4 AGRONOMY [Bot. Absts., Vol. IV, 



25. Barber, C. A. The growth of sugar cane. III. Internation. Sugar Jour. 21 : 601-603, 

 2 pi., 4 fig. 1919. — Deals with the branching of the plant. [See also next preceding Entry, 

 24.]— E. Koch. 



26. Beauverie, J. Revue d'agronomie. [Review of agronomy.] Rev. Gen. Sci. Pures et 

 Appliquees 30: 370-384, 411^418. 1919. — In this interesting essay, which is much more than a 

 review of agronomy, the author first indicates that the faculties of science in the universities 

 should be, to a greater extent than they now are, the sources of knowledge to be applied to the 

 world's most pressing question, that of food. He touches upon agricultural meteorology, dis- 

 cusses the more recent papers on the bacteria fixing nitrogen in soil, protozoa and soil-fatigue 

 and their treatment, nitrate and phosphate fertilizers. The physiologist will appreciate the 

 discussion of recent work on the relations of magnesium and calcium to the normal develop- 

 ment of plants, in the course of which it is suggested that a lack of available magnesium 

 may be connected with the abnormal condition known as chlorosis, and that our conceptions 

 of the role of calcium may be faulty because water cultures in glass may contain calcium in 

 unsuitable form or amount. There is a brief consideration of the new Alsatian sources of 

 potash for fertilizers, but no discussion of the role of potassium in plant metabolism. The 

 author summarizes the slight and contradictory results of experiments with radioactive sub- 

 stance applied to laboratory or plat cultures, and passes to a consideration of recent 

 studies of animal nutrition. — G. J. Peirce. 



27. Beverley, J. Sunflower notes. New Zealand Jour. Agric. 18:356-357. 1919. — 

 The author recommends the growing of sunflowers for oil as well as using the seed for poultry 

 and cattle. The large early maturing single-head sunflower is preferred over those plants 

 producing many heads because of the difficulty in harvesting the seed from the latter. He 

 advises that the stems be chopped up and used as fertilizer on the land as they contain about 



5 per cent potash. — I. S. Cook. 



28. Biggar, H. Howard. The old and the new in corn culture. U. S. Dept. Agric. 

 Yearbook 1918: 123-137. 4 pi., 10 fig. 1919. — The article gives quite a detailed description of 

 corn culture among the Indians, naming ten of the kinds of corn developed and cultivated, 

 describing the methods of seed testing, the hill method of planting, the location and prepa- 

 ration of the fields, and the tools used. The description of seed selection, storage, corre- 

 lation of development with prairie plants, and food products; all indicate that the Indian 

 had an almost uncanny knowledge of corn culture and its utilization. Corn culture has been 

 a very important factor in the development of Indian civilization. The article close? by 

 showing the very great importance of corn in the agricultural and industrial development of 

 the United States. Corn had a vital influence in the war. Its multiplicity of uses, its high 

 productiveness, its value, and its adaptability makes the importance of corn, directly and 

 indirectly in world affairs, more and more manifest each decade. — C. J. Shirk. 



29. Birckner, Victor. Simple method of measuring the acidity of cereal products: its 

 application to sulphured and unsulphured oats. Jour. Agric. Res. 18:33-49. 1919. — The 

 imporant feature of the new method is the use of ice water for the extraction of the ma- 

 terial. By this method the amount of acid present in oat (Arena) kernels does not change 

 markedly during the early stages of spoilage. The Schindler method is deficient in that 

 alcohol may be present during the extraction and subsequent titration. — If oats are sul- 

 fured their acidity is increased; but by the ice water method they show no increased acidity 

 upon prolonged standing in the ground state, due to destruction of acid-forming ferments by 

 the sulphur fumes; by the Schindler method pronounced increases occur. — Ice water extracts 

 of oats or maize filtered and kept 24 hours at 1° or 2° undergo no change in acidity if not 

 neutralized; but if neutralized a new formation of acid takes place, notwithstanding the low 



eraturc. — D. Rcddid:. 



30. Blackshaw, G. N. Fertilizers for maize and tobacco. Season 1919-1920. Rhodesia 

 Agric. Jour. 16:452-459. 1919. 



