430 



NATURE 



[December 17, 1914 



Experimental Station, besides carrying out the usual 

 field trials on crops of various kinds, has tested the 

 influence of magnesia in place of lime on a wheat crop. 

 The value of crushed oats with separated milk as a 

 food for young calves, both spring and autumn-born, 

 is proved by the calf-rearing experiments begun in 1912 

 and still proceeding. In addition to much advisorj' 

 work on the extermination of insect pests and animal 

 parasites, the Zoological Department is conducting a 

 research into the relation of pheasants to agriculture. 

 The society's programme for 1915 is a full one, only 

 a few features being omitted owing to the abnormal 

 conditions now prevailing. 



The use of fish as cattle food has a novel sound, 

 but it appears to be a common practice in various 

 parts of the Avorld. In Shetland and Iceland dry salt 

 fish is fed to cattle, sheep, and even to horses. So 

 long ago as 1853 Sir John Lawes carried out experi- 

 ments at Rothamsted on the feeding of pigs with 

 dried Newfoundland codfish. He found that the fish- 

 fed pigs were fat and well ripened, and there was a 

 very good proportion of increase to food consumed. 

 Some recent experiments at the Agricultural College, 

 Coimbatore, made at the instance of Sir F. Nicholson, 

 director of the Madras Fisheries Bureau, have brought 

 to light some further interesting facts. Mr. R. Cecil 

 Wood, in describing the experiments, mentions that 

 certain special cattle kept for display of strength at 

 village festivals in Nandyal are fed with mutton, while 

 it seems a fairly common practice to make use of 

 bandicoots when killed by pounding them in a mortar 

 and feeding them to cattle. In Mr. Wood's experi- 

 ment two lots of heifers were fed on a dried fish diet 

 and normal diet respectively. The animals took some 

 little time to get used to the fish, but then ate it 

 readily enough. At the end of six months the fish-fed 

 heifers showed an average increase of weight of 

 54 lb. per head, as against 70 lb. for the normally fed 

 animals. Although fish does not compare favourably 

 with ground-nut so far as fattening value is con- 

 cerned, it is suggested that on the coast a considerable 

 saving might be effected by its use. 



The cultivation of rice in Spain affords an excellent 

 example of the success attending a highly perfected 

 system of agriculture. Most of the rice land is 

 situated in the province of Valencia, where the cultiva- 

 tion was introduced at the time of the Moorish con- 

 quest. It is interesting to learn from Mr. E. J. 

 Butler, in the Agricultural journal of India for Octo- 

 ber, that many of the Oriental practices followed, and 

 especially that of transplantation unknown elsewhere 

 in Europe, are similar to those employed in India, and 

 may probably be traced to the prolonged occupation 

 ot this district by an Eastern people. Although the 

 total production of rice in Spain is the lowest of the 

 six rice-growing countries, the yield per acre is double 

 that obtained in Italy and Egypt, and more than six 

 times the official figures for India. This result is due 

 to the thorough cultivation of the fields with specially 

 designed implements, to the system of transplantation, 

 and the use of large quantities of suitable nitrogenous 

 and phosphatic manures. The fear of encouraging 

 malaria has hitherto acted as a deterrent to the exten- 



NO. 2355, VOL. 94] 



sion of the area under rice in Europe, but at the recent 

 International Rice Congress at Valencia the view was 

 put forward that this prejudice is unfounded, pro- 

 vided that certain precautions are observed. If this 

 view gains credence it can scarcely be doubted that 

 there will be a material increase in the European pro- 

 duction of this cereal. 



The relations between the two mineral representa- 

 tives of iron disulphide, pyrite and marcasite, are 

 further explored by E. T Allen, J. L. Crenshaw, and 

 H. C. Merwin in a paper in the American Journal of 

 Science for November (p. 393). The formation of 

 marcasite from acid and of pyrite from alkaline solutions 

 is shown by experiment and also by natural occur- 

 rences. Wurtzite and zinc-blende are proved to have 

 similar relations, the former being, moreover, the 

 unstable form. 



In viewof the rarity of fossil remains of apes and 

 monkeys much interest attaches to the description by 

 Dr. A. Smith Woodward, in vol. Ixx (pp. 316-20, 

 plate xliv.) of the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, of an 

 form of the jaw at and near the point of insertion 

 fontani, from the Upper Miocene of Seo de Urgel, 

 Lerida, Spain. In several respects, notably in the 

 form of the jaw and near the point of insertion 

 of the digastric muscle and in the small size of the first 

 molar, Dryopithecus approximates to the contemporary 

 macaque-like genus Mesopithecus, and is therefore a 

 primitive t^^e. 



Prof. A. C. Lawson, at the Invitation of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Canada, has revisited the pre- 

 Cambrlan area of Rainy Lake, where he first demon- 

 strated in 1885 and 1887 the intrusive nature of much 

 of the '■ Laurentian " gneiss. His results are now 

 issued as Memoir 40 of the Canadian Survey, dated 

 19 13. The names Coutchiching and Keewatin are 

 retained for the two series penetrated by the Lauren- 

 tian gneiss, the former being free from volcanic 

 matter, and the latter, overlying it, being largely 

 volcanic. The second Intrusive gneiss, which is later 

 than the Seine (Huronlan) sedimentary series, is now 

 styled Algoman by the author. The Influence of Prof. 

 Lawson's original papers has been far-reaching. As 

 recent evidence, we may mention Mr. A. L. Hall's 

 address on the Bushveld Complex (Proc. Geol. Soc. 

 South Africa, 1914. p. xxli.), and Mr. P. A. Wagner's 

 account of the gneisses of Southern Rhodesia (Trans., 

 ibid., vol. xvli., p. 39). 



In the September issue of the Proceedings of the 

 Philadelphia Academy, Mr. D. M. Barringer adduces 

 further evidence In favour of the theory that the so- 

 called meteor crater of Arizona, in place of being due 

 to volcanic action, Is really the result of the Impact 

 of a vast fall of meteorites. Of the occurrence at a 

 remote epoch of such a fall there Is ample evidence. 

 One of the points on which the author lays special 

 stress Is the occurrence In the crater of large quantities 

 of a quartz-glass, which was undoubtedly formed by 

 the fusion of part of a bed of white sandstone occur- 

 ring at a depth of about 350 ft. below the level of the 

 plain, and not outcropping for a distance of seventy 

 miles. This quartz-glass is stained with nickeliferous 

 iron, which could only be of meteoric origin, and this 



