1918] FIELD CROPS. 635 



The root rot disease occurred to some extent in all beds, but is said to have 

 been most prevalent where the greatest amount of fine mold from bush soil had 

 been used, and during cool, unfavorable weather. The Turkish varieties and 

 hybrids appeared to be least affected by the disease, while White Burley was 

 especially susceptible. 



Report of the Mandalay Agricultural Station (including' Natywagon sub- 

 station) for the year 1915—16, E. Thompstone and A. M. Sawyer {Dept. Agr. 

 Burma, Rpt. Mandalay Agr. Sta., 1915-16, pp. 57). — Rather extensive fertilizer 

 tests, cultural experiments, and hybridization work with rice at the Mandalay 

 station are briefly reported, together with field tests of pigeon peas, wheat, 

 oats, and gram. Field tests with Phaseolus lunatus and P. acutifoHus and 

 selection tests with P. lunatus, Cajanus indicus, and Pisum sativum at the 

 Natywagon substation are also noted. 



Report of the Padu Agricultural Station for the year 1915—16, E. Thomp- 

 stone (Dept. Agr. Burma, Rpt. Padu Agr. Sta., 1915-16, pp. 11). — This station 

 was established in 1914 for the purpose of improving the varieties and cul- 

 tural methods of wheat and gram in this region, to improve the short-staple 

 cottons of the district, and to test new crops and rotations for the poor upland 

 soils. Selection work with wheat and gram and field tests with wheat, gram, 

 cotton, peanuts, sesame, and other native crops are briefly noted. 



Driage. — The loss in weight of crops after harvesting, G. Evans (Agr. 

 Jour. India, 12 (1911), No. 2, pp. 224-229).— The author claims that the re- 

 sults reported of crop experiments are often misleading, due to losses in weight 

 of the crops after harvesting, so that they do not always represent the true 

 marketable weight of the crops. He therefore reports a series of experiments 

 witli rice, peanuts, Andropogon sorghum, Sesamum indicum, Gicer arietinum, 

 and wheat to determine their loss in weight through drying from time of 

 harvest to time of thrashing. 



Light, medium, late, and very late rice showed losses in weight of 11.75, 11.5, 

 9.5, and 6.5 per cent, respectively, in three days after harvesting. The Big 

 Japanese variety of peanut showed a loss of 43 per cent in 8 days, 41.5 per 

 cent of which occurred in the first 6 days. A smaller Japanese variety showed 

 a loss of 46.5 per cent in 6 days. A. sorghum lost approximately 15 per cent 

 in 3 days and more than 22 per cent in two months. The remaining crops 

 showed losses of from 1 to 3 per cent, attributed to the fact that they were 

 harvested dead ripe wlien the air was very dry and the temperature high, re- 

 sulting in rapid evaporation. Further experiments are in progress in an effort 

 to arrive at some factor which will allow suitable reductions for driage in the 

 different staple crops. 



Grass land and plowed land, R. G. Stapledon (Jour. Bd. Agr. [London"], 

 Sup. n (1917), pp. IV+5S9; abs. in Nature [Londoni, 99 (1917), No. 2488, p. 

 S73). — In view of the necessity for increased production of home-grown food 

 the author discusses in some detail the question of grass lands in their rela- 

 tion to food production in Great Britain. Dividing all grass land into (1) per- 

 manent grass (fields down to grass 20 years or more), (2) outrun grass com- 

 posed of senile leys, or outrun permanent grass, and (3) rotations or temporary 

 leys, he proposes improvement through top-dressing, renovating mixtures, altered 

 methods of stocking, substituting pasture for meadow conditions or the re- 

 verse, eradication of weeds, and drainage, or through the breaking up of the 

 turf and the conversion of poor grass into rotation laud with temporary leys. 

 It is suggested that the number of acres of grass land to be broken annually for 

 a period of years be definitely decided upon in advance, the remaining grass 

 land to be improved by the most appropriate of the methods noted above. The 

 extensive use of basic slag, lime, and wild white clover is urged as fundamental 



