1. Two experiments are described in which nine manurial treatments were applied ranging from no application to an application of 312 lb. N, 135 lb. P2O5 and 168 lb. K2O per acre in one season. Some treatments included one or more massive dressings of nitrogen (104 lb./acre), while others received several light dressings spread over the season. The applications were made at differing periods of the season. In one experiment (Series 3) the treatments were applied to a 1-year Italian ryegrass ley, in the other (Series 4) to an established ryegrass pasture.

Cows were treated with various doses of pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin given either towards the end of the normal cycle, or prior to expression of the corpus luteum. The animals were kept under normal farm conditions; the object of treatment was to obtain twin ovulations and calvings.

Some success was achieved, but of the treatments tried none could be considered commercially worth while; many variants of treatment are possible and much more requires to be done. For practical application it is important that a treatment should not, or only rarely, result in more than three ovulations. The few cows reported in this paper which were pregnant and which had more than three corpora lutea aborted at about 5 months.

This work was carried out from the School of Agriculture, Cambridge, during tenure of a grant from the Agricultural Research Council. It was possible only through the help of those farmers who provided animals for experiment; I here record my indebtedness to them.

1. A study has been made of the effect of conditions of growing and of maturity on the concentration of total carotenoids (t.c.) in the root of the carrot, Daucus carota L.

2. Carotene comprised nearly 90% of the total carotenoids in all categories of carrot roots except the very small seedlings. Hence t.c. concentration may be used as an index of carotene concentration.

3. In order to develop their full t.c. concentration by autumn, carrot varieties with normal t.c. values must be sown before the end of May. High-carotene varieties must be sown at least a month earlier. ‘Stecklings’ grown from summer-sown seeds and examined in spring had only about a third of their fully mature t.c. value.

Milk production is of fundamental and practical importance to the sheep industry. Reports indicate considerable differences in milking ability between ewes of different breeds as well as between ewes of the same breed.

Milking capacity of ewes is dependent on both nutritional and hereditary factors, probably the nutritional factor being the more important. Under commercial farming conditions milk yield might affect not only the growth rates of ‘fat’ lambs and the quality of their carcases, but eventually also the constitution of the ewe lambs retained in the flocks for breeding purposes. It therefore appeared that milking ability of Romney ewes in New Zealand would be a matter worthy of investigation.