The percentage and rapidity of germination in sorghums were reduced by soil temperatures below 25 degrees C and slightly reduced by deep planting (2 1/2 inch). Seedling development was retarded by lower soil temperatures within the range from 35 degrees to 15 degrees C. Development also was retarded by deep planting at 15 degrees C soil temperatures but not at higher temperatures. The length of the coleoptile of sorghum seedlings was greatest in varieties producing large seedlings and was increased slightly by deep planting and low soil temperatures. The length of the subcrown internode varied directly with the depth of planting and was increased by soil temperatures above 25 degrees C. At high soil temperatures, many of the seedlings formed their crowns above the soil surface. The number of crown roots was generally greatest from shallow plating at high soil temperatures. The number of subcrown rootlets was greatest from deep planting at high soil temperatures.

The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format. | 1. Thirty-seven plants were tested biologically. 2. The following plants, of which no records of toxicity could be found in the literature consulted, were found poisonous to animals : Hertia pallens (D C) Kuntze; Ferraria welwitchii Bkr.; and Phytolacca dioica L. The fruit of Phytolacca dioica appeared to cause death through hoven, whilst the leaves drenched in the dry state apparently had no ill-effects on sheep. 3. Acacia giraffae Willd., A. lasiopetala Oliv., and A. litakunensis Burch. Were found to contain hydrocyanic acid (cyanogeneticglucosides) whilst the test for this poison in A. Arabica Willd. A. karoo Hayne, and A. permixta Burtt-Davy were negative. 4. One of two specimens of Sorghum sudanense Stapf. examined contained the cyanogenetic glucoside but not the enzyme necessary for the liberation of hydrocyanic acid.

Two experiments were conducted in the greenhouse using eight pineapple soils all derived from basaltic lavas. In the first experiment successive crops of soybeans were grown on two soils, one well supplied and one deficient in replaceable potassium, each with and without lime. The soils in this experiment received no potassium as fertilizer but did receive nitrogen and phosphorus. A balance sheet of readily available potash was kept. In a second experiment similar to the first, six diverse soils were used, and two pots of each soil, limed and unlimed, were cropped with sorghum. One set of each soil remained fallow. The conclusions were that about 100 pounds of K2O per acre foot was made available from non-replaceable sources annually in the case of limed soils and about 75 pounds in the case of natural acid soils. The results were of the same order in the case of fallow soils, and with soils cropped with legumes on the one hand and nonlegumes on the other. Soils having a very low amount of replaceable potash at the beginning of the test were able to release potash from non-replaceable sources as readily as soils rich in replaceable potash.

The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590;300dpi. adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format. | The paper attempts to give a synoptic and constructive account of our present day knowledge on the problem of prussic acid in grasses and urges that the investigations should be made in a more academic spirit. A list of 88 grasses is compiled indicating the authors who have dealt with them and other points of interest. The methods of extraction are discussed to some extent and the errors which may occur in quantitative determinations are pointed out. In discussing the lethal dose the view is expressed that possibly another toxic substance besides prussic acid may be involved in the rapid death of animals. A hint is given how to verify that contention, the important point being to find how much HCN is liberated in the animal and not how much is introduced. The question of antidotes is only briefly referred to. A discussion is devoted to the fermentation of dhurrin. The author describes some of his own experiments on Eustachys paspaloides and Sorghum verticilliflorum.

Data are summarized for a number of summer legumes on promptness with which each became inoculated and on their relative earliness, luxuriance of growth, palatability, and extent of injury by Mexican bean beetle and nematodes. Those found especially prompt in the spontaneous development of root nodules included Brabham cowpea, Laredo soybean, velvet bean, Common, Tennessee 76, and Kobe lespedezas, five species of Phaseolus from India, P. calcaratus, Strophostyles helvola, Crotalaria striata, and C. sericea. Somewhat slower in nodulation but also naturally well supplied ultimately with root tubercles were Runner peanut, beggarweed, hyacinth bean (Dolichos lablah.), mung bean, and wild sensitive plant (Chamaecrista nictitans). There was complete or nearly complete failure to form nodules spontaneously by navy bean, tepary bean, bush lima bean, Dolicholus minimus, Acuan, Daubentonia, Dalea, Sesbania macrocarpa, and S. vesicaria. The apparent anomalies involved in the contrasting nodules behavior of various species of Phaseolus, of two species of annual lespedeza, and of the Spanish and Runner varieties of peanuts suggest the probable need for extending the usually accepted list of races of bacteria symbiotic with leguminous plants. The list of legumes making most luxuriant growth included velvet bean, kudzu, Crotalaria striata, C. sericea, and Sesbania macrocarpa. Silage from Crotalaria sericea, guar, and sword bean, all surrounded for months in the silo by sorghum silage, was eaten with fair relish by cattle, but the fresh forage from each of these three species was wholly rejected. Uninjured by common pests were the following: (1) By the Mexican bean beetle, Crotalaria, Sesbania, guar, sword bean, Dolicholus minimus, Chamaecrista nictitans, annual lespedezas, and peanut; (2) by nematodes, beggar weed, Brabham cowpea, Laredo soybean, Crotalaria striata, guar, and Dolicholus minimus. Guar and Korean lespedeza were especially susceptible to a soil rootrot. Mung and urd beans were among the species most severely injured by leaf diseases. Only Kobe and Tennessee 76 lespedezas proved to be superior on the whole to comparable legumes now in general use. However, sufficiently promising for further experimentation seemed Crotalaria, Sesbania macrocarpa, beggar weed, the late acclimatized form of Phaseolits calcaratus, moth bean, and possibly Strophostyles helvola.