1919] FIELD CEOPS. '733 



period, and that the best results are securetl with sprins: temperatures averaging 

 from 3 to 5° F. a day above the normal, and summer temperatures from 2 to 

 4° a day below normal. A temperature of from 26 to 28° in the foliage is said 

 to result in serious damage to partly ripe and unripe seed burrs. The seed is 

 usually ready to harvest from one to two weeks before the average date for the 

 first killing frost, but protection of the seed crop from early frosts by means of 

 smudging is deemed sufficiently promising to merit careful consideration, espe- 

 cially where the practice can be made a community affair. 



[Lodg-ing in barley], C. Kraus (Jour. Landic, 66 {1918), No. 1, pp. 53-70). — 

 Experimental work is described, from which it is concluded that potash aids 

 in the production of stiff straw in barley, although inherent varietal character- 

 istics with regard to lodging and various other cultural factors are also believed 

 to play an important role in this respect. 



Soil and fertilizer conditions which determine the tendency of the beet to 

 produce seed the first year, O. jMxtner.^ti and T. V. Zappaeoli (Staz. Sper. Agr. 

 Ital., 51 (1918), No. 1-2, pp. 24-^0, pis. 2, figs. 2; abs. in Chem. Abs., 13 {1919), 

 No. 13, p. 1511). — Supplementing work previously noted (E. S. R.. 31, p. 330), 

 the authors describe observations on the effect upon seed production the first 

 year of growing beets on different types of soil and with various fertilizer treat- 

 ments. The number of plants producing seed the first year ranged from 1 to 2 

 per cent of those plants grown on sandy soil without fertilizers to 55 per cent 

 of those grown on a loam soil receiving applications of manure and chemical 

 fertilizers. 



Chenopodium quinoa in the Netherlands, F. F. Bruyning {Cultura, 31 

 {1919), No. 369, pp. 1S2-190).— This describes cultural tests with C. quinoa 

 conducted during 1918. 



Inheritance of spotted aleurone color in hybrids of Chinese maize, J. H. 

 Kempton {Genetics, 4 {1919), No. 3, pp. 261-274, figs. 3). — This paper, a con- 

 tribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, describes sis crosses made during 1913 between a colored Algerian 

 pop com and a Chinese white waxy corn previously described (E. S. R., 22, 

 p. 443) in a study of the inheritance of a spotted type of color distribution. A 

 large number of hand-pollinated ears bearing seeds representing the F: genera- 

 tion were secured in 1914, the progeny of all but one of the six crosses pro- 

 ducing ears with some spotted seeds. The inheritance of these spotted seeds 

 is analyzed and conclusions reached as follows : 



In the seeds of certain ears borne on white-seeded plants pollinated from 

 colored plants the aleurone color was distributed in numerous small spots, 

 while the reciprocal crosses were self-colored. Spotting is assumed to be due 

 to a dominant spotting factor, S, which functions as a partial inhibitor. The 

 results of these observations are held to indicate that factor 8 can operate 

 only when factor R is heterozygous, and also that it is not present in the 

 female gamete but is introduced into the zygote by the male gamete. Since 

 the male gamete contributes one nucleus while the female gamete contributes 

 two, it is thought that the difference between reciprocals may be ascribed to 

 the fact that the female parent contributes twice as much chromatin material 

 as the male parent. It is deemed evident, therefore, that a single nucleus 

 does not contain a sufficient amount of factor R to produce a self-colored seed 

 in the presence of the dilution factor S. The percentage of spotted seeds and 

 their appearance only on those self-pollinated ears which have no correlation 

 between aleurone color and endosperm texture has led to the conclusion that 

 there is a coupling or linkage between factor R and factor 8. The gametic 

 ratio in these hybrids approximated a series of 7R8: IRs: lr8: Irs, said to 



