2J r 8 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
plant. The. author concludes therefore that the wilting at this critical soil 
moisture content must be due to the increasing slowness of water movement from 
soil particle to soil particle, and from these to the root hairs, the rate of move- 
ment falling below that necessary to maintain turgidity of the cells of the 
aerial parts, even under conditions of low transpiration. — R. J. L, 
Swede Turnips, Hydrolysis of the Soluble Protein of. By G. Williams {Jour. 
Agr. Sci. viii. pt. 2, pp. 182-215; March 1917). — The total weight of swedes 
grown in the United Kingdom is twenty-five million tons, and is thus greatly 
in excess of any other fodder crop. Recent work on the chemistry of nutrition 
shows that the average composition of the protein consumed by an animal 
should, in respect of the amino acids contained in the protein, approximate 
as nearly as possible to the protein of the body. A ration containing an excess 
or a defect of amino acids will result in the uneconomical utilization of the 
protein as a whole . Hence the importance of knowing the proportions of amino 
acids in the protein of various feeding materials. 
To prepare the protein the juice is pressed from shredded turnips, and after 
filtration is heated in beakers up to 9o°C. for thirty minutes. The protein 
which is thus precipitated as a white curd is washed repeatedly, first with hot 
water, then alcohol, and lastly ether, and is finally dried in vacuo over sulphuric 
acid. The product is a light grey, easily powdered mass. Six litres of juice 
give six grams of protein, containing 14 to 16 percent, of nitrogen. The deter- 
mination of the diamino acids arginine, histidine, and lysine was carried out 
according to the methods of Kossel, Kutscher, Patten, and Steudel. Foreman's 
method {Jour. Agr. Sci. iv. 31, 191 1) was followed for the amino acids proline, 
alanine, glycine, leucine, and valine. 
Other amino compounds were also estimated, viz. tyrosine, cystine, aspartic 
and glutamic acids. The percentages of the sixteen amino and other compounds 
determined are given. — /. E. W. E. H. 
Tar Water for Thrips. By C. French {Jour. Agr. Vict. Oct. 1916, p. 606). — 
Boil 1 lb. coal-tar in 2 gallons of rain-water, and while hot add from 50 to 100 
gallons of water; spraying with this tar-impregnated water, or a weak paraffin 
emulsion, is recommended as a deterrent for thrips. — C. H. H. 
Thlelavia basicola, New Hosts of. By J. Johnson {Jour. Agr. Res. vii. pp. 
289-300, Nov. 1916 ; plates). — This fungus has been reported upon thirty- 
nine different hosts, mainly members of the Leguminosae, Solanaceae, and 
Cucurbitaceae, with a few representatives of other families. The author adds 
sixty-six new hosts, twenty-eight of which are legumes, twenty belong to 
Solanaceae, seven to Cucurbitaceae, and eleven to various other families. He 
considers Phaseolus multiflorus, Nicotiana rustica, Scorzonera hispanica, Daucus 
Carota, Apium graveolens, Beta vulgaris, and^Pastinaca saliva should, pending 
further experiments, be excluded from the list. He found great differences in 
susceptibility to attack existing among various species, but there appear to be 
no specialized races of the fungus, since nearly 100 different species of plants 
were infected with T. basicola from the tobacco. — F, J. C. 
Timber, The Neglect of Home. By Sir Robert Lorimer {Trans. Roy. Scot. 
Arb. Soc. vol. xxx. pp. 103-108; July 1916). — Among the rarer woods, which might 
be more grown and which would be much more used in cabinet work if they 
could be got with any certainty, are cedar, gean (wild cherry), mulberry, laburnum, 
holly, cherry, and yew. Yew stands almost by itself. It is a most beautiful wood 
for cabinet work, and owing to its scarcity it is almost always used in the form 
of veneer. If left for some length of time in pond water, or, better, if a log can 
be got that has been long submerged in a bog, it becomes a lovely purplish violet 
colour, cooler in colour than the famous West Indian King wood which the 
French are so fond of using in their fine veneered cabinet work. — A. D. W. 
Timbers, Durability of. By Percy Groom {Trans. Roy. Scot. Arb. Soc. vol. xxx. 
pp. 44-46 ; Jan. 1916). — According to observations made in French coal-mines 
the following represents the order of durability of pit-props (beginning with the 
most and ending with the least durable) made of different woods: (1) oak, (2) 
Scots pine, (3) alder, (4) ash, (5) cluster pine, (6) Robinia Pseudacacia, (7) willow, 
(8) maple, (9) elm, (10) aspen, (11) cherry, (12) birch, (13) hornbeam, (14) beech, 
(15) poplar (not aspen). Not perfectly in accord, but mainly so, were the results 
obtained by R. Hartig with buried wood (heart-wood or its equivalent). He 
found {a) most durable, larch, Scots pine and Robinia Pseudacacia ; {b) less 
durable', oak and elm ; (c) still less durable, common silver fir and Norway spruce ; 
{d) least durable, lime, birch, beech, and poplar,. — A. D. Wi 
