March i8, 1909] 



NATURE 



77 



near the city of Boulder, Colorado, is published in the 

 University of Colorado Studies (vol. vi., part i.). The 

 " mesa " lies between the lowest range of hills and the 

 plains, in the present instance at an altitude of from 5500 

 feet to 6500 feet. Finns scopulorum is the chief feature 

 in the landscape ; it extends downwards from the hills, 

 especially on the northern slopes of the mesas, where it 

 gives shelter to various bushes until it is checked by grass- 

 land. Berberis rcpens and Yucca glauca occupy localised 

 positions, and two species of Ceanothus grow on the dry 

 slopes. Symphoricarpus occidentalis plays an important 

 part in distribution, as it first colonises embryonic ravines, 

 being followed by roses, currants, and Rhus Irilobata ; but 

 eventually species of Cratjegus become dominant in the 

 ravines and gulches. 



.■\n interesting experiment is recorded by Mr. Thornton 

 in the January number of the Agricultural Journal of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, which, although in no sense novel, 

 is of considerable technical importance. It was found that 

 the vield both of barley and wheat is much increased by 

 cultivation, and the most thorough cultivation tried gave 

 the largest profit. The use of machinery tends to diminish 

 the cost of cultivation, and it is highly important in a 

 country like Cape Colony, where fertilisers are dear, for 

 farmers to be shown how to increase their crops without 

 at the same time sacrificing any profit. 



The results of several years' feeding trials at Cockle 

 Park are issued as Bulletin No. 12 of the Armstrong 

 College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Comparisons are made 

 between several varieties of cake, including Indian cotton 

 cake, earth-nut cake, sesame cake, and niger cake ; several 

 other foods were also the subject of experiment. The 

 results are expressed as gains in live weight, and an 

 estimate of the cost is given. There is also a list of 

 equivalent values of food-stuffs, some of which have been 

 established by experiment, while others are only calcu- 

 lated ; on this basis several rations for fattening and for 

 milch stock are suggested. 



The question of breeding for milk is one which is 

 attracting considerable attention from practical men, and is 

 of distinct scientific interest. When a deep-milking cow 

 is mated with a bull the dam of which was also a deep 

 milker, it is found that the female offspring yield large 

 quantities of milk, while the males will beget deep milkers. 

 Records of milk yields are therefore useful guides to the 

 breeder ; illustrations of their value are not infrequently 

 given in the agricultural Press, and one has lately 

 appeared in the North British Agriculturist. On the farm 

 referred to a group of Ayrshire cows has been bred giving 

 the very high average yield of 1144 gallons of milk, con- 

 taining 36 per cent, of fat, during last season, while a 

 group of young cattle are being raised the dams of which 

 averaged 1232 gallons of milk, containing 38 per cent, 

 of fat. The sort of variation found in an ordinary Short- 

 horn herd is shown in Bulletin No. 15 of the Edinburgh 

 and East of Scotland Agricultural College, where the 

 highest and the lowest yields given by cows in the same 

 herd were in the year ending July, 1906, 1505 gallons in 

 forty-seven weeks, and 478 gallons in thirty-nine weeks, 

 and in the year ending July, 1908, 1224 gallons irf fifty- 

 two weeks and 43S gallons in twenty-sis weeks. 



It has long been known that the Gypsies, like other 

 Oriental races, were acquainted with the use of poisons. 

 According to some authorities they employed preparations 

 iif certain fungi or mushroom spores. Borrow and other 

 writers on Gypsy lore have recorded that formerly they 

 were in the habit of poisoning pigs and eating their flesh. 



NO. 2055, VOL. 80] 



One peculiar poison, known to Gypsies under the name 

 of drab, which has never been satisfactorily identified, has 

 recently been studied by Mr. J. Myers, who records the 

 result of his investigations in the January number of the 

 Journal of the Gypsy-lore Society. On apparently fairly 

 good evidence, he identifies it with barium carbonate, 

 known in Shropshire under the names of witherite or 

 water-spar. Prof. Sherrington gives his opinion that the 

 flesh of a pig poisoned with this substance might be eaten 

 with perfect safety provided the entrails were rejected 

 and the parts of the animal which might have come in 

 contact with them carefully washed. It is also remark- 

 able, as Mr. Myers shows, that when Barrow himself was 

 poisoned, an incident in his life of which he gives an 

 account in " Lavengro " (chapter Ixxi.), the symptoms 

 which he describes appear to be typical of barium poison- 

 ing. Sir H. D. Littlejohn, who was inclined in Borrow's 

 case to suspect a vegetable narcotic, now agrees that a 

 good case has been made out for the use of barium. 



The report of the chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau 

 for the fiscal year 1906-7 has been received. In continua- 

 tion of the useful plan adopted in 1903-4, the tables con- 

 tain twice-daily values of the principal meteorological 

 elements for 1906 for twenty-nine stations, selected to cover 

 as nearly as possible all sections of the United States. 

 These are followed by monthly and annual summaries for 

 189 stations, and by monthly and annual values of tempera- 

 ture, rainfall, &c., with dates of first and last killing frosts 

 for a large number of stations, from the records of both 

 voluntary and official observers, the whole of the tables 

 extending to 402 large quarto pages. The administrative 

 report directs attention to the valuable researches at Mount 

 Weather Observatory, among which we may specially 

 mention solar radiation and the daily investigation of the 

 upper air. W'ith regard to the latter. Prof. W. L. Moore 

 considers that it is the one line of inquiry that at present 

 holds out the greatest promise of immediate utility. In 

 our issue of January 14 we referred to that part of the 

 report that relates to wireless telegraphy ; the distribution 

 of weather forecasts and special warnings over the land 

 areas has reached enormous proportions ; at the close of 

 the fiscal year, 1633 telephone companies were cooperating 

 with the Bureau in the dissemination of the reports. 

 Meteorological observations for Greenwich noon are col- 

 lected from various oceans, for which forms and franked 

 return envelopes are supplied, the observers using their 

 own instruments. The number of vessels cooperating 

 during the year was 1216, of which more than half were 

 British ; the great majority of the observations refer to 

 the North Atlantic. 



In the Memoirs of the Indian Meteorological Department 

 (vol. XX., part vii.) Mr. J. H. Field gives an account of 

 the kite flights in India and over the neighbouring sea 

 areas during the south-west monsoon period of 1907, in 

 continuation of the useful experiments made in 1906, and 

 described in vol. xx., part ii. (Nature, July 23, 1908). 

 The work on land, at Belgaum, lasted from July 11 to 

 August 3, but it was only during the first week of that 

 period that successful flights were made. The records 

 were unfortunately few, but the conclusions indicate that 

 at Belgaum (Bombay Presidency) the wind direction, from 

 the surface upwards, showed increasing rotation as the 

 wet weather approached. Temperature gradients during 

 ascents were considerably greater in the lower stratum 

 than the adiabatic rate for unsaturated air, and consider- 

 ably smaller during descents, later in the day. At levels 

 above 400 metres gradients during descents varied from 



