1906.] 



Improvement of Cereals. 



733 



with fifty-two central banks, nineteen of which were mainly- 

 urban and industrial, representing 405 societies and 80,563 

 members, while thirty-three were rural and agricultural, repre- 

 senting 8,940 societies and 807,101 members. The balance- 

 sheet showed that it held £393,664 on current account and 

 ,£1,370,684. on deposit, and had £1,877,118 outstanding for ad- 

 vances on bills of exchange, &c. The net profits amounted 

 to £110,000, or 4*41 per cent, on the capital. The bills dis- 

 counted in 1903 amounted to £3,957,000. 



In several other German States, i.e., Bavaria, Saxony, and 

 Wurtemburg, the Governments, without actually establishing 

 State banks, have given subventions or some form of financial 

 assistance to a central co-operative bank, and claimed a reason- 

 able amount of representation in the management. 



British barley growers may be interested to know that the 



French Society for encouraging the cultivation of brewing barley 



have recently taken steps with a view to the 



Improvement of improvement of native French barleys in a 

 Cereals in France , . .. , . r 



and. Sweden. wa y somewn at similar to the action 01 the 



Home-Grown Wheat Committee in this 

 country.* For more than ten years this society has undertaken 

 the introduction and distribution in France of the best known 

 varieties, and has carried out experiments as to the influence of 

 manures and of methods of cultivation on the chemical com- 

 position of the grain. The results obtained showed many 

 instances of the more or less rapid degeneration of the best 

 seed, but, on the other hand, they gave prominence to the great 

 value attaching to seed originating from the Experimental Seed 

 Laboratory at Svalof, in Sweden. One of the most striking 

 features of this seed, according to an article in the French 

 Journal Offictel (Dec, 1905), was the uniformity in germiriation, 

 in flowering, and in maturity of the plants it produced. All the 

 individuals of the same lot grew to practically the same height 

 and size, they ripened together, and as they were all of equal 

 maturity when harvested they germinated simultaneously when 

 malted. This uniformity of germination was found greatly to 



* See Bull. Soc. Nat. d'Agric. de France, 1905, No. 9, p. 859. 



