1. The fertility of three sterile bulls was restored by injections of human pregnancy urine extract (P.U.).

2. Cows which failed to exhibit oestrus were treated by injections of P.U. Three out of five cows responded within 24 hours to intravenous injections of 5 c.c. P.U. (2500 rat units) and one out of four to an injection of 3 c.c. P.U.

Two out of five cows responded immediately to a series of three intramuscular injections of 2 c.c. P.U. and one cow responded to a single intramuscular injection of 2 c.c. P.U. In addition four cows failed to respond immediately to four intramuscular injections of 2 c.c. P.U.

3. Evidence was obtained which shows that treatment with P.U. at the time of service increases the fertility of cows which show regular oestrus but nevertheless fail to conceive. It is believed that this condition is often due (a) to failure to ovulate, and (b) to deficiency of progesterone following ovulation.

We are grateful to Prof. R. Rae and Mr K. W. C. Campbell for their co-operation. Part of this work was carried out during the tenure by one of us (H.M.S.W.) of a Research Grant from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

The present investigation was intended to furnish information concerning:

(1) The movement of water-soluble and exchangeable potassium in the soil profile after successive fertilizer applications.

(2) The form of potassium—exchangeable, soluble, or non-exchangeable—into which added potassium fertilizer is converted in the soil.

(3) The effect of doubling the fertilizer ration on the absorption of potassium by the soil; and the effect of doubling the ration of irrigation water on the absorption and accumulation of potassium in the soil.

(4) The effect of frequent successive summer irrigation following fertilizer application on the distribution of the three forms of soil potassium.

(5) The effect of fertilization followed by irrigation on soil pH. value.

An investigation of the metabolism of a number of Light Sussex cockerels has shown that there exists a rhythm in the metabolism during fasting amounting to about 9% as between morning and night observations, the former being the higher by the percentage stated.

Two methods were adopted to exclude the effect of variation in the activity of the birds at different times of day. In the first, the birds were artificially stimulated during the normal period of repose in such manner as to give periods of approximately equal activity by day and by night. In the second, the movements of the birds were recorded by a system of “point scores”, and regression equations were deduced from a large number of such experiments so as to make it possible to reduce the metabolism observations to a basis of zero activity.

The results obtained by these two methods of procedure were in good agreement with one another.

The metabolism in the standing position is 40–45% above that in the sitting position, a figure considerably above that for the increase of metabolism as between the lying and standing positions usually found in quadrupeds, while at the moment of rising the heat output may occasionally be trebled, but averages about cent per cent above sitting. The former of these observations is of importance in estimating food requirements as our experiments show that generally speaking rather more than 12 out of each 24 hr. period is spent standing when the birds are kept in cages. It follows that the sitting metabolism must be increased to allow for this when the figure is being used for computation of rations. The large heat increase on rising to the standing posture is of such short duration as to exert little influence on the mean metabolism over a 24 hr. period.

The mineral compositions of the clays from a red earth and a black cotton soil from Hyderabad, Deccan State, India, occurring in close proximity in the field are determined. Both soils are derived from the same or from very similar parent rocks, a coarsely crystalline granite or gneiss.

For both soils there is practically no variation in the mineralogical composition of the clay throughout the profile, but for any given clay there is some variation with grain size. The main contrast between the two is that the red clay contains predominantly kaolinite or halloysite, whereas the black clay contains mainly beidellite, a member of the montmorillonite group. The topography appears to be the principal factor associated with this difference in minerals, and the processes of weathering believed to have produced the contrasted clays are discussed with reference to experiments on the leaching of felspar in the laboratory and on hydrothermal synthesis.

1. The length of oestrus in mares varied from 3 to 54 days, although in most cases it was 7–8 days.

2. The length of dioestrus varied from 5 to 30 days, but in most cases was 11–16 days.

3. Ovulation occurred in most cases on the last day of oestrus, but a considerable number of ovulations occurred on the 1st and 2nd days before the end of oestrus, and in a few cases from the 5th day before the end of oestrus to 1 day after the end of oestrus.

4. Artificial insemination of mares was equally effective in the intervals of 24, 48 and 72 hr. before ovulation but was unsuccessful in intervals of 2 and 4 hr. after ovulation.

5. Pregnancy was diagnosed in all mares by rectal palpation on the 23rd day and in one mare as early as the 16th day.

6. The foetus developed in the opposite horn of the uterus to the ovary which ovulated at the onset of pregnancy in five out of seven mares.

7. Ovulation occurred in one mare on the 23rd day of pregnancy.

8. Gonadotrophic hormones had no effect when given in the anoestrous period (November to March).

9. Ovulation was induced in 20–40 hr. in most cases after the intravenous injection of 1000–2000 mouse or rat units of pregnancy urine extract intravenously, provided a fairly mature follicle was present in the ovary at the time of injection.

When this ovulation occurred, the duration of oestrus was shortened.

A method is described by which small quantities of indolyl acetic acid can be detected and measured quantitatively, depending on the effect of this substance on osmotic pressure of root hair cells of wheat seedlings. Full details are given of the procedure adopted and the precautions which it was found necessary to take, and suggestions are put forward as to how the method might be rendered more accurate if necessary. Possible sources of e"rror are also discussed.

An experiment is described in which this method is used to determine what effect is produced by different manurial treatments on the content of indolyl acetic acid in the soil. It was found that farmyard manure tended to increase the quantity present.

1. With three different groups, each of two zebu and two zebu × Ayrshire grade oxen, and ten typical East African feeding stuffs, no significant difference was found between the average digestibility coefficients recorded with the zebu and the grade oxen.

2. The slight differences in feeding values were also of no practical significance.

3. Some of the zebu × Ayrshire cattle were 3/4 and others 7/8 Ayrshire but the higher grading to the European breed apparently did not affect the digestive powers.

In a number of cereal experiments, three on wheat, three on barley and one on oats, the yields of grain and straw per plot were estimated by weighing the total produce on each plot and taking samples, usually from the sheaves, to estimate the ratio of grain to total produce. This paper discusses the sampling errors of this method. The method proved considerably less accurate than was anticipated from previous calculations made by Yates & Zacopanay. Amongst the reasons which are suggested to account for this are the larger sizes of plot and sampling unit used in these experiments and the additional variability introduced by the presence of weeds, undergrowth and moisture.

Nevertheless, the method appears to be substantially superior to the older method of cutting small areas from the standing crop, without weighing total produce, only about one-quarter of the number of samples being required to obtain results of equal precision.

The samples were taken both by an approximately random process and by grabbing a few shoots haphazardly from each of several sheaves. The grab samples gave on the whole a slightly higher yield of grain, the greatest positive bias being 6%, but were otherwise just as accurate as the random samples. Since the grab samples can be selected and bagged in about one-third of the time required for random samples, their use is recommended for the majority of the samples required in any experiment.

The validity of an approximate formula for calculating the variance of a ratio (in the present instance the ratio of grain to total produce) is discussed briefly in an appendix.

A new method of analysing the results of experiments arranged in lattice (quasi-Latin) square designs is described. By this method the information contained in the inter-row and inter-column comparisons is recovered. The procedure followed is to estimate the actual accuracy of the inter-row and inter-column comparisons relative to intra-row and column comparisons, and assign weights proportional to these relative accuracies.

The methods of computation by which this procedure can be carried out expeditiously are described in detail, and are illustrated by two experiments carried out at Rothamsted and Woburn. The gains in accuracy obtained in these two experiments (as compared with ordinary randomized blocks) were approximately 30% and 60% respectively, allowing for losses of information due to inaccuracies of weighting.

1. With the object of establishing the general order of development during post-natal life of the body proportions, tissues, and anatomical units, the relative changes with age in these characters have been studied in a series of male pigs killed at monthly intervals from birth to 7 months. The study is to be regarded in the light of a preliminary investigation, providing a background to experimental studies on the influence of nutrition on the growth and development of the pig.

2. Growth in body proportions, when measured both photographically and by the weight of the individual anatomical regions, conforms to the law of developmental direction, exhibiting a well-defined anterior-posterior gradient from earlier to later developing regions. The limbs appear as relatively early developing parts with the fore limbs slightly earlier developing than the hind.

3. The major body tissues exhibit marked differential growth behaviour; skeleton, muscle, and fat develop in that order. This situation has its origin in the differential rates of growth of the three tissues, in consequence of which the earlier developing skeleton makes a greater proportion of its growth earlier in life than does muscle, while the latter makes a greater proportion of its growth earlier than does the still later developing fat.

4. Within any one tissue, the individual anatomical units or regions of the body similarly show well-defined differential growth relationships. Thus, the skeletal units of the head and trunk exhibit an anterior-posterior gradient in their order of development, while the bones of each limb show a centripetal gradient, the upper units being later developing than the lower units. To an even more marked degree, both the muscle and the fat surrounding these skeletal units afford evidence of similar gradients in these tissues.