Animal bodies are composed of fat and non-fatty matter. The relative proportions of these two ingredients vary within wide limits but can be controlled by food. The non-fatty matter consists of water, protein and ash. The percentage of water varies with the age of the animal in a definite manner. This has been determined with tolerable certainty for cattle. The available evidence indicates that the same formula is applicable to pigs and, with slight modification, also to sheep, but these inferences require confirmation. The ratio of protein to ash is the same in sheep as in cattle but in pigs it is higher. In any case it does not alter with the age of the animal but it may be influenced to a certain extent by the food. Individual variation is wider in pigs than in ruminants. The average composition of the whole body at any stage can be calculated when the live weight and percentage of fat in it are known.

The study of lactation has almost always been undertaken from one of two very diverse points of view, the physiological and the commercial. The chief aim of the physiologist has been to determine, either the origin of the various constituents of the milk and the method of their elaboration, or the extent to which internal secretions affect the flow of milk by their initiation, inhibition or stimulation of milk secretion. From the commercial or agricultural point of view, on the other hand, the chief interest has centred round the problem of the production of butter fat, and a very large number of experiments have been conducted to determine by what method of feeding a cow could be caused to give the maximum yield of milk with the highest percentage of fat.

The Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act 1906, Section 10, defines the expressions “soluble” and “insoluble” to mean that the fertilising constituent is soluble or insoluble in water, or, if specified in the invoice, to mean that the fertilising constituent is soluble to the extent guaranteed in a solution of citric acid, or other solvent, of the prescribed strength. In particular the section defines the percentage of soluble phosphate and the percentage of insoluble phosphate to mean respectively the percentage of tribasic phosphate of lime equivalent which, has been, or that which has not been, rendered soluble. “Citric solubility” under the Act is further and more definitely defined in the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs General Regulations 1906 as follows:

“When, in an invoice relating to basic slag or basic superphosphate, it is specified that a certain percentage of the phosphate contained in the basic slag or superphosphate is soluble in citric acid, this shall be taken to mean that it is capable of being dissolved to the extent of such percentage when 5 grams of the fertiliser and 500 cubic centimetres of water, containing 10 grams of citric acid, are continuously agitated in a flask or bottle of about 1 litre capacity for the period of half an hour at the ordinary temperature.”

In a recent communication, the results of an investigation into the digestibility of oat and tare silage were recorded. The desirability, however, of extending the scope of this initial work was recognised, in view of attempts which are being made to re-establish on a large scale the practice of ensilage in this country.

Although many schemes have been proposed for a classification of soils, not any single one seems to have found general acceptance. It is, however, generally agreed that with any method, a final subdivision based on the texture of the soil is highly desirable, even though it only be the sands, loams, and clays of common parlance. Granted then that a classification based on mechanical analyses is called for—though not necessarily as the primary division into groups—it is here proposed to examine some of the various methods so far put forward for dealing with the results of mechanical analyses. Tables of analytical results in themselves are unwieldy and make decidedly uninteresting reading. The comparison of a large number of soils is a slow and tedious process, if it is accomplished only by a study of the figures.

The results of a preliminary investigation on this subject, in which single plots were used, which were published in 1921, tended to show that the following inferences, in respect to the relation of size and type of tuber-set to crop, might be drawn.

1. The size of the crop varied directly with the weight of the set up to a certain point, viz. 2 ozs., the crop then sinking slightly to a more or less constant level, whilst the weight of the set increased.

In dealing with the Inheritance of Glume-Length [Engledow(1)] there were encountered certain problems relating to metrical characters. As it appeared that these problems must attach to all genetic work upon a metrical basis, they were made the subject of a separate investigation. A simple account of some of the difficulties experienced in connection with Glume-Length Inheritance will serve to formulate the problems.