FIELD CROPS. 329 



Within areas of from 36 (about 5.5 sq. in.) to 100 sq. cm. per plant, the yield 

 of grain per surface unit is the same when soil, fertilizer, cultivation, and 

 climatic conditions remain the same. The development of individual charac- 

 ters is favored by the wide spacing over the narrow, and the number of well- 

 developed elites increases as the size of area per plant increases; a large area 

 per plant insures against lodging and against such other growth suppression 

 as would interfere with experimental results. For select breeding of elites the 

 distance 5 by 20 cm. seemed to be especially good, as the largest number of 

 well-developed plants were secured, a sufficient quantity of kernels was obtained 

 for increase tests, and this distance between plants facilitates plant selection 

 at harvest as well as cultivation. For test plats 3 by 20 cm. seemed to be the 

 best spacing, for with fall-sown lye and wheat it allows for some winterkilling, 

 with winter and spring barley it prevents an unnatural stooling which would 

 tend to increase the protein content, with oats it is a safeguard against damage 

 of frit fly, with all the cereals it allows of cultivation without injury to the 

 plants, and it approaches field conditions and gives a better basis for calculating 

 yields. 



Some observations on the transmissible variations of chlorophyll char- 

 acteristics in cereals, H. Nilsson-Ehle {Ztschr. Induktive Abstam. u. Verer- 

 bungslehre, 9 (1913), No. 4, pp. 2S9-300, pi. i).— It is noted that by selection it 

 was possible to segregate the white (albino) plants of oats, barley, and rye, 

 but not those of wheat, and that breeding showed the white characteristic to be 

 recessive to green. 



While the first generation from a single albino plant was all green plants, 

 pure lines from many white plants showed a certain regularity in the appear- 

 ance of albino plants, half of which w^ould be heterozygous, one-fourth normal 

 green, and one- fourth not viable (a characteristic of albinism as noted by the 

 author). The repeated disappearance of chlorophyll factors is deemed as inex- 

 plicable as in the case of the author's experiments with the black factor in the 

 hulls of oats (E. S. R., 29. p. 739). 



Illustration of the effect of previous vegetation on a following crop: Cab- 

 bage after sesame, J. J. Skinner {Plant World, 16 {1013), No. 12, pp. 3J,2-3^6, 

 fig. 1). — This article gives the results of an investigation of soil from Middle 

 River, Cal., which show an oily material, apparently left in the soil by the 

 sesame crop, as the cause of an injurious effect on cabbage plants, but not on 

 wheat plants grown in solutions containing extracts from the soil under investi- 

 gation. 



Basing alfalfa yields on green weights, F. D. Farrell {Jour. Amer. 8oc. 

 Agron., 6 {1914), No. 1, pp. 42-45). — This paper presents a plea for basing the 

 yields of alfalfa on green weights rather than on weights of " cured hay," and 

 gives data obtained by investigations conducted at Huntley. Mont., and Fallon, 

 Nev., to determine the constancy of weights of green matter of different crops 

 to be used as a basis for comparisons. 



The results showed that of the " 28 samples taken on 12 different dates at 

 Huntley the average loss in weight was 76.5 per cent of the green weight. Of 

 the 30 samples taken on 10 different dates at Fallon, the average loss in weight 

 was exactly the same as at Huntley. The highest loss was 81.6 per cent at 

 Fallon and 80.6 i>er cent at Huntley; the lowest at Fallon was 71.7 per cent 

 and at Huntley 70 per cent ; the extreme range was 10.6 per cent at Huntley and 

 9.9 per cent at Fallon. 



" The results fail to show any consistent significant differences in the loss in 

 weight of samples cut on different dates or at different stages of growth ; that 

 is, when the range of variation in samples cut on the same date or at the same 

 stage of growth is considered it is seen that the variation in samples cut on 



