No. 4, January, 1921 1 AGRONOMY 211 



days. Growth in length is completed by the seventh day, and as soon as the rate of growth in 

 length decreases, the thickness shows its most rapid increase. The dorsiventral diameter 

 increases almost until maturity. — Increase in dry matter and decrease in percentage of water 

 are very uniform throughout the period of growth. During growth the carbohydrates in- 

 crease most rapidly and the ash content least rapidly. — "There are several well-marked steps 

 in development. About the fifth or sixth day after flowering the growth in length is checked, 

 and a rapid gain in dry matter begins. About the ninth or tenth day a sticky substance is 

 secreted, which causes the glumes to adhere to the kernel. About the fifteenth or sixteenth 

 day the kernel toughens, the lemma begins to lose color in the dorsal surface, some of the 

 awns drop off, and the kernel has reached its maximum water content." — D. Reddick. 



1416. Harlan, Harry V., and Stephen Anthony. Development of barley kernels in 

 normal and clipped spikes and the limitations of awnless and hooded varieties. Jour. Agric. 

 Res. 19: 431-472. IS fig. 1920.— Experiments in clipping awns of Hannchen and Manchuria 

 barleys showed that at maturity both lateral and dorsiventral diameters of kernels from 

 clipped spikes are smaller than those of normal spikes. This is not due to wound effects since 

 rate of growth in clipped spikes is normal until the latter half of the growth period. The 

 function of the awn as a transpiration organ is indicated by yields of awned and awnless 

 sorts in arid as contrasted with humid areas. Awnless and hooded barleys shatter more 

 easily than awned sorts. Clipped spikes also shatter easily. The authors find that the ash 

 constituents that normally go into the awn are deposited in the rachis instead. They conclude 

 that since the awn is removed it cannot function as a storage organ, and the consequent 

 deposition of ash in the rachis causes brittleness. High yielding hooded or awnless sorts can 

 hence be expected only by selection or hybridization in strains having low ash content in the 

 rachis. They suggest the substitution of smooth awned varieties as lacking the objectionable 

 features of the rough awned sorts. — F. P. Bussell. 



1417. Headley, F. B. The work in 1918 of the Newlands (formerly the Truckee-Carson) 

 reclamation project experiment farm. U. S. Dept. Agric. Dept. Circ. 80. 18 p., 1 fig. 1920. — 

 Discussion of variety and cultural tests of field crops, as alfalfa, barley, corn, oats, wheat 

 and potatoes, and reports of results of experiments in the reclamation of alkali soil. Data 

 are given concerning various horticultural crops, including sweet corn and string beans, and 

 the blossoming periods of various fruit trees. — L. R. Hesler. 



1418. Henke, L. A. Corn at the College of Hawaii Farm. Hawaiian Forester and Agric. 

 16: 40-45. 1919. — The failure of the ordinary American varieties of corn on the lower lands 

 of the territory led to this attempt to find or develop a variety which would prove a sure crop 

 on the low lands. Cuban corn was the outstanding variety. The variety does not possess 

 an absolute immunity to leaf hoppers, but in only a few cases did they materially lessen the 

 yield. An additional advantage lay in the fact that the husks surrounded the ears so com- 

 pletely and so tightly that bird or weevil injury did not appear until long after maturity, 

 even in fields not harvested. In a country where the grain weevil is so common as in Hawaii, 

 this is an extremely valuable characteristic. The yields ran from 30 to 57 bushels per acre, 

 the larger yields appearing in the October plantings. Next in value came the Guam corn, 

 which has been grown successfully on the Island of Kauai for some years. As the husks of 

 this variety tend to open before the ears mature, it is more liable to bird and weevil injury 

 than is the Cuban com.— Stanley Coulter. 



1419. Hibbard, R. P., and S. Gershberg. The biological method of determining the fer- 

 tilizer requirement of a particular soil or crop. Michigan Acad. Sci. Ann. Rept. 21: 223-224. 

 1919. — Since the fertilizer requirement of a crop can not be determined by an analysis of 

 either the soil or the crop, the requirement must be studied by growing the crop on the par- 

 ticular soil. This is called the biological method. Attention is called to the fact that the 

 great majority of fertilizer experiments have not been planned on a. logical, systematic method 

 and that the combinations of fertilizer salts have been greatly restricted, and selected at 

 random. The triangular system is advocated for field work. Field studies have been going 



