FIELD CKOPS. 135 



ing and examining the gums and records some results which may be stated in 

 substance as follows: 



Five gums were obtained from five morphologically similar bacteria. They 

 produced the same gums from sugar. There appears to be a probability that 

 the plant tissues utilize the gum for building up their nucleoprotein. The 

 location of the bacteria in the plant appears to have a distinct bearing upon 

 their physiological activity. The optimum quantity of saline matter required 

 for formation of slime is small, from 0.1 per cent to 0.2 per cent, approximating 

 that found in soil water. Rhizobium is capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen 

 under conditions that favor slime formation, and between these two processes 

 there appears to exist a somewhat regular quantitative relation. 



The author was not able to confirm the view previously advanced by him 

 that Rhizobium is a yeast. It appears to be a compound bacterium and consists 

 of cocci contained in a straight or branching, tubular capsule. The cocci divide 

 both transversely and longitudinally and the capsule, consequently, assumes 

 sometimes a 7 or Y form. The majority of the bacteria in a nodule are found 

 to be dead. 



FIELD CROPS. 



[Field crops at the Hawaii Station], W. P. Kelley, E. V. Wilcox, and 

 C. K. McClelland {Hawaii Sta. Rpt. 1911, pp. 9, 51-63, pis. 2). — Earlier field 

 crop work at this -station has already been noted (E. S. R., 25, p. 328). 

 , Cooperative fertilizer exiieriments with taro indicate " that this plant, like 

 rice, is benefited by allowing the soil to dry out and become aerated between 

 crops, by applying all of the fertilizer before planting rather than after planting 

 or in fractional doses, and by using sulphate of ammonia rather than nitrate 

 of soda as a source of nitrogen. 



At Kunia and Waipahu applications of (1) dried blood, superphosphate, 

 sulphate of potash, and lime, and (2) dried blood, dicalcic phosphate, and 

 sulphate of potash were followed by higher average cotton yields during 

 3909-10 than were secured from the same components and nitrate of soda, 

 ammonium sulphate, and basic slag in various mixtures. The fertilizers were 

 so applied as to supply 20 lbs. of nitrogen, 50 lbs. of phosphoric acid, and 30 

 lbs. of potash per acre. From the data presented the author concludes that the 

 soil is most in need of phosphates and that dicalcic phosphate appears more 

 effective than other forms. Potash and nitrogen produced little effect unless 

 applied with phosphates. Lime applied alone appeared ineffective. 



When 2 crops of rice per year were grown the yields gradually decreased if 

 fertilizer was applied to the spring crop only, but were maintained when 

 ammonium sulphate was applied to each crop before planting. The superiority 

 of the sulphate to nitrate of soda has been previously noted (E. S. R., 26, p. 41). 



In a test of rice varieties newly imported from Japan the average yields 

 from the spring crop of 1910 ranged in the following order : Omachi, Shinriki, 

 No. 153 (old variety), Benkei, and Miyako, and tests in the fall of 1910 and 

 spring of 1911 were in general conformity. Only Miyako was produced in sufll- 

 cient quantity for a culinary test, and this is said to cook as well as imported 

 Japanese rice and to hold its moisture as the Hawaiian rice does not. In taste 

 and appearance, but not in oily strength, it is said to equal the native Japan rice. 

 Two variations were noted in the growth of these rices. Benkei developed a 

 heavy tillering habit which Shinriki appears to have lost, and Omachi, a 

 bearded rice, became almost entirely beardless. If Omachi does not deteriorate 

 it is believed to be the rice to grow in Hawaii. 



