1. Two lots of twenty sheep each were fed indoors on rations known to produce satisfactory growth. The calorific value of the two diets was the same. One lot received 52 per cent, more digestible protein than the other. The diet of the low protein group was protein deficient according to the calculations of Wood.

2. The sheep were shorn at the beginning of the experiment and again at its conclusion. Fibre measurements were made on samples taken at the same two periods from the same body area. The fleece and fibres grown during the experimental period were compared in each case with the fleece and fibres grown during the pre-experimental period. The fibre measurements included fineness, length and fibre weight.

1. Previous observations on the calcium and phosphorus metabolism of the pullet are confirmed.

2. Calcium and phosphorus retention are shown to be related to the amount of sodium chloride in the food.

3. The extra phosphorus excretion which accompanies egg laying involves no marked concomitant change of the amount of potassium in the droppings. Small concomitant increases in the sodium in the droppings were observed where the food contained only small amounts of sodium and chloride; potassium retention was observed on the succeeding day in every case but one.

The main object of the present investigation (season 1932) has been to secure as much information as possible concerning yield, composition and nutritive value from crops of lucerne already established in several different localities. This work may be considered as preliminary to the more systematic investigations which have been designed to begin in the season 1933.

The 1932 investigation comprised work on the following crops: (1) 4-year-old lucerne (variety Provence) grown on the Howe Hill University Farm at Cambridge. (2) 1-year-old lucerne (variety Provence) grown at Willingham, Cambridgeshire. (3) 1-year-old lucerne (variety Hungarian) grown on the Gravel Hill University Farm, Cambridge. (4) 4-year-old lucerne (variety Provence) grown at Tunstall, Suffolk. The season was characterised by its cold, wet, late spring and the prevalence of droughty conditions in June.

1. The typical profile of south-western Nigeria formed over acid igneous rocks under alternating conditions of percolation and evaporation is described. The profile being (a) brown sandy soil, (b) concretion layer, (c) red clay, (d) mottled red and white clay, (e) whitish clay, (f) rotting rock. Acidity increases with depth.

2. Analyses of the concretion layer show that it consists chiefly of silica (quartz), ferric oxide, and occasionally some manganese. Alumina does not occur to a large extent.

3. From studies of the mobility of the iron and soluble salts throughout the profile it is suggested that the profile is developed by a rise of an iron sol which is deposited on a layer of quartz to form the concretions.

4. The Yoruba name “Il***pa” has been adopted by the authors for describing such a profile.

The principle of orthogonality in replicated experiments is discussed and the dangers of non-orthogonality emphasised. The modifications necessary in the ordinary procedure of the analysis of variance when applied to non-orthogonal data are developed, attention being paid to the shorter methods, applicable in certain cases, by which the heavy labour of computation necessary in the general method of fitting constants may be avoided.

Certain modifications in the design of replicated experiments, usually designated by the term confounding, are explained. The different types of confounding are discussed, together with their uses, and the appropriate methods of analysis are set out. The methods are applied to the analysis of an experiment on sugar beet (where a previous incorrect analysis is corrected) and an experiment on potatoes.

1. Barley plants, carefully sampled, were harvested weekly during the season. Growth measurements were made and various analyses carried out on the dried material.

2. Both ash and protein showed an initial increase followed by a steady fall as development proceeded.

3. The Cross and Bevan cellulose fraction, which may be taken as the natural cellulosic fabric of the plant, increased from 30 to 53 per cent., showing an initial peak, and later a stationary period.

4. The amount of cellulosan (or associated polysaccharide) in the cellulose increased with development, and markedly so after the point at which growth increments lessened.1

5. Lignin increased steadily until the last week or so, the fall then probably being due to the increased weight of the grain with respect to the straw.

Recent work on the growth of wool in relation to the cystine supply in the sheep's diet, together with the discovery in proteins of a new sulphur-containing amino acid, methionine, has directed attention to the importance of being able to determine, by methods easily and quickly carried out, the amounts of total and inorganic sulphur in plant products and feeding stuffs. Details are given in the present note of the methods employed by the writers for the estimation of total sulphur, sulphate sulphur and, by difference, organic sulphur.

1. The influence of rainfall on the yield of mangolds is studied in this paper.

2. Analysis shows that the variation in the yield due to annual causes cannot be accounted for by a single weather element, rain.

3. An additional inch of rain above the normal, during the period extending from the middle of March to about the end of May, is harmful possibly because of the difficulty in securing a proper tilth and delay in sowing, which results in a shortening of the growing period.

The object of these experiments was to compare the effect of dung, artificial manures and lime on yield and botanical composition of meadow hay.

The soil is a light loam derived from a coal measures sandstone, and is naturally sour. The poor type of herbage it produces is typical of a large acreage of land in the West Riding.

The northern halves of the plots were limed, and the results obtained show striking differences between the limed and unlimed halves which must be taken into account in any comparison made between the different manurial treatments.

In order to disentangle the various causes affecting foetal growth, and so the birth weight of the animal, it is necessary to employ statistical methods in addition to physiological ones. This paper presents methods suited to a study of growth where two such factors have to be separated and their effects on growth measured quantitively.

The unsatisfactory nature of the methods adopted in feeding experiments at Animal Nutrition Research Institutes has been shown to be due to the neglect of the worker to control variable factors, other than those being investigated, which affect the growth rate of his animals.

It has been proved that age, sex (females and castrated males), condition and previous growth rate have no effect on the rate of live-weight increase of swine in the Cambridge University herd, and the basis on which animals are allotted to groups to ensure homogeneity is fallacious.

1. The fungicidal action of vegetable oils on the conidial stage of the hop powdery mildew, Sphaerotheca Humuli (DC), Burr., is a property common to glyceride oils. When applied with 0·25 per cent. Agral I, the various samples of vegetable and animal oils examined, with the exception of castor oil, proved fungicidal at a concentration of 0·5–1·0 per cent.

2. The fungicidal action of glyceride oils is associated with the glyceride structure and, in the presence of Agral I, is unaffected by the presence of those impurities of the oil which are removed by refinement.

3. Glycerol, at 4 per cent., is not completely fungicidal and, under the conditions of the experiments, causes leaf injury; oleic acid, at 1 per cent. is phytocidal; triolein, prepared by synthesis from glycerol and oleic acid, is fungicidal at 0·5 per cent. and causes no injury to the leaves.

4. The fungicidal properties of glyceride oils are affected by the type of emulsification used and the stable emulsions produced by the twosolution oleic acid method are less effective than the unstable emulsions obtained by agitation with dilute Agral I solutions.

Data from the laboratory examination of fleece samples from representative animals of the parental Border Leicester and Cheviot stock, the F1 “half-breds” and the F2 ewes, are submitted.

The characters of mean fibre length, fineness and mean fibre volume are discussed, the variability found in the various types being particularly noted. The distributions of fibre lengths are also considered, it being found that all the parental forms also appear in the succeeding generations.

Evidence of blending inheritance is not manifest in the results, which support the interpretation of multiple factors as responsible for the expression of the wool characters of length and fineness.

Attention is called to the importance of considering fibre volumes as criteria of follicle activity.

By the use of a solution of p–nitrophenol in lime water a rapid and simple measurement can be made of the lime taken up by a soil sample in reaching neutrality. The same method applied to acid-washed samples gives the exchangeable base content at pH 7.

In the introduction the crying need for research into animal nutrition under tropical conditions is emphasised. In Trinidad the stock are normally fed on mixed natural herbage grazed or cut from waste areas or from cultivated perennial grass crops. This system of rationing is a common one in many insular tropical climates.

The experiment was designed to test the effect of stage of cutting on the yield and composition of Elephant Grass (Pennisetum purpureum), a perennial fodder grass widely cultivated in Trinidad to-day. Three times of cutting were chosen, namely series A—cut every four weeks, series B— cut every eight weeks, and series C— cut every twelve weeks.

The reduction in the electrical conductivity of a mixed solution of K2HPO4 and KH2PO4 caused by the addition of soil is a measure of the potassium uptake, and is therefore an indication of the “;base exchange capacity” of the soil at pH. 7. Two disturbing factors are noted, and it is concluded that the method is likely to be most useful where a rapid comparison of soils of a similar nature and pH is required.