1918] FIELD CROPS. 435 



Considerable tabulated data are presented and discussed and the results illus- 

 trated by graphs. 



In addition to the above a comparison was made of results of spinning tests 

 Df the old permissive cotton grades with the present official cotton standards in 

 tests conducted in a representative mill at Danville, Va., in 1913 on cotton from 

 the 1912 crop. 



The results of the spinning tests are siunmarized graphically and conclusions 

 relative to the other observations as follows : 



" The results of the moisture determinations emphasize the need of a more 

 exact knowledge of the moisture content of cotton in the various stages of 

 handling and marketing it and of maintaining proper artificial atmospheric con- 

 ditions while it is in the course of manufacture. 



" Tensile-strength tests were made of yarn which had been spun with the use 

 of several twist constants [twists per inch divided by square root of number of 

 yarns]. It was found that the constant of 4.75 which is generally considered 

 standard for upland cottons was excessive. . . . 



" The bleaching tests . . . showed that v>'hen the goods made from each grade 

 were bleached under identical conditions middling fair and good middling were 

 practically identical in color. The goods made from niiddling did not produce 

 quite as pure a white as middling fair and good middling, but for commercial 

 purposes gave satisfactory re.sults. The goods made from low middling gave a 

 slightly slaty color when closely compared with the other grades, while the goods 

 made from good ordinary were easily distinguished by a slaty, bluish cast when 

 compared with the goods made from middling cotton or that of a better grade. 

 The lower grades might have been bleached more satisfactorily if in some of the 

 processes the factors of time, concentration, and temperature had been altered. 



"A comparison of the waste and tensile strength of the old permissive cotton 

 grades . . . with the results of tests made on the present official cotton stand- 

 ards . . . shows that the changes made in the revision of the old permissive 

 grades did not change the percentages of waste in the corresponding grades, but 

 involved princijially the factor of color and affected chiefly the lower grades. 



" The tests i)ased on the official cotton standards of the United States show 

 that after making allowances for the losses due to the cleaning processes there 

 is comparatively little difference between the grades above and those below 

 middling in the price paid by the manufacturer for each pound of the usable 

 cotton obtained from bales of the different grades, but that there Is a diffei'ence 

 in the intrinsic value per pound of the manufactured product. Accordingly, on 

 the basis of quotations and values at the time of the tests, the inducement in 

 the price paid to the farmer for the production of high-grade cotton was not 

 commensurate with the greater value to the manufacturer of the product derived 

 from such cotton." 



Pollination and cross-fertilization in the juar plant (Andropogon sor- 

 ghum), R. J. D. Gkaham {Mem. Dept. Agr. India, Dot. Ser., 8 (1916), No. 4, pp. 

 201-216, pis. 2). — Pollination and cross-fertilization studies with A. sorghum, 

 made on the Nagpur (India) farm from 1908 to 1914, inclusive, are reported. 

 The plants are said to be protogynous, the flowers being normally pollinated 

 from higher flowers of the same panicle. Though typically anemophilous, the 

 flowers were visited by insects, chiefly bees, at certain seasons. This condition 

 probably led to natural cross-pollination, depending on the structure of the 

 panicle, being greater in the loose forms than in the more compact ones. 



Flowering occurred in a fairly regular order, the majority opening between 

 2 and 4 a. m., though stray flowers opened before and after, depending upon 

 atmospheric conditions. The whole process from the time of the opening of the 



