xcvili Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XV, 
The use of poppy seed cake as a cattle food and its effect on 
yield of milk and Pigs anomie of butter fat.—By H. E. 
ANNETT and J. Sen 
The seed forms a valuable secondary crop to the cultivator of opium 
poppy. The bulk of the poppy seed produced in India used to be export- 
ed, but owing to the war there hed: been a falling off in the export. At 
the same time the internal demand for the seed is not likely to increase 
seems to be little difficulty i in finding a meee for perne 
seed oilin India, In this sis pee n the question of the use of the poppy 
cake as a food: stuff has arisen. Experiments were pee ae ee 
taken on this subje 
ub stitution ot poppy c cake for mustard cake does not seem to hav 
influenced either the yield of milk, its percentage of fat or the eeicaae 
tion of the butter fat. The experiments were carried out on one cow and 
two buffaloes. 
The animals readily ate poppy cake and seemed to flourish equally 
well on poppy cake or on mustard cake. The reputed Se gee of poppy 
cake in producing drowsiness and watery milk were not observed. 
During the nascent . Be work it was i te that author rane dat red 
seemed to influence, rtain extent, the composition of butter fat. 
This may be due to bethadley effects (e.g. a rush of green food after ater 
Studies in the chemistry of sugar-cane—By B. Viswa- 
NATH. 
A method has been devised for extracting small grt of juice 
from sugar-cane, without appreciable injury to the cane, by means of a 
modified form of h ypodermic needle. 
© juice so obtained can be examined for its total solids con- 
ent by means of the BEES refractometer. The refractive indices of 
sucrose, glucose and substances found in sugar-cane, are found to be the 
A number of canes nearing maturity as judged by the eye and 
experience have been examined one “after atte dere — m bo ee 
to : 
content o 
sugar Soca could not Poe definitely located at any pasnaaies ‘eohenistll 
but is n never above the dead leaf joint. 
variation is thought to be a to different degrees of se, RR 
canes examin A number of young canes have been tested joint 
by joint month after month, and it has been found that when the cane 
is young the maximum sugar content is at the basal joints and gradually 
this moves upwards to the highest dead leaf joint as the cane matures 
© function of the leaf being a physiological one, it was thought 
that a joint would have accumulated its sugar to its fullest rented by 
the ese the leaf is dead and cast. This is found not to be the A 
oes af increase of sugars occurs in an internode even after the death of 
ea 
Two possible e a eet a for the increase of sugar are offered. They 
Print {1) the inf influx of sugars from ¢ above as the cane grows, (2) the sitios: 
on 0! 
death f +h, 7 2 £. 
y 
pathorea ‘and converted into carbohydrates of highe r molecular weight 
than sugars, such as cellulose, starch, gums and the like. 
Starch and diastase have been ee in the younger parts of 
the cane, but none are found in the older join join 
It has been shown, on the au athonty of ox existing literature on the 
physiology of sugar-cane, that the storage of cane sugar in the sugar-cane 
