February ii, 19 15] 



NATURE 



651 



of this suppl}-. The cessation of trade with Germany, 

 and the diminution of the French demand, placed 

 Indian producers in a serious position, and though 

 recently the mills at Marseilles have placed orders 

 with India, the demand from France remains below 

 the normal. A quantity of the nuts has recently 

 been imported into Hull from India for the production 

 of ground nut oil, which is suitable for use a? ah 

 edible oil as well as for soap-making. Abundant 

 supplies are available from India, and when all food- 

 stuffs are rising in price it is important to remember 

 that ground nuts yield not only oil and feeding-cake, 

 but are also valuable for edible purposes. In the 

 United States they sell as roasted peanuts, and in 

 the form of "peanut butter." Blanched kernels are 

 regularly used in West Africa as a vegetable, mostly 

 in the form of ground nut soup, but there are a 

 variety of other ways in which ground nuts, which 

 are both palatable and highly nutritious, can be 

 prepared for the table. 



In Bulletin No. lo issued by the Agricultural De- 

 partment of the Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne, Prof. Gilchrist records the results of rotation 

 experiments made at Peepy in 1910-13, and brings 

 out a point of special interest to both the farmer and 

 the man of science. Three plots received farmyard 

 manure stored for different times at thej'ate of 12 tons 

 per acre. The various forms of dung were : (i) fresh; 

 (2) dung kept just long enough to be in good condition 

 for application ; and (3) old dung stored in a heap for 

 some months. The best return from the four crops of 

 the rotation was given by the manure kept for a short 

 time only before it was applied. The old manure gave 

 a rather better return than the fresh dung. The effect 

 of the different dungs was naturally shown most 

 clearly by the swedes, the first crop of the rotation, on 

 which the dung kept for a short time only (2) showed 

 a gain per acre 65 per cent, better than the old 

 dung (3). This striking difference may be attri- 

 buted to the heavy loss of readily available nitrogen 

 and phosphate which occurs in farmyard manure when 

 stored in heaps exposed to the weather. Recent 

 laboratory experiments by Lohnis and Hunter Smith 

 showed that fresh dung stored for periods varying 

 from one to twelve weeks and then mixed with soil, 

 subsequently nitrified at very different rates. As the 

 optimum period of storage indicated by these workers 

 was four weeks, it would be interesting to know- 

 exactly how long the manure used in Prof. Gilchrist's 

 most successful experiment was kept before applica- 

 tion to the plot. 



The Monthly Weather Report issued by the Meteoro- 

 logical Office for December, 1914, is of more than 

 ordinary interest, due to its reference to rain, floods, 

 and gales. The frequent and abundant precipitation 

 in many parts of England is said to be without a 

 December precedent. The effects were the more 

 marked because it followed a wet November, re- 

 sembling the wet spells in 1876 and 191 1. Many gales 

 occurred during the month, and sorne w'ere of great 

 violence, whilst the atmospheric pressure was lower 

 on the whole than in any December since 1876. 

 December 23 and 24 were the only days when the 

 NO. 2363, VOL. 94I 



pressure distribution over the country was not cyclonic. 

 Temperature was generally above the normal until 

 December 18, but afterwards it was generally below 

 the normal. The rainfall exceeded the average in all 

 parts of the kingdom, whilst the excess was abnormal 

 over a large area in England. At Kew Obser\'atory 

 the total is quoted as 6-37 in., and was the highest 

 December value since the record began fifty-nine years 

 ago. At Greenwich Observatory the total was 5-96 in., 

 and was the highest December value in the last one 

 hundred years. It is mentioned that at many stations 

 the percentage exceeded 300, the most notable being 

 along the south coast of England and in the Isle of 

 Wight. The highest values given are 331 per cent, 

 of the average at Worthing, 354 per cent, at Totland 

 Bay, and 415 per cent, at Hawarden Bridge. An 

 aurora was observed at Newton Rigg on December 26. 



In L'Elettrotecnica for October 5, 1914, Lo Surdo 

 gives a complete review of the work done by J. Stark 

 and himself on the electrical analogue of the Zeeman 

 effect, i.e. the splitting up of the hydrogen lines of 

 the spectrum by the intense electric field in the 

 Crookes dark space. A brief account of Lo Surdo 's 

 experiments was given in Nature for May 14, 1914 

 (vol. xciii., p. 280). Making use of Stark's obser\'a- 

 tion that the separation of the components is pro- 

 portional to the field strength the author now seeks 

 to determine the distribution of the field in the dark 

 space. If the discharge tube is parallel to the col- 

 limator slit, it is found that the red hydrogen line is 

 transformed into a Y-shaped figure, the upper end 

 of which corresponds to the space nearest the kathode. 

 It is, therefore, concluded that the field intensity 

 decreases more or less uniformly with the distance 

 from the kathode. This agrees roughly with 

 Schuster's direct measurements, but is altogether 

 opposed to those of Graham, who found points of 

 maximum and minimum intensity. It mav be re- 

 marked that the author appears to be unacquainted 

 with the excellent measurements of Aston on the 

 same subject. 



Recent publications of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey include the results for 191 1 and 1912 from the 

 magnetic observatory at Vieques, Porto Rico, and the 

 annual report on field magnetic work for 19 13. The 

 former publication, in addition to diurnal variations 

 of the magnetic elements relating to local mean time 

 derived from the ten quietest days of the month, now 

 contains diurnal variations relating to Greenwich mean 

 time for the five international quiet days. As usual, 

 there is a list of disturbed days on the scale i to 4 

 (highest disturbance). 1912 was exceptionally quiet, 

 only one day reaching standard 2, and none standards 3 

 and 4. .An interesting but somewhat disquieting state- 

 ment is that, owing mainly to error respecting the 

 "distribution constant " for the deflecting and deflected 

 magnets, a correction of 10 per cent, is required to 

 the previously accepted scale values for the Eschen- 

 hagen vertical force mj^gnetograph. Of the field 

 observations, perhaps the most interesting are from 

 a number of closely adjacent stations in two disturbed 

 areas, one the crater of Kilauea, in Hawaii, the other 

 near Wilmington, in Delaware. Large variations 



