RADIUM IN AUSTRALIA. 273 



The points to be noticed in Collier's results are : — 



(i ) That the highest amount of cane sugar (13.2 per cent.) 



was recorded in that portion of the plot from which the cobs 



had not been removed. 



(2) That although the sucrose increased more uniformly in 

 the cobbed portion, the amount of crystallisable sugar is practi- 

 cally the same on the cobbed and uncobbed portions. 



(3) That the increase in the amount of crystallisable sugar 

 was not uniform. 



Collier in his report mentions that the composition of maize 

 stalk juice appears to vary greatly, even among specimens of the 

 same variety taken at the same time from the same field ; he 

 further states that sugar of excellent quality and in paying 

 quantity has been obtained from maize stalks after the seed has 

 been thoroughly ripened, and that by selection, varieties of maize 

 having a more uniform content of sugar may be produced. 

 Although the results obtained this year from the limited number 

 of tests which have been made in Rhodesia do nut support 

 Stewart's contention that the removal of the cobs in the milky 

 stage causes a marked increase in the amount of sucrose present 

 in the juice of the stalk, it is intended to carry out further trials 

 on a more extensive scale during the coming season. 



The fact that the stalks with which I had to work this year 

 were of rather indifferent growth may have had some influence 

 upon the results obtained,, but it is noteworthy that these results 

 are more or less in conformity with those obtained by Collier. 



Radium in Australia.— Thirty tons of ore from 

 Olary, South Australia, treated at the Bairnsdale School of 

 Mines, are estimated to yield radium to the value of from 

 ii,8oo to £2,500. The Director of the School of Mines declares 

 the Olary radium deposit to be the most extensive known at the 

 present time. He considers that the ore in one block, above the 

 80 ft. level, contains 162,400 lbs. of uranium oxide and 20.8 

 grains of radium as bromide, or more than twice the amount 

 of radium bromide that now forms the entire available stock in 

 the world. 



South African Zoology.— In connection with the 

 technical evening classes instituted some years ago by the Cape 

 Division School Board, and held at the South African College, 

 a course of lectures was delivered by Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist. 

 Professor of Zoology at the College, on the subject of " Zoology 

 as applied to South African Agriculture." On account of their 

 manifest practical utility Professor Gilchrist recently acceded 

 to the request that he should expand these lectures and publish 

 them in book form.* The work is intended to constitute a text- 



* J. D. F. Gilchrist, M.A., D.Sc, Ph.D., " South African Zoology." 

 Cape Town: T. M. Miller, 1911. Royal 8vo, pp. xi, 323 illus. los. 6d. nett. 



