FIELD CROPS. 641 



injury. . . . While earliness becomes a more important factor than before there 

 is nothing to indicate that superior varieties are hkely to be excluded from 

 cultivation in any section that continues to grow cotton in the presence of 

 weevils. . . . Many advantages can be gained if the cotton growers of each 

 community would unite in the choice of a variety and the date of planting and 

 would follow the same methods of cultivation, selection, ginning, and marketing 

 the crop." 



The influence of Russian weather conditions in 1902 on oats, K. Mikhai- 

 LOVSKii (Trad!/ Selak. Khoz. Met., I'JIO, No. G, pp. 1-20; abs. in Zhur. Opytn. 

 Agron. (Russ. Jour. Expt. Landw.), 12 {1911), No, 6, pp. 925, 926).— After 

 drought and excessive heat, 35 per cent of the oat heads were imperfectly de- 

 veloped or contained no seed. When stalks appeared 11.7 per cent of them 

 were destroyed, and lightness of grain at harvest time reduced the yield by 

 from 13 to 20 per cent. The total loss arising fi-om meteorological conditions is 

 estimated at 59.7 per cent of the crop. The data obtained are more fully stated 

 in tables and charts. 



Wild oats and false wild oats: Their nature and distinctive characters, 

 N. Criddle (Canada Dept. Agr., Seed Branch Bid. S-7, 1912, pp. It, pis. .'/). — 

 Examples of the Banner, Newmarket of Abundance. Old Island Black, and Storm 

 King types of false wild oats (:ilso called sports, white wild oats, and albino 

 wild oats) have been grown for from 2 to 7 years without change in appearance. 

 A black oat of unknown name also grew true to type for 2 years. The author 

 does not regard false wild oats as dangerous or think it likely that they result 

 from crosses of wild and cultivated species. 



Annual report of the Dumraon Agricultural Experiment Station, 1910-11, 

 A. C. DoBBs (Ann. Rpt. Dumraon Ej-pt. Sta. [Bengal], 1910-11, pp. 5). — This is 

 a report of fertilizer, variety, and draiiiairo tests of rice. 



The " Rab " system of rice cultivation in western India, H. H. Mann, N. V. 

 JosHi, and N. V. Kanitkar (Mem. Dept. Agr. India, Chem. Ser., 2 (1912), No. 

 3, pp. l.'/l-193). — A brief account of earlier experiments on the value of the 

 "Rab" system (E. S. R., 23, p. 129) is followed by a full discussion and 

 numerous tables presenting the data obtained in the authors' experiments, from 

 which the following conclusions are drawn : 



The benefits from this system vary widely but " normally the weight of the 

 seedlings obtained is from one and a half times to twice as great as without the 

 treatment." Nearly 60 i>er cent of this increase results from heating, the re- 

 mainder being due to the ash and other materials added. During ordinary 

 burning with cow dung the temperature does not rise above 110° C. at a depth 

 of 5 in. and 85° at a depth of 1 in., and the heating process lasts from lA to 2 

 hours or less. 



Only very slight results were obtained by heating the soil to 75°. At higher 

 temperatures the fertility was greatly increased, reaching a maximum at about 

 125°. The maximum effect resulted from heating immediately before the 

 sowing of the crop. A little less effect resulted from heating 6 weeks before 

 sowing, while comparatively little effect resulted from heating 3 months before 

 sowing. 



The supply of assimilable mineral plant food and of soluble organic matter in 

 the soil was considerably increased by heating, but little effect was produced 

 when growing rice plants were treated with extracts of such heated soils. The 

 speed of germination was not beneficially affected but was apparently slightly 

 retarded at times. This did not appear to be due to the production of a 

 deleterious substance. 



Heating materially changed the physical condition of the soil by bringing a 

 large part of the viscous, sticky clay substance into such condition that it 



