An attempt has been made at the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station to measure the residual effect of alfalfa cropping upon yield and protein content of succeeding wheat crops. Foot-rot diseases seriously limited the value of the yield determinations in certain years after the third wheat crop of the experiment. When these diseases were absent, alfalfa produced favorable effects on yields of succeeding wheat crops. When the diseases were prevalent continuously cropped wheat plats produced the larger yields. An attempt was made to eliminate this factor in the evaluation of the protein data. All periods of alfalfa cropping, varying from 1 to 9 years, produced increases in protein content of wheat. Alfalfa cropping for as short a period as 2 years produced a favorable residual effect measurable by succeeding wheat crops over a period of at least 8 years. The longer periods of alfalfa cropping produced greater residual effects. Whether the maximum was reached less than 9 years of alfalfa cropping the data do not clearly reveal. It appears that residual effects may continue to be manifested longer in protein content than in yield. Diseases in the wheat in is experiment, however, have not permitted a clear verification of this statement.

Two photographs (plates) are missing from copy. Plate III (p. 25), Plate VI (p. 53). | The wheat crop is affected by a number of diseases, some of which can be controlled by relatively simple practices on the part of the grower. There are other wheat diseases which do not admit of simple straightforward methods of control. Rust (Puccinia spp.) and the Foot-rot diseases have not received attention from New Zealand workers. Rust is recognised as an important disease, yet, because it is not a simple problem, it has been left alone. The Foot-rots are in the same category. They are not so conspicuous as rust, unless present in a severe form, and are generally overlooked. This, however, should not preclude an investigation of the disease. Of recent years, a number of workers in Europe, America and Australia have turned their attention to the Foot-rot diseases with the result that much information is available about the causal organisms. The virulence of the parasite, however, is influenced by complex factors acting on the host plant and on the organism so that specific control measures cannot be given. A number of severe outbreaks have occurred in Canterbury during the past few years and the present thesis is an account of an investigation which was undertaken during the wheat growing season of 1934-35 and part of the 1935-35 season. The objects of this investigation were: 1. To isolate and study the organism responsible for Foot-rot disease of wheat in New Zealand. 2. To study the symptoms of the disease. 3. To make a survey of the incidence of the disease under field conditions in wheat growing areas. 4. To investigate the means of control and prevention of the disease. 5. To estimate the loss in yield caused by the disease by intensive plant mortality studies and yield investigations on five fields known to be affected with Foot-rot.

Because of the low rainfall in the Great Basin, with 75% falling during the fall, winter, and early spring months, a cropping arrangement of alternate wheat and fallow has come to be regularly practised on dry-farms. From late October to the middle of April, 69.2% of the precipitation for the first winter and 45.1% for the second winter was conserved as soil moisture. Use of moisture by the growing crop, movement of water to depths beyond 6 feet, increased evaporation, and greater tendency for runoff have all contributed to differences between the first and second winters of a fallow-crop cycle. In addition to the variation between the first and second winters, a loss of approximately 30% occurred, due mainly to evaporation an occasionally runoff. During the summer-fallow period rains seldom make any significant addition to the stored soil moisture. Over a whole fallow-crop cycle approximately 30% of the precipitation was conserved. High yields of dry-farm winter wheat in the Great Basin are directly associated with fall emergence. When plants fail to emerge before winter or early spring, the maximum yield is usually not more than 20 bushels. Late crops suffer greater hazards than earlier maturing stands. The deficiency of late emergence usually cannot be remedied by high spring rainfall. The water cost of dry matter and also the acre inches of water used in producing a bushel of wheat seemed to decrease with yield within the limits of the range of moisture involved. Taking an average of both divisions of the study, 756 pounds of water were used to produce a pound of dry matter, 0.454 acre inch of water was used to produce a bushel of wheat; 2.45 bushels of wheat were produced by each inch of soil water plus spring rainfall; and 0.87 bushel was grown by each inch of total water. When acre yield of wheat was correlated with precipitation, it was found that the highest and most significant was with total water available followed by total rainfall. While the correlation of spring rainfall to yield was not high enough to be significant, it is recognized that without spring rain late-maturing stands in certain seasons may result in partial failure.

I have been asked to introduce the question of "Canterbury Pastures" or "Seed Mixtures for Canterbury." The actual title is really of little importance for if I can, by any means, provoke a discussion and bring considered opinion to bear on pastures and pasture management in Canterbury, then I shall have achieved something. Our pasture land generally is not on the upgrade in regard to production. I would have expected that at this juncture everything relative to seed mixtures and types of pasture would have been discussed and be well known and that I shall be merely repeating. Be that as it may, I shall repeat. Canterbury pastures can be divided into three types - a) Temporary, b) Short rotation, c) Permanent, all of which are largely required for sheep carrying and fat lamb production, Except on wheat land where seed production is an important branch of Grass farming, the lands on which they are grown can roughly be divided into - 1)Wheat plains, 2) Plain lands 3)Hill country.

1. The effect of the presence of older plants, including alfalfa, soybeans, wheat, and corn, on the nodulation of either alfalfa or soybean seedlings growing in close proximity was studied in sand cultures. Under conditions where the light intensity was not limiting, 33 Positive and 15 negative results were obtained. The percentage of positive results was approximately the same whether the older plants were legumes or non-legumes. This beneficial effect of the older plants did not appear with consistency and in most cases was much smaller than that observed by Thornton in his work with alfalfa. 2. In similar experiments, where older plants were not present, increased nodulation followed additions of sucrose and of a heavy inoculum. Small quantities of available nitrogen were sometimes slightly beneficial but larger quantities greatly depressed nodule formation. 3. Cold water extracts of sand in which alfalfa, corn, and wheat seedlings had been growing, produced no appreciable effect on nodule formation when added to cultures of alfalfa seedlings. 4. A logical explanation of the favorable effect of older plants on nodule formation seems to be the extreme favorableness of the rhizosphere to bacterial growth, this in turn being due in part to the liberation of the essential bacterial growth substance from the roots. 5. The practical importance of this effect under field conditions is probably negligible.

The influence of hydrogen- and calcium-saturated exchange material separated from bentonite, peat, and mineral soils on the availability of rock phosphate to oats, corn, millet, and buckwheat grown in quartz cultures was investigated. The influence of degree of base (calcium) saturation on the availability of native and applied soluble phosphates in 13 Michigan soils was also studied in the laboratory. It is concluded as follows: 1. The addition of hydrogen-saturated exchange material from bentonite and organic and inorganic soils greatly increased the availability of rock phosphate to crops like oats, millet, and corn which otherwise do not feed well on it. This was evidenced by increased yields and a higher phosphorus and a lower calcium content of plants. Calcium-saturated exchange material from bentonite was beneficial in this way. 2. Hydrogen-saturated exchange material from bentonite did nearly so markedly affect the availability of rock phosphate to buckwheat wheat, a crop which takes up large quantities of calcium and normally feeds well on rock phosphate. 3. It is concluded that, in accordance with the law of mass a hydrogen-saturated exchange material greatly increases the availability of rock phosphate to crops low in calcium, such as oats, corn, and millet, but not, generally, to crops high in calcium, such as wheat. 4. Increase in base saturation through the application of lime to seven soils resulted over a period of 1 to 20 days in significant increases in amounts of readily available soil phosphates. In two soils there were slight increases. With the same soils, lime helped to preserve the availability of added soluble phosphates. 5. Increasing additions of lime to five acid soils consistently the power of these soils to fix added soluble phosphate in a difficulty soluble form. 6. The results support the contention that an increase in base saturation of soils lowers the immediate availability of rock phosphate to crops like corn and oats but, on the other hand, tends to keep native soil phosphates and those added as soluble salts in the form of calcium phosphate rather than the less available basic iron phosphates.

With 14 chapters devoted to technical aspects and 8 chapters on social, economic and geographical studies, this was the first comprehensive historical study of agricultural development in a Dutch province. The study covered the period 1200-1900 and focused on the agricultural profession and the prosperity of farmer and farmhand, and not on juridical and political facets as was customary.In contrast to most other agricultural regions of Europe the closed village economy was non-existent through international trade and navigation.Weaving, breweries, madder factories and weekly markets grew up in the villages. New crops were introduced by the impulses of commerce: madder 1380, buckwheat 1485, potatoes, tobacco, hop, cabbage, Jerusalem artichoke in the 18th century and mangold, sugar-beet, caraway, clover and lucerne in the 19th century. Cereals, rape-seed, beans and peas were the ancient crops cultivated in a 7 years rotation. The lease period had the same duration.Agriculture was mainly crop growing on the 'wheat system', intensified by the cultivation of flax and madder, requiring deep tillage and abundant manure. Cattle raising was considered only as a necessary evil for getting manure.This agriculture occupied a prominent place in Europe, but measured by our standards the prosperity was unstable, the farmhands were poor and often unemployed. Up to 1870 the farmers were lacking initiative and there was a painful surplus of them and of their labourers.A new era of dynamic progress was opened at the end of the 19th century, despite the agricultural crisis, by the introduction of extension, organization, artificial manure and sugar-beet growing, the sugar-beet in place of madder.