MAIZE BREEDING. 63, 



pre.-ent price and if the price falls to any great extent and the pro- 

 duction per acre is low the cost of producing the maize will be too 

 great, but if by breeding productive varieties we can double the 

 yield per acre it mean; that the cost of production i=; practically 

 halved, and therefore maize can be sold at a much lower figure. 

 The only additional cost of production by doubling the yield per 

 acre will be in handling the extra sivpply. 



HALLEY'S COMET. — In No. 4359 of the Astyonoinische 

 Nachrichten (p. 249. September 28), Mr. Crommelin publishes a 

 corrected ephemeris for Halley's comet, based upon the elements 

 previously published, under the pseudonym " Isti mirantur 

 stellam " (taken from the Bayeux tapestry inscription) by Messrs. 

 Cowell and Crommelin. for the Astronomische Gesellschaft prize. 

 The accompanying chart, compiled, from Mr. Crommelin's data, 

 for South African observers, represents the portion of the eastern 

 sky before midnight that is now being traversed by the comet. 

 It is at present about midway through the constellation Taurus, 

 arid it will be noticed that the comet is shown as being in conjunc- 

 tion with a Tauri (Aldebaran) on the ist December. Basing his 

 deductions on observations made at Mount Hamilton on the 12th, 

 13th and 14th September. Father Searle, Director of the Brooklands 

 Catholic UniveiSJty Observatory. U.S.A.. finds that, according to 

 the present elements, no transit of the comet across the sun's disc 

 will occur, but that a slight change in the elements may render a 

 transit possible. He considers, however, that it is " highly pro- 

 bable that we shall on May 18 be inside the tail." 



Twice during the nineteenth century the earth is believed to 

 have passed through the tail of a comet ; the first occasion was on 

 the 26th June, 1819, while a transit of the comet's nucleus across 

 the solar disc was taking place.* It was only a month after the 

 occurrence that it was fully realised what had happened. On the 30th 

 June, 1S61, the earth was again involved in the tail of a great comet. 

 The tail is declared to have stretched over 118° and extended beyond 

 the zenith when the nucleus had already set. This encounter had 

 indeed been predicted by Tebbutt, and Liaist subsequently showed 

 that the earth must have been 300,000 miles deep in the comet's 

 tail. 



* Olbers in Bode's Astr. Jahybiich. 1823, p. 134. 

 f Comptes Rendus, Ixi., p. 953 



