ALBERT

Description: The Fenestella Shale Formation of Jammu and Kashmir Himalaya comprises latest Viséan or Serpukhovian siliciclastic deposits formed along the southern margins of the Palaeotethys Ocean. A sequence of shallowing upward and deepening upward units indicates changes from shoreface to offshore and deeper shelf conditions, probably controlled by eustatic changes in an otherwise passive depositional system. Some of the finer-grained, shallow marine deposits have yielded fossil floras dominated by sub-arborescent lycopsids ( Sublepidodendron , Lepidodendropsis ) sphenophytes ( Archaeocalamites ) and pteridophylls ( Nothorhacopteris , Triphyllopteris ). The assemblage compares with other Gondwanan floras of this age that have been assigned to the Paraca floral realm, and are taken to indicate relatively warm climatic conditions that existed just prior to the onset of the Carboniferous–Permian ice-age.

Description: SummaryExperiments made over a period of 3 years (1971–73) at Pantnagar, India, on the effect of plant density and spatial arrangement of a hybrid variety of maize (Ganga 2) and a local cultivar (Rudrapur) indicated that a density of (at least) 75000 plants/ha is necessary to obtain maximum grain yield. With increasing density from 25000 to 75000 plants/ha the date when 75 % of plants were silking was delayed 2–5 days and the percentage of barren plants increased from 1·7 to 28·7. In dense stands, grain yield of the hybrid variety was less affected by increasing row width from 60 to 90 cm than it was in the local cultivar.The average increase in yield with narrow (60 cm) row width as compared with wider (75 cm) row width was 6.8 % and it is argued that, in the context of the national need for increased food production, this increase cannot be overlooked.

Description: SummarySixty families of each of two tomato triple test crosses (S 120 × EC 61747 and EC 31513 × Pusa Ruby) were raised in completely randomized blocks in two replications with two fertilizer levels. Perkins & Jinks' (1971) analysis was used to detect and measure the interactions of additive, dominance and epistatic effects of genes with micro- and macro-environments for flowering time, maturity period, number of branches, final height, number of locules, number of fruits per plant, yields per plant and weight per fruit. Additive and dominance gene effects were almost equally sensitive to micro- and to macro-environments. The j and l type epistasis was more sensitive to the environments than the i type epistasis.

Description: SummaryIn a 2-year field study conducted at Lucknow (26·5° N, 80·5° E and 120 m altitude), plant height, leaf area index, dry-matter accumulation and N uptake of opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) followed a sigmoid path. After attaining a peak of accumulation at 120 days, dry matter declined in plots given N fertilizer but remained static in the control. N application (50, 100, 150 and 200 kg/ha) increased the opium, seed and morphine yields compared with the control. Morphine concentration (%) in the opium, however, increased up to 100 kg N/ha and decreased when N doses exceeded that level. Divided application of N, i.e. half at sowing and remainder at the stem elongation stage, proved beneficial for opium, seed and morphine yields.

Description: SUMMARYIn field trials made for two years in the dry period of a semi-arid tract under natural precipitation at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, overnight seed-soaking of wheat in 0·5% solution of 2-chloro-ethyl-trimethyl ammonium chloride (CCC) prior to sowing increased the grain yield. When treated with foliar application of the chemical in concentrations ranging between 40 and 1000 mg/1, wheat plots yielded better than did the untreated control, but no consistency was noted between the concentrations or stages of their application. The benefit from CCC was due to more root growth, increased stomatal resistance and higher leaf water potential. Treated plants extracted more water from deeper soil layers, increasing their water-use efficiency.

Description: SUMMARYExperiments made under dryland conditions in the post-monsoon period for 3 years showed that deep placement of N and P fertilizers at 12 or 18 cm led to better utilization than their shallow placement at 6 cm. Grain yield was maximal when the fertilizer was placed at 18 cm depth. The yield increase by deep fertilizer placement resulted from higher tiller survival till harvest. In these treatments water use efficiency and mineralizable N content in soil were higher.Of the two varieties tested the taller cultivar (C 306) yielded more in normal years but lodging due to a severe storm in one of the years reduced its yield considerably. While the yield of the tall variety was not much affected by variations in row distances, the dwarf (DL 153–2) responded to these variations and greatest yield was obtained at a row distance of 27·5 cm.

Description: SummaryThe genetic parameters controlling the expression of seed yield and the yield components have been studied using both generation mean and triple test cross (TTC) analyses in two crosses of field pea. From generation mean analysis, it is obvious that in addition to significant estimates of additive and dominance components, epistatic components of mean [(i) and (I) types] were also important and duplicate type of epistasis was predominant for all the traits in both sets of crosses. In the TTC analysis, the major genetic component of variance was the additive component, though the dominance component was also found to be significant. There was evidence of epistasis for most of the characters studied. In fact, the overall epistasis (i type) was the major component of epistasis, but the parameter F was found in the non-significant range. The mean performance of the characters studied was higher in randomly-mated biparental progenies (BIPs) but there were more desirable transgressive segregants in the TTC population. Thus the genetic information obtained from both analyses seems to be complementary rather than alternative modes of inheritance in governing the expression of these useful economic traits.

Description: Sodic soils are widespread, especially in the Indo–Gangetic plain. Amelioration with gypsum is effective, especially when combined with growing a crop of rice. However, it has proved difficult to generate new varieties of sodic-tolerant rice, because of the difficulties of screening – other than in the field, where spatial variation of sodicity is notoriously high. Growing plants at high pH in solution culture in a controlled environment is problematic, because of the effects of pH on nutrient availability. This study evaluated a system of growing rice in a nutrient solution with added Tris but without minor nutrients, which were supplied in a foliar spray. Performance was evaluated from the change in weight and in appearance and correlated with performance in soil. Growing rice in the presence of Tris (4 mM, pH 8·6) provides a means of evaluating genotypic differences in response to sodicity.

Description: SUMMARYIn order to examine whether high yield of maize could still be maintained at high plant densities by creating an ‘erectophile canopy’ through artificial defoliation of laminae, an experiment at Pantnagar, India, was made on the effect of density, stage and degree of defoliation in two divergent seasons, Kharif (rainy) and spring, of the year 1972. The defoliation treatments were either partial (clipping off the apical half of individual leaves) or complete (full leaf removal) and were imposed at three stages of plant growth, namely when 10 or 16 leaves were fully open or 12 days after silking. These treatments were applied at two plant densities, 60000 and 90000 plants/ha.Grain yield of maize increased significantly with the increase in population density in the spring season. The trend was diametrically opposite in the Kharif season. Defoliation at the 10th fully open leaf stage produced more grains than defoliating 12 days after silking, which in turn produced more than defoliating at the 16th fully open leaf stage, when plants were in full bloom. Increase in the degree of defoliation at the latter two stages of plant growth reduced grain yield, the effect being more at the 16th leaf stage. However, 50% defoliation at the 10th leaf stage increased grain yield in the Kharif season.The percentage protein content of grain declined with the increase in population density whereas increase in degree of defoliation increased the grain protein content. Higher protein content of grain was recorded in the spring than in the Kharif season. The leaf protein decreased as the plants neared maturity, especially at the higher degree of defoliation treatments.Sucrose and reducing sugars declined significantly with the increase in degree of defoliation. The reduction in sucrose was large enough to account for the reduction in total sugar percentage. Similar trends were observed in the sugar-to-protein ratio.

Description: SummaryThe joint scaling test of Cavalli (1952) and the six-parameter procedure of Jinks & Jones (1958) were applied to test the adequacy of the additive-dominance model and to estimate various main and interaction gene effects for five characters, namely, final plant height, ear length, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per spike and yield per plant, in three wheat crosses (Kalyan Sona × Norteno 67, Norteno 67 × WL 212 and K. Sona × Moti). Goodness of fit of the model varied from cross to cross for the same character except for number of grains per spike and yield per plant for which the model was inadequate for all three crosses. The two methods were in complete agreement regarding the presence of epistasis in the material. Among the interaction parameters, the component [1] showed the greatest effect for most of the characters in all three crosses where there was evidence of epistasis.