FIELD CROPS. 37 



Scottsbluff, Nebr.. in fall irriga lions begun in 1910. Three years' results have 

 been obtained with wheat, oats, and barley, and two years' results with potatoes, 

 sugar beets, and corn. 



" With very few exceptions, higher yields of each crop were obtained each 

 year from the land which was fall irrigated than from adjacent land which was 

 not fall irrigated. Considering the average results of three years, full irriga- 

 tion increased the yield of wheat 19 per cent, of barley 23 per cent, and of oats 

 15 per cent. In the average results of two years, fall irrigation increased the 

 yield of corn 22 per cent, of sugar beets 15 per cent, and of potatoes 2 per cent. 

 The average increase in the yield of the six crops on fall-irrigated land was 16 

 per cent. With the exception of potatoes, the yields of all the crops were 

 increased by fall irrigation sufficiently to more than pay for the cost of the fall 

 irrigation. 



"• Soil-moisture studies made on the wheat plats in 1911 showed that the fall- 

 irrigated land contained more soil moisture to a depth of 6 ft. throughout the 

 season than the land not fall irrigated. The greatest differences in soil moisture 

 were found in the lower depths of soil, particularly the sixth foot, which con- 

 tained from 3 to 9 per cent more moisture on the fall-irrigated land than on 

 the land not fall irrigated. 



" The difference in soil-moisture content during the growing season appears 

 to have been due to the fact that the land which was not fall irrigated was 

 comparatively dry at planting time in the spring, and that it consequently 

 absorbed water less readily than the fall-irrigated land, which was well sup- 

 plied with moisture at the beginning of the season." 



[Field crop experiments], G. R. Allan, D. Clouston, and G. Evans (Rpt. 

 Agr. Stas. Cent. Prov. and Berar [India], 1912-13, pp. 15-32, 51-103, 125-U3, 

 147-157). — ^This continues previous reports of work on manurial, A^ariety, and 

 rotation trials with cotton, cereals, legumes, and other crops that are being 

 conducted at the various local exi">eriment stations (E. S. R., 29, p. 736). 



Report on variety tests, 1913, F. Merkel (Arb. Deut. Land/iv. Gesell., No. 

 256 (.1913), pp. XIII+405+S, pis. ^).— This publication gives data on about 300 

 variety tests, including oats, spring wheat, field beans, field peas, stock beets, 

 and sugar beets, conducted throughout Germany. 



The cultivated root-producing aroids. — Yautias, gabis, dasheens, alocasias, 

 and cyrtospermums, F. A. Quisumeing (Philippine Agr. and Forester, S 

 (1914), ^0. 4, pp. 85-98). — This article gives a history of this class of plants 

 and also includes analyses of numerous varieties grown at the college. Starch 

 ranged from 11.51 to 20.38 per cent, ash from 0.42 to 2.25 per cent, and moisture 

 from 66.1 to 80.56 per cent. Yields of yautias ranged from 4,259 to 28,531 lbs. 

 of tubers per acre, dasheens from 5,324 to 22,254 lbs. per acre, and gabis from 

 2,129 to 10,009 lbs. per acre. Notes on culture, grading, and diseases are also 

 given. 



Industrial fiber plants of the Philippines. — A description of the chief 

 industrial fiber plants of the Philippines, their distribution, method of 

 preparation, and uses, T. Muller (IPhilippine] Bur. Ed. Bui. 49 (1913), pp. 

 157. pis. 43)- — This bulletin treats of about 750 plants classed under ferns, 

 pandans, grasses, the bamboos, sedges and similar plants, palms, rattans, vines, 

 plants with leaf or petiole fibers of commercial value, miscellaneous industrial 

 fibers, and Philippine bast fibers. Aside from the common and botanical names, 

 the author has given descriptive methods of preparing the fiber and its uses 

 for each plant, and in some cases its distribution. 



A list of grasses from Ahmadabad and Surat, L. J. Sedgwick (jour. 

 BomMy Nat. Hist. Soc., 23 (1914), No. 1, pp. 110-117).— This list includes notes 



