 ± 0·16 kg D.M. per kg carcass weight gain), or time to attain slaughter weight (133 ± 3 days). Drenching twice with thiabendazole had no significant effect on rate of body weight gain.

The records of the Home-Grown Wheat Committee, set up in 1901 by the National Association of British and Irish Millers, whose work continued up to 1938, dealt in the main with the trial of wheat for baking strength. Nevertheless, references to milling character were occasionally noted; for instance in 1923, Sir Albert Humphries, writing of his twenty-year trial on Red Fife wheat in England, states ‘Each lot, including those originally of very high moisture content, was found to possess the free milling characteristics of Manitoba wheat. … Stated differently, it may be said that each lot behaved in milling very differently from average English wheats, excluding Yeoman.’

The following paper is the first of a projected series on the results of work which has been in progress in the Animal Calorimetry Department of this Institute during the past five years. Subsequent papers will deal with body temperature variations, effects of environmental temperature, metabolism, energy expenditure, etc.

Mulching polybag oil-palm seedlings with bunch refuse, shredded polythene, sawdust, grass, wood shavings and kernel shells ‘all-year’ or throughout the nursery period (May–May), in the ‘wet-season only’ (May-November), and in the ‘dry-season only’ (November–May) resulted in soil temperature differences which did not exceed 1 °C at 5 cm polybag depth. This was attributed to the high rainfall which reduced considerably the soil temperature differences between mulched and unmulched soil in the wet season and to the enhanced leaf canopy in ‘all-year’ and ‘wet season only’ mulchings which shaded soil in polybags in the dry season.

The mulch materials and times of their application significantly influenced growth variables like number of leaves, plant height and stem girth, and number of blast-affected seedlings at 6 months after sowing (wet season). By 12 months after sowing, all growth characters measured were similar in the various treatments, indicating compensatory growth at the latter half of the growing period (dry season).

N, P, K, Mg and Ca contents of seedlings were not significantly affected by either mulch materials or times of their application. The results emphasize that mulching for at least 6 months during the early or late nursery period and the use of various mulches may be beneficial to oil-palm seedling growth.

The tubers of Dioscorea composita Hemsl. contain a high level of diosgenin, and hence there is economic interest in this plant. Levels of diosgenin vary greatly in different clones of the species. Vegetative propagation was studied with a view to obtaining plants with high levels of diosgenin. In this study cuttings from 1-year-old vegetative plants were used for propagation. The cuttings were treated with a single application of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and several applications of 6 benzyladenine (6-BA). Rooting was never observed in untreated cuttings. Cuttings treated with IBA produced callus and roots. Early application of 6-BA delayed senescence but inhibited callus and root formation. New plants were obtained with one application of IBA followed by applications of 6-BA at 48 h intervals initiated 2 weeks after IBA application. In some experiments, all cuttings treated this way produced new plants.

Bean cultivars Cargamanto (CIAT P590, indeterminate climbing, Type IV) and Puebla 152 (CIAT P498, indeterminate large vine, Type III) were grown at 20 and 60plants/m2 at two locations in Colombia; a cool, high rainfall, mountainous area (Popayan) and a hot, medium rainfall, valley (Palmira). The crop growth period was compressed and P590 failed to flower at Palmira.where plant shoot weights tended to be higher and root weights lower than at Popayan.

Midday soil temperatures at 10 cm averaged 7·8 °C lower and N2(C2H2) fixation rate and nodule fresh weight over ten-fold higher at Popayan than at Palmira. Increasing the plant population density increased yield but reduced seed weight per plant and the fresh weight of all other plant parts, with shoots more severely affected than roots. Density had little effect on carbohydrate concentration or N2(C2H2) fixation per plant. The cultivars accumulated carbohydrates in different amounts but had similar rates of N2(C2H2) fixation. Concentrations of ethanol insoluble carbohydrates were several times higher in all plant parts at Popayan. Soluble carbohydrates showed similar, but smaller, differences.

Body-weight gain, protein efficiency ratio (PER), standardized protein efficiency ratio (Std PER) and gross protein value (GPV, GPV1 and GPV2) bioassays were compared with nitrogen incorporation efficiency (NTE) for their accuracy and precision to determine protein quality of fish meal (FM), groundnut cake (GN), mustard cake (MS) and cottonseed cake (CS) for poultry. Results showed that all the bioassays were significantly (P < 0·05) correlated with NIE and were equally effective in ranking the samples of FM, GN, MS and CS according to their protein quality although body-weight gain procedure was less sensitive.

In an intermediate deepwater situation (15–50 cm) at Cuttack, India, three improved high-yielding rice varieties, Utkalprabha (semi-tall), CR 292–8051 (intermediate tall) and Gayatri (semi-dwarf) were sown on 20 May, 30 May and 10 June in 1988 and 1989 with an application of either 0, 20 or 40 kg N/ha at sowing. Tall varieties performed better than the dwarf type but grain yield decreased with delay in sowing. The early-sown crops (20–30 May) germinated with pre-monsoon rains and were established well before water accumulated in the field from mid-June onwards. The late-sown crops (10 June), despite good initial germination, could not withstand immediate waterlogging. The tall variety, Utkalprabha, elongated faster with rising water level and escaped complete submergence; whereas the semi-dwarf Gayatri failed to withstand such extreme excess water stress. Application of N fertilizer up to 40 kg/ha proved beneficial to the crops sown by the end of May. However, with crops sown on 10 June, the application of N could not compensate for the loss in yield due to an inadequate initial crop stand. Therefore, early sowing of tall varieties by the end of May along with a basal application of N fertilizer is recommended for higher productivity of rice under excess water conditions.

Three pastures, pangola–clover, setaria, and tropical grass–legume, were grazed for a 9-month period by 12 steers of initial live weight of 199 kg on each. For the first 5 months live-weight gains were, respectively, 1·2, 0·76 and 0·43 kg per day, mostly higher than could be expected for estimated dietary energy concentrations of 10·1, 8·9 and 8·7 MJ of metabolizable energy (ME) per kg of dry matter. The high live-weight gains were not explained satisfactorily by dry-matter intakes as measured from faeces voided and dietary digestible dry matter, but were possible if published values for the requirements of ME for growth and fattening were too high. Cell wall, in vitro digested cell wall and nitrogen in separated leaf and stem fractions were useful indices for evaluating pasture for grazing cattle, but they did not predict live-weight gain.

Sixteen osteodystrophic dwarf cattle and ten controls of comparable age were slaughtered. The components of the body and eviscerated carcass were weighed and measured. At birth the dwarfs were thick and blocky. At the time of slaughter a bulging forehead was common but not always extreme and not always present. The symptoms of dwarfism became increasingly pronounced with age, due to retarded growth. The dwarfs had shorter thoracic cavity, abdominal cavity, body, loin, hind leg, arm bone and forearm bone than the controls. No explanation can be given for the difference. However, the dwarfs were hydrocephalic and had significantly lighter adrenal and pituitary glands than the control animals. The dwarf animals had more blood, heavier feet, less abdominal fat, smaller loin ‘eye muscle’ area at the 12th rib and a less deep loin ‘eye muscle’. The dwarf females had a lighter rumen (with and without contents) and large intestines (without content) as a percentage of live weight than the controls and dwarf males. There was no difference in palatability of the meat or percentage of wholesale cuts from the dwarf and control animals except for percentage of plate. The following three ratios were disproportionate in the dwarfs as compared with the controls:

With the great increase in the use of palm kernel cake, which has taken place in this country in the last few years, attention has been drawn to the rancidity which the cake is liable to develop under certain conditions. R. B. Calder (see this Journal, April, 1916, VII, 470) has shown that the cake develops rancidity under sterile conditions and concludes that the action is due to the presence of a lipase. Calder has taken as his criteria of rancidity a sour smell in some cases and an acid reaction with litmus in others. There is some confusion in the use of the terms “rancidity” and “ acidity.” Although rancidity stands in close relationship to acidity and invariably accompanies a high acidity in oils and oil cakes, the terms are not synonymous.