172 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION M. 
plant, and as the soil could take up more liquid matter without becoming water- 
logged, larger quantities of sewage could be used on a given area. The enormous 
strides which have been made in the last seventy years in engineering, chemis- 
try, and agricultural science, the use of oil and gas engines, improvements in 
pumping machinery, the distribution of electricity, the improvements in motor 
traction, all seem to point to the fact that within a measurable distance we should 
be able to utilise, if not all, at any rate a considerable part of the sewage which is 
now wasted, by having, in connection with municipal sewage works, a system 
of irrigation which would enable farmers to draw upon the effluent when they 
can profitably use it on their land and that the time has arrived when experi- 
ments on a fairly large scale in that direction should be carried out; such 
experiments should be made at the cost of the Government, as neither corpora- 
tions nor individuals can be expected to undertake such work, and it is to be 
hoped that when the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Sewage are 
acted upon, and a Central Authority appointed to deal with the sewage question, 
they will give their attention to this matter. 
Joint Meeling with Section K on Problems in Barley Production. 
(i) Selection of Barley for Productivity. By KE. 8. BEaven. 
With any cereal crop the produce of dry grain on unit area is the sum of the 
following factors: (a) number of plants surviving on the area at harvest: 
(5) average dry weight per plant, which is the sum of (61) average number of 
stems per plant, and (52) average weight per stem; (c) the ratio of the dry 
matter of the seed to the dry matter of the plant. A series of cultivations were 
described as a number of ‘ pure lines’ of barley and also of the F 2 to F 6 genera- 
tions of some hybrids which have been carried out at Warminster during the 
years 1900 to 1912. The objects have been: 1. To discriminate between genetic 
differences and those due to extrinsic conditions; 2. Reduction of the ‘ probable 
error ’ of differences in magnitude of the above factors, as between different races 
in order to obtain valid comparisons of productivity. The method adopted is 
an elaboration of the Hays centgener system. 3. Correlation of the several 
factors in successive generations. 4. Correlations of the several factors inter se. 
Some provisional conclusions were arrived at with reference to the relative 
importance of the factors and especially with reference to the ‘migration factor.’ 
The application of the results obtained, more especially to methods of selection 
for productivity from the progeny obtained by the cross-fertilisation of different 
races, was discussed. 
(ii) Irish Barley Experiments, 1901-1907. By Joun H. Brennerv. 
First efforts to improve Irish barley were commenced in 1899 by Mr. H. C. 
Sheringham, on behalf of the Irish Organisation Society, by means of quarter- 
acre plots for different varieties and different proportions of artificial manures. 
Mr. Sheringham continued to work under the Irish Department of Agriculture, 
constituted in 1900, and in 1901 the size of the plots was increased to two acres 
each, in order to provide for the subsequent separate malting and brewing by 
Messrs. Guinness of the produce, 
Archer, Goldthorpe and Standwell barley were grown at four centres in 
1901, at six centres in 1902, and at eight centres in 1903, also two-acre plots to 
test full artificial manuring versus none. 
Archer proved best, Goldthorpe second, Standwell third, and the malting 
results confirmed this order. Artificial manures increased the yield without 
impairing brewing quality. 
In 1904 Mr. Hunter succeeded Mr. Sheringham. Scotch Chevallier and 
Old Irish Barley were added and the two-acre experiments were grown on ten 
farms in five counties. The quarter-acre series was discontinued. The raising 
of pure seed of the different varieties was commenced. 
In 1905 there were eleven centres in six counties occupying 150 acres, while 
Hallett’s Chevallier was added at every centre. 
