NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



475 



Indian Corn, Water Requirements of. By E. G. Montgomery 



and T. A. Kiesselbach (U.S.A. Agr. Exp. Sin., Nebraska, Bull. 128; 

 May 8, 1912 ; plates). — For several years the water requirements of 

 Indian corn have been studied at the Nebraska station. This bulletin 

 embodies the results of the latest experiments, which are described, 

 and tabulated analyses are given. The corn was grown under glass 

 in special cases devised for the work, and a brass coil was used to 

 distribute the water throughout the soil mass. The cans were kept 

 at five different degrees of saturation. The results showed that the 

 lowest water requirement per unit of dry weight was 45 to 60 per 

 cent., and 60 per cent, saturation was found to be the optimum for 

 a large yield. Hourly and daily records were kept on water loss from 

 the plants and on evaporation from a free water surface. The records 

 show a very close correlation. The daily water loss fluctuated several 

 hundred per cent., but was closely correlated with changes in tem- 

 perature, humidity, and wind velocity. In all cases " transpiration " 

 appeared to be essentially " evaporation." Data have also been 

 secured for several years on the relation of water loss to leaf area and 

 to dry weight. Water loss is found to be more closely related to 

 leaf area than to dry weight. The experiments included some as to 

 the effect of added manure on the water requirements of the plants. 

 These showed that when manure was added to soil of three degrees 

 of fertility the water requirement was decreased, the greatest decrease 

 occurring with the originally least fertile soil. With the originally 

 fertile soil the decrease was small, and there is some doubt whether, 

 under field conditions, adding manure to soils of good fertility would 

 decrease the water requirements at all. — M. L. H. 



Insect Attacks on Fruit Trees and Bushes, Some New and 



Unusual. By F. V. Theobald (Jour. Bd. Agr. vol. xx. No. 2, 

 pp. 106-116). — The Apple Leaf Sawfly (Lygaeonematus moestus, 

 Zaddach), which is new to Britain, is mentioned as occurring in 

 Hampshire and Berkshire. 



The occurrence of two species of aphides hitherto undescribed is 

 recorded. One species (Myzus fragariae, Theobald) attacks straw- 

 berries, and the other (Rhopalosiphum Briitenii, Theobald) currants 

 and gooseberries. 



The Beech Orchestes (Orchestes fagi, Barens), which normally 

 attacks the leaves of the Beech, is reported as having caused serious 

 damage to apple fruits in a Devonshire garden. 



The Ash and Willow Scale (Chionaspis salicis, Linn.) has added 

 yet another plant to its already long list of hosts, since at Woburn 

 and at Wye it has attacked currants. 



The Garden Chafer (Phylloperlka horticola, Fabr.), so well known 

 as a destructive pest, in its larval stage, of grass and roots, is reported 

 as attacking apple fruits in its adult stage ; whilst mention is made 

 of the fact that the Board of Agriculture have records of this beetle 



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