598 



NATURE 



[December 5, 1912 



ihat all these are subject to a variety of outside in- 

 fluences. Better results are obtained by a considera- 

 tion of the maximum yield per day, the average yield 

 per day during the fifth to twelfth week after calving, 

 and the maximum yield per dav maintained or ex- 

 ceeded for not less than three weeks. 



Dr. Lauder and Mr. Fagan dealt with the effect of 

 heavy root feeding on the yield and composition of 

 milk; three experiments were made, each with eighteen 

 to twenty-two cows, and the following conclusions 

 were drawn : — (i) The feeding of a ration containing 

 a large quantity of water does not increase the per- 

 centage of water in the milk or reduce the percentage 

 of fat; (2) the larger yield of milk is obtained from 

 the cows on the concentrated ration ; (3) on tlie other 

 hand, however, the milk from the cows on the turnip 

 ration contained a higher percentage of fat and a 

 greater total weight of fat. It was also noticed that 

 much more fat was obtained in the milk than was 

 given in the ration ; thus the turnip ration contained 

 171 lb. digestible fat, while the mill-: contained 529 lb. 



Messrs. Cooper, Nuttall, and Freak discussed the 

 relationship between certain properties of the fat 

 globules of milk and its churnability. A method was 

 devised for determining the size of the globules, and 

 a number of measurements have alreadv been taken, 

 but there seems to be very considerable varia- 

 tion in different milks of the same breed of cows. 

 The question of a membrane surrounding the fat 

 globule was studied, and an attempt was made to 

 repeat Storch's work; no evidence could be obtained, 

 however, in its favour, and the conclusion was drawn 

 that the membrane does not exist. 



The discussion on the nation's food supply was 

 opened by Mr. R. H. Rew, C.B., who presented some 

 interestintj tables of statistics, and expounded them in 

 his usual lucid manner. Perhaps the most striking 

 conclusion is that the United Kingdom produces rather 

 more than one-half of its total food requirements 

 exclusive of sugar and beverages, such as tea and 

 coffee, that cannot be grown in these islands. The 

 home production is valued at about 180,000,000?. per 

 annum, and the imports at 206,000,000?., of which 

 ^q, 000,000?. goes in sugar, tea, coffee, and cocoa. 

 These figures came as a great surprise to the meet- 

 ing, and it is certainly satisfactory to know that 

 British agriculture has so well maintained its position 

 in competition with other countries. In one com- 

 inodity only is there any great falling off; we produce 

 only one-fifth of the total wheat consumed. Under 

 present systems of husbandry, wheat seems to be a 

 pioneer crop produced in the new countries of the 

 world. 



Major Craigie followed with an interesting account 

 of the development of Scottish agriculture during the 

 past^ fifty years. Many thousand acres of grain, 

 turnips, and potatoes have gone, but the area under 

 rotation grasses has increased, while that under per- 

 manent grass has gone up very considerably; the 

 yields also are all higher, especially of wheat and 

 notatoes, the former having gone up from 28 to 41 

 bushels per acre, and the latter from d to 7 tons. 



The joint meeting of the meteorological department 

 of Section A, which was one of the prominent features 

 of the programme, was described in Nature of 

 November 28, p. 369. 



The second joint meeting was with Section I on 

 animal nutrition. For the past ten years an important 

 series of sheep and cattle feeding experiments has been 

 carried out bv Mr. Brure. and the results were very 

 nblv summarised bv Mr. Watson. .^ remarlcable feature 

 was the pre-eminent position of linseed cake as a food, 

 animals fed on this always making greater progress 

 than those on other substances. Better results were 



NO. 2249, VOL'. 90] 



I also obtained with Bombay cotton cake than with 

 I Egyptian cotton cake, in spite of their apparent identity 

 I on chemical analysis. A mixture of wheat, cottonseed 

 1 and cotton cake made up to give the same analysis 

 as linseed cake proved economically a failure. The 

 conclusion is drawn that our present metliods of valu- 

 ing feeding stuffs do not afford particularly useful 

 information. Prof. F. G. Hopkins dealt with the dis- 

 ! crepancy. Until recently physiologists had been con- 

 j tent to express diet in terms of energy and protein 

 I minimum, neglecting other factors. It is now known 

 that these other factors do matter, and that one cannot 

 group together all the constituents either in terms of 

 a starch equivalent or of any other unit. There are 

 other constituents just as important as carbohydrate, 

 protein, or fat, and if these are removed the diet may 

 lose much of its value or even predispose to disease. 

 Dr. Funk gave an actual illustration in the work that 

 he has been doing at the Lister Institute on the isola- 

 tion of the so-called vitamine from rice polishings. 



Prof. Leonard Hill described his experiments on the 

 relative nutritive values of white and of standard 

 bread as further illustrating the value of the subtle 

 principles in the husk or coat of the grain. Standard 

 bread proved the better food for rats and mice; indeed, 

 white bread failed to maintain life. For the ordinary 

 man, however, it is not necessary that bread should 

 be a complete food owing to the variety of his diet, 

 but for the poor it is undesirable that the valuable 

 principles of the coats should be lost. This was fol- 

 lowed by a practical paper by Mr. Ross, who em- 

 phasised the importance of individual attention to the 

 animals. He described his own practice, which is 

 admittedly very successful, and was recognised by the 

 physiologists as very similar to sanatorium practice. 

 In particular no check in growth is permitted; the 

 animal is kept developing uniformly from his birth 

 upwards. 



Prof. Hendrick gave an account of his experiments 

 showing that cottonseed oil and linseed oil may be 

 substituted for butter fat in the rearing of calves. Up 

 to the time of weaning, the whole milk proved the 

 better diet, but later on the differences fell off, and 

 at the time of slaughter there was no significant 

 difference between the variously fed animals. Prof. 

 Berrv gave an exhaustive report on the feeding of 

 dairv cows in the west of Scotland, and also in a 

 second paper investigated the probable error of pig 

 feeding experiments, which was found to come out at 

 n'S ner cent., a value identical with the 14 per cent, 

 obtained bv Prof. T. B. Wood. Dr. Crowther gave 

 a verv spirited defence of the starch equivalent ; this 

 is admittedly imperfect, but at any rate it represents 

 the best criterion at present available for the chemist. 

 The discussion was continued by Drs. Cathcart, 

 Douglas, Wilson, and others. 



Of the general papers, two by Dr. Hutchinson 

 attracted considerable interest. Lime is found to act 

 as an antiseptic in the soil and to exert the same partial 

 sterilisation effects as are produced bv volatile anti- 

 septics or bv heat. Thus it initially kills many of the 

 bacteria and of the protozoa ; later on there follows 

 a very marked development of bacteria and consequent 

 production of plant food. In the second paper ex- 

 periments on nitrogen assimilation were described. 

 It was shown that practically any plant residues added 

 to the soil causod bacterial assimilation of nitrogen 

 to set up, whilst sugar caused marked assimilation, 

 particularly if the temperature was sufiicientl)' high. 



Prof. Berrv gave an account of his analyses of the 

 oat kernel, which have been carried out for several 

 years nast. So manv have accumulated that it is now 

 possible to distinguish several more or less well-defined 

 groups in which the size of the grain and the thick- 



