338 EXPERIMEN^T STATION EECOKD. [Vol. 41 



sugar-cane varieties on tlio basis of reconle;! observations made in Louisiana, 

 tlie West Indies, Mauritius, Hawaii, and Australia, 



Differences between niotlier plants and sports are said to be frequently as 

 marked as between recoijnized varieties. Bud varieties have been recorded as 

 differently colored side shoots from a single cane, differently colored canes in 

 one stool springing from a single piece of plant cane, a stalk with some joints 

 striped and some unstriped, strains showing differences in hardiness, and strains 

 shoTiing differences in sugar content. It is stated that plants gro^vn from cut- 

 tings of bud sports tend to reproduce true to the character of the sport. 



Spacing- experiments with sug-ar cane, ,T. IMirasol y .Tison (Philippine Agr., 

 7 (1918), No. 5, pp. 127-136, figs. 2). — Spacing experiments with sugar cane con- 

 ducted at Los Banos, P. I., during the season of 1916-17 led to the following 

 conclusions : 



The percentage of germination increased as the planting rate decreased, with 

 a corresponding decrease in the mortality of canes from two months of age to 

 time of harvest. Close spacing resulted in tall canes of small diameter and 

 small stools, while wide spacing resulted in larger stools and thick canes. The 

 closest spacing with the cane laid end to end in rows 50 cm. apart (about 19.7 

 in.) resulted in the highest yield of cane, 82,000 kg. per hectare (36.49 tons per 

 acre), while the maximum yield of sugar was secured from cane planted in 

 rows 150 cm. apart with the seed pieces 50 cm. apart in the row. 



Sweet potato storage, S. B. Johnson {Ari::ona Sta. Rpt. 1917, p. 4^1). — A 

 comparison was made of sweet potatoes handled in the usual rough way and 

 carried from the field in sacks with potatoes carefully placed in crates and cured 

 in a room kept at a temperature of from 85 to 90° F. for one week, the two 

 lots being subsequently stored in piles between layers of straw with a thick 

 cover of straw. 



It is stated that at the end of the storage period the first lot contained 38 

 per cent and the second lot 48 per cent of marketable potatoes. These results 

 are held to indicate that in storing sweet potatoes out of doors the dry air is 

 sufficient to cure them, and that to prevent excessive drying a layer of dry 

 soil should be thro^^^l over the pile after curing has been completed. 



The synthetic production of wild wheat forms, H. II. Love and W. T. Ceaig 

 (Jour. Heredity, 10 {1919), No. 2, pp. 51-6/f, pi. 1, figs. 9).— The authors de- 

 scribe a cross between the Triticum vulgare variety Early Red Chief and the 

 T. durum variety Marouani, made at Cornell University, in which two plants 

 similar in all respects to the tj'pical wild wheat of Palestine appeared in a 

 population of 113 individuals in the Fz generation. 



" These two plants . . . possessed the brittle rachis and long basal hairs 

 or bristles. One form was beardless, while the other was partially bearded. 

 The kernels were longer than in the other segregates and resembled the wild 

 type. The heads were flat, similar to the true wild form. . . . ' The one main 

 difference between the true wild wheat and these segregates was that the 

 spikelets of the segregates were .somewhat broader than those of the wild 

 type. Each spikelet, however, carried away the joint of the rachis attached 

 to it just as does the true wild wheat." The behavior of the progeny of these 

 two plants in the Fa, together with a limited number of individuals in the F* 

 and Fb of one family, is described and their possible relation to the wild proto- 

 type discussed. 



While the appearance of this wild form may be regarded as evidence in favor ■ 

 of the prototype theory in relation to the wild wheat of Palestine, the authors 

 maintain that " the occurrence of wild segregates in the cross described does 

 not prove that the wild wheat is the prototype of wheat, but rather raises the 

 question whether it really is a prototype or a contemporary form. More data 



