FIELD CROPS. 341 



" In series A, at the end of 3 days, besides a decrease of 8^ per cent in weight, 

 the piirit3^ of the juice began to diminish and the glucose ratio to increase, 

 showing that inversion had begun. The next 3 days keeping did not show 

 further diminution in weight, but after 4 days (from tlie beginning of the ex- 

 periments), the diminution in purity was considerable and sufficient to affect 

 the manufacturer's yield. These changes continued in the same direction until 

 the seventh day, and from the seventh day onward with greater rapidity, ren- 

 dering the canes of small value to the manufacturer of sugar, and of diminish- 

 iug value to the manufacturer of sirup." 



With series B no noteworthy change took place until after 4 days, and in 

 series O purity was maintained until the fifth day, after whch it decreased 

 rapidly. Tabulated results are given. 



Report of the agricultural work for the season between 1909-1911, J. P. 

 d'Albuquerque and J. R. Bevell (Rpt. Agr. Work Barbados, 1909-1011, pp. 

 105). — This reiwrt includes brief notes and results of continued work (i:. s. 11., 

 26, pp. 836, 837), mostly reported in local publications. 



Sweet clover, C. C. Cunningham (Kansas Sta. Circ. 34, pp. 6, fig. i).— This 

 circular discusses the value of sweet clover in Kansas and gives directions for 

 its production, covering the topics of preparing the seed bed, seeding, inoculat- 

 ing, handling sweet clover for hay, saving the seed, and sweet clover as a pas- 

 ture crop and as a soil improver. 



Soy beans and cotton as preparatory crops for tobacco, F. de Fremery 

 {Meded. Deli-Proefstat. Medan, 7 (1912), No. 1, pp. 57, 58).— The results of 

 these experiments were unfavorable. The soy bean plat produced 248,650 leaves 

 of tobacco as compared with 266,800 on the control plat, and the cotton plat 

 produced 95,700 leaves as against 107,350 on the control plat. 



On hybrids of Triticum with -ffig-ilops made in the year 1856, P. de Vil- 

 MORiN (7T\ Conf. Internat. G^n^tique Paris, Compt. Rend, et Raps., 1911, pp. 

 317, 318, fig. 1). — The author reports that he has lately discovered at Yerri&res 

 some ears arising from the cross made by his grandfather in 1856 between Triti- 

 cum sativum and JEgUops ovata. This cross has been made many times since, 

 but this appears to be the only occasion on which it has succeeded. Ten 

 hybrid plants were obtained, from the seeds of which 25 plants were raised in 

 the year 1858. Fifteen of these plants were from A. ovata crossed with the 

 wheat Blanc de Flandre. The plants varied considerably among themselves, 

 and in the following year only 1 plant was raised, which produced no seed. 



A fertile hybrid of wheat and rye, F. Jesenko (IV. Cotif. Internat. G4- 

 n^tique Paris, Compt. Rend, et Raps., 1911, pp. 301-311, figs. i2)..— Plants of 

 Fi, F2, and Fa resulted from an artificial cross between Mold-squarehead wheat 

 and Petkus rye. It is noted that Fi and F2 plants seem to be perennial. 



The fixity of races of wheat, P. de Vilmobin (IV. Conf. Internat. G6n^tiquG 

 Paris, Compt Rend, et Raps., 1911, pp. 312-316, figs. 5).— The author draws at- 

 tention to the often repeated assertion that climatic conditions may possess a 

 modifying influence on varieties of wheat. He does not agree with this opin- 

 ion, but considers that the influence of climatic conditions is limited to the 

 suppression of unadapted forms. On finding in the laboratory of Louis de 

 Vilmorin a collection of ears of the cultivated varieties of wheat grown at that 

 period (1837-1855), he compared these ears with those harvested from the 

 same varieties in 1908-1910, and found that they were identical in all respects, 

 although separated by an interval of 50 years during which annual selection 

 had been continued. 



"This fixity is shown not only in the characters of the ear. but also in all 

 the other characters of the plant, even that of precocity, which would appear 

 to be most dependent on climate." 



