Since the year 1927, observations have been made in Victoria on the development of wheat crops of various varieties grown in four different districts of the State.

The method used was based on that employed by Engledow in his “Investigations on Yield in Cereals,” by taking counts on numbers of plants in various “foot length” samples scattered in a systematic manner over the areas studied.

The basis of the observations was the determination of the values which comprise yield, viz. p = numbers of plants, e = ears per plant, n = number of grains per ear, g = average weight of grain.

This material which is also known as distillery dregs, dried dreg or slummage is a by-product of the production of alcohol. In this process a mixture of coarsely ground cereals is used and, after fermentation, the liquid extract is drawn off leaving behind the distillers’ grains or draff.

Digestibility trials have been carried out with sheep on a sample of dried grass and a grass meal, both of which were artificially dried on an experimental band drier. The analyses of the two materials were affected by the fact that the grass was cut in August after a very dry summer and the herbage was contaminated with a certain amount of stemmy material.

The digestibility of the two samples is of a high order and, with the exception of that of the crude protein, equal to the values quoted by Woodman for short grass. The sheep put on weight during both trials and there was a retention of nitrogen and mineral matter in all cases. The dried grass would appear to contain an adequate amount of available calcium, phosphorus and potash for the plane of nutrition at which it was fed.

It is possible to make ensilage of high digestibility from grass in a tower silo. The loss by drainage is negligible and can in all probability be avoided entirely.

The losses due to fermentation are not high and the final product is a highly nutritious foodstuff.

The fact that all the silage with the exception of the uppermost layer, which was not expected to be used for feeding but merely as a protective layer, has been fed and was eaten readily is proof of the ease with which grass silage of high feeding value can be made in a tower silo if adequate precautions are taken.

Analyses of foliage of tomato plants grown under different manurial conditions are recorded for the four seasons 1924–7.

The nitrogen content of the dried foliage shows a seasonal variation irrespective of manurial treatment.

Where phosphates are omitted from the manure the potash content of the foliage is depressed. When phosphates are added to a soil from which they had previously been withheld the potash content of the foliage is increased.

Where potash is omitted from the manure the phosphoric acid of the foliage is considerably increased. When the deficiency of soil potash is rectified the phosphoric acid content of the foliage is reduced.

It may be concluded from this trial that the making of stack silage is a useful method of conserving surplus grass, particularly of the after-math type, when good haymaking weather may not obtain. Though no actual feeding trials were carried out with the silage, it was fed to stock with satisfactory results and formed a large proportion of their winterration.

1. The Woburn field experiments on wheat after green manures are briefly reviewed. Contrary to the original expectations the wheat was less good after two summer crops of tares than after two mustard crops. This result was obtained many times and in recent years the wheat yields were extremely low after both green manures.

2. Regular soil analyses for nitrate and ammonia through 1928 and 1929 showed that the mean nitrate content was extremely low (1·2 parts of nitric nitrogen per million of soil). During the cold dry winter of 1928–9 the ammonia nitrogen was several times greater than the nitrate nitrogen.

3. Further evidence of an acute nitrogen deficiency during the critical period for the wheat plant in May and June was afforded by the large responses to top dressings of sodium nitrate both in the 1929 and the 1930 wheat crop.

Silage has been made satisfactorily in a pit from grass cut at the flowering stage when it was impossible to make hay. The digestibilities of all the constituents compare favourably with meadow hay with the exception of the protein which shows a depression.

The silage is richer in starch equivalent than meadow hay, if compared on a dry matter basis, and equal in digestible protein content to poor meadow hay though not to good meadow hay. It is therefore better to make grass silage when weather conditions are bad rather than attempt to make hay which, under such conditions, would be of poor quality.

The silage was used within four weeks of being made and was eaten readily by dairy cows on grass.

1. The use of freshly prepared solutions of sodium hypobromite instead of boiling hydrogen peroxide solutions in the pretreatment of soils for mechanical analysis by the pipette method has the following advantages:

(a) Soils containing manganese dioxide or large amounts of organic matter may be oxidised rapidly without heat, whereas oxidation of such soils by hydrogen peroxide is a tedious operation requiring large amounts of reagent.

(b) Possible changes in the clay through heating and the dissolution of considerable amounts of sesquioxides are avoided.

(c) The reagents are cheaper and more stable, especially in the tropics.

(d) It makes possible further simplification in the technique of mechanical analysis.

1. A simple form of two-compartment electrodialysis cell is described for the determination of replaceable bases in sets of six soils at a time. The determination requires little attention and the total replaceable bases are obtained by direct titration.

2. The disturbing influence of water-soluble salts is examined and it is shown that the technique may be modified so as to exclude the kations of soluble salts from either the total bases as determined by direct titration of the dialysate or from the individual bases as determined by analysis.

1. It is suggested that the striking failure of winter wheat grown in rotation with two summer crops of tares or mustard on the sandy soil the Woburn Experimental Station is due to the production of nitrate and ammonia from the green manures at times when the wheat is unable to use them efficiently and to the consequent loss of nitrate in the drainage. Owing to its low C: N ratio the nitrogen in tares nitrifies very rapidly and the loss by leaching is very great. Mustard, on the other hand, reduces the winter loss, but the nitrogen present in the mustard and that absorbed in the decomposition of the excess carbon compounds are liberated too slowly to be utilised efficiently by the wheat and much of the nitrate subsequently produced is also lost by leaching.

Tapioca flour, sometimes referred to as manioc meal, is now a comparatively well-known feeding stuff. Its value as a food for pigs has been tested in several recent farm feeding trials in this country and on the Continent (1, 2, 3), and, as a consequence, its merit, when used in partial replacement of barley or maize, is now generally recognised. Sago pith meal, on the other hand, has not hitherto been used in pigfeeding in this country, and no information respecting its composition and feeding value is available.

1. A uniformity trial of 144 plots of mature tea plucked on 42 occasions is examined with a view to determining an adequate technique for field experiments.

2. Yields are expressed as dry matter; the necessity for, and accuracy of, this procedure is examined.

3. Using the latin square and statistical analysis of variance, a maximum diminution of error up to the plot sizes of acre is found; the elimination of positional variance is shown to be inferior to that generally obtained on annual crops in temperate climates, but this inferiority corresponds with similar experience on other tropical crops.

In each of the four seasons 1926 to 1929 samples of certain of the Broadbalk wheats were milled, and the straight-run flours tested in the bakehouse.

The results given in the text show that the nitrogen contents of the wheats were increased consistently only by the heaviest nitrogenous treatments. The baking tests, however, showed that increased protein content was not necessarily accompanied by improved baking quality. In none of the crops was unsoundness of grain or inadequate gas production during fermentation a factor in the poor quality observed in many of the flours.

Vol. 18, p. 749. Table IIIA, and in line below, for ·317 read ·371.

Vol. 18, p. 757. Four lines above Table VII, for 2·8 read 2·7.

Vol. 19, p. 338. Delete footnote 3.

Vol. 19, p. 340. Eight lines from top, for 0·066 read 0·666.

Vol. 20, p. 545. Table II, for 5·02 read 6·02.