AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. CHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF PLANTS. of Light and its Effects on Vegetable Assimilation. 352. The Effect of Weak Acids on 353. Selection of Hungarian Wheat. 354. Comparisons of Yield between Hybrids and Selections in Oats. 355. A Variety of Maize with Silks maturing - CEREAL AND PULSE CROPS. 356. Investigation of the Relation between Anatomical Structure and Physiological Characters in Oats. 357. Wheat Investigations in India. FIBRE CROPS. 360. Cotton Industry in the West Indies. 361. Cotton Experiments in the SUGAR CROPS. 363. Action of Light on the Growth of Seed Beets. and Production of Sugar Cane cultivated on the Share System. RUBBER, GUM AND RESIN PLANTS. - 365. The Yield of Hevea in Java. 366. On the Exist- ence in West Africa of Two Stable Forms of Hevea brasiliensis with Different Rubbes Yields. 367. Manihot and Hevea. 368. Technological Study of the Congo Varietier VARIOUS CROPS. 369. Study of Coffea robusta. 370. Cacao in the French Colonies. — 371. New Species of Shade Trees for Cacao, Vanilla and Coffee Plants. themum (Pyrethrum) cinerariaefolium. — 373. Carludovica palmata in Brazil. MARKET GARDENING. -374. Some New Kitchen Garden Plants for 1913.- -- - 376. A New Method of Pruning Young Vines.- 377. Researches on Grapes 380. Experimental Research on Liver Fluke (Fasciola hepatica L.). nual Report of Veterinary Officer Investigating Camel Diseases in India, for Year Ending SHEEP. 393. The Decline of Commoning Flocks of Sheep in South Germany. Apulian Merino Sheep. 395. The Merino Sheep of North Africa. 400. Comparison of Sources of Mechanical Power in Agriculture. 401. A New Dynamometer for Steam Ploughs. 402. Hand Hoe for Beets. 403. The Pracner Drill. 404. The Present State of Milk-Drying Technique. BUILDING CONSTRUCTION. 405. A Practical Flooring for Pig Styes. 406. The Limit Value of the Means of Agricultural Production as Basis for the Calculation of the Economical Limit of Outlay. — 407. The Profitableness of Hoed Crops. 408. Three Years' Returns of the Cooperative Association's Pasture at Kleinmühlingen in Anhalt. 409. Native Labour in Tunis. 410. Agricultural Book-keeping in Austria. INDUSTRIES DEPENDING ON ANIMAL PRODUCTS. 411. Extract from the Report of the Swiss Dairy Institute in Berne for the Year 1911. 412. The Alpine Dairy Industry. - 413. Manufacture of Cheeses in the Grisons from Skimmed Cow's Milk and Whole Goat's Milk.- 414 On the Forms Assumed by Phosphorus and Calcium in Milk Casein. — 415. The Jerked Beef Industry in Argentina. 416. A Method of Determining Starch in Meat Products. TEGISLATIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES FOR THE PROTECTION OF PLANTS. lation on Plant Diseases in the Colony of Mauritius. 425. The Contamination of the Soil by the Toxic Products of Parasitic Fungi. — 426. Researches on the Disease caused by Rhizoctonia violacea. —427. Researches b) SPECIAL --- - BACTERIAL AND FUNGOID DISEASES OF VARIOUS CROPS. — 428. Sterigmatocystis nigra damaging Tobacco in Hungary. 429. A Disease of Tomatoes. Uromyces hyalosporus sp. nov. causing the Disease of the Shoots of Acacia confusa. On the Behaviour of the Seeds of Wild Plants in the Soil and the Poor Results in the Destruction of Weeds obtained by Cultivation. 433. Canary Island Broom (Cytisus MEANS OF PREVENTION AND CONTROL. 434. The Simultaneous Destruction of Colaspidema - - NB. The Intelligence contained in the present Bulletin has been taken exclusively from the books, periodicals, bulletins, and other publications which have reached the Library of the International Institute of Agriculture in Rome during the months of February and March 1913. The Bureau assumes no responsibility with regard to the opinions and the results of experiments FIRST PART. ORIGINAL ARTICLES The Progress of Mendelian Studies in Great Britain by R. C. PUNNETT, Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics in the University of Cambridge. The dramatic discovery of Mendel's work on plant hybridisation in 1900 inaugurated a new era for the breeder of plants and animals, and the opportunities for advance in the knowledge of heredity were in no country more rapidly seized than in Great Britain. The seed here fell upon prepared soil, for the problems to which Mendel found a key had already begun to engage the attention of Mr. Bateson and of Miss Saunders in Cambridge. The account of the experiments which they had started in 1897 and published as the well known ist Report of the Evolution Committee to the Royal Society in 1902 was the most important contribution to the subject since Mendel's own paper, and was the first to open men's eyes to the vast possibilities latent in Mendel's work. A group of workers rapidly gathered round Bateson in Cambridge, and the contributions to be found under the names of Doncaster, Gregory, Lock, Staples-Browne, Miss Durham, Miss Wheldale and others bore witness to the activity of the rising school of genetics in the University. All this work, like Mendel's own, was designed and carried out purely with the desire to gain definite knowledge of the workings of heredity, and little or no attention was paid to the economic results which might flow from the application of this knowledge to the affairs of those who bred animals and plants for profit. The material for study was selected on the ground of its cheapness, of the ease with which it could be worked, and of its suitability for giving a speedy answer to the problems put to it. Sweet-peas, mice, stocks, moths, snapdragons and poultry — such was the material investigated, and except for the last named it could hardly be said to possess much economic importance. But it so happened that the stimulus to genetic work coincided with the rapid rise of the School of Agriculture in the University, and the enormous practical importance of the new knowledge was immediately appreciated by Professor Biffen, who was then starting his now famous experiments in the crossing of cereals. By making use of the methods of Mendelian analysis he was able to show that such qualities as strength, yield, and immunity to rust were transmitted in accordance with Mendel's law of segregation and consequently are under the control of the investigator, who can now devise suitable experiments for combining them together at will. Improved wheats of this kind have already come into use in England, and judging by the competition there is to secure the seed, they have already proved themselves a great success. The analysis of the wheat plant is still being actively carried on in Cambridge by Professor Biffen and his co-workers, and there is no doubt that as time goes on even better and more profitable varieties will be at the service of the British farmer. It is pleasant to be able to record that the importance of the work has been recognised by the Government, who have placed a considerable annual sum at the disposal of the School of Agriculture for research in plant-breeding. This has rendered possible an increase in the scope of the work, and experiments are now being carried out on other plants besides cereals. Among investigations now under way are some concerned with the transmission of fertility in fruit trees, while the striking success of Biffen's work on the nature of immunity to rust in wheats has led to the search for naturally immune individuals in other forms of plant life. Experiments with potatoes have been in progress for several years and thanks to the energy of Dr. Salaman, working on his own estate near Cambridge, and of Mr. Lesley of the School of Agriculture, the formation of a decent potato, naturally immune to Phytophthora infestans, seems within measurable distance of realisation. Nor are the researches at Cambridge confined to plants. Poultry was one of the first subjects of experiment by Bateson and during the past ten years much has been learned of the transmission of various characters. Offering as they do a number of features showing sex-linked inheritance (1), poultry are of importance for gaining an insight into the nature of sex, and of studying the peculiar influence of each sex in the transmission of hereditary properties. Several of these sex-limited characters are now under investigation at Cambridge, while parallel experiments are being carried on by Professor Bateson at Merton. Two other series of experiments likely to lead to knowledge of economic value are also being carried on at Cambridge. The first of these is concerned with the inheritance of size, and consists in carefully following out the result of a cross between an ordinary fowl and a bantam. The work is not yet sufficiently advanced to permit of complete analysis, but the nature of the F2 generation raised last year strongly suggests that size depends upon definite factors which exhibit ordinary Mendelian segregation. The other set of experiments mentioned concerns the inheritance of the brooding instinct in the hen and of the brown colour of the egg-shell. In England brown eggs are of greater value than white, but hitherto no breed laying brown eggs and in which the hens never want to sit has yet been established. It may be that brown eggs are incompatible with the non-broody habit, just as it is sometimes stated that (1) See No. 1319, B. Sept. 1912. (Ed.). |