ALBERT

Description: There is a toast which, in the writer's opinion, ought to be drunk whenever the great deeds of an expedition and its leader are being honoured, and that is “To the Second in Command”. After a few such toasts someone might be moved to write a book on the famous Seconds-in-Command who grace the pages of polar narrative, and an impressive list it is. To mention but a few there are Crozier for Ross in the early part of last century, Sverdrup for Nansen in the latter part, Frank Wild for Shackleton, and the subject of this note, Armitage, for Scott on his Discovery Expedition, 1901–04.

Description: It has been shown in these breeding investigations that it is possible to combine the winter hardiness of low-yielding varieties possessing characters unsuited for cultivation in this country, with many of the desirable features of the best two-row spring varieties at present grown for malting purposes. Although, with the production of the new hybrid variety Pioneer, a definite advance has been made in the production of a two-row winter barley for malting, there is no reason to suppose that further improvements cannot be made, and work is proceeding with this object in view. But in addition to the special problem of malting barley, the results so far obtained indicate that there is considerable scope in this hybridization of winter and spring varieties for the production of forms suitable for growing as feeding barleys. The hybridization of varieties differing so widely in their morphological and physiological characters, and also in their ecological adaptation, gives a wide basis for the selection of a great range of forms. On the other hand, distant hybridization of this type is liable to result in the production of a very high proportion of worthless material, involving the loss of the highest expression of the very specialized characters necessary in a barley possessing the attributes of a high-yielding malting variety with satisfactory field characters.

Description: 1. The grazing habits of Aberdeen-Angus and Hereford beef cows, on pasture without supplementary feed, were studied over continuous periods of 24 hr. during the months of July, August and September. The pastures were from 3 to 7 acres in extent and contained a good growth of Kentucky bluegrass and wild white clover, with an average moisture content of 72 %.2. During each 24 hr. period the cows spent from 7 to 8 hr. only in grazing, whatever the length of the herbage. Of this time, only some 5 hr. could be counted as actually employed in gathering herbage, as the remainder was spent in walking short distances and in selecting the area to be grazed. On the average 60 % of the grazing was performed by day, when the average distance travelled was 2 miles, and 40 % by night, when the cows travelled only about half a mile. With a dense sward of from 4 to 5 in. in height, representing about 4500 lb. green herbage to the acre, each cow was able to consume about 150 lb. of green herbage, or 32 lb. of dry matter, daily. As the amount of green herbage decreased through grazing to 2200 and 1100 lb. respectively, the daily intake was correspondingly reduced to 90 lb. (20 lb. dry matter) and 45 lb. (10 lb. dry matter). On a pasture containing about 5000 lb. green herbage of about 10 in. in height, the average daily intake was only 70 lb. (20 lb. dry matter).3. Records were made also (the average figure for the 24 hr. period being given in parentheses) of time spent in lying down (12 hr.); time spent in cudding (7 hr.); frequency of defaecation (12); amount of manure (46 lb., covering an area of 8 sq. ft.); frequency of urination (9); frequency of drinking (once only, usually in late afternoon); and frequency of suckling calf (3, each for about 15 min. at 8 hr. intervals).4. The application of the results to pasture management is discussed.

Description: A brief account is given of the work done in these laboratories on swayback and a comparison is made with a similar disease occurring in Australia. The Australian disease is due to an uncomplicated Cu deficiency of soil and herbage, but it is shown that swayback in this country is due to neither a Cu deficiency of soil nor herbage but nevertheless the affected animals suffer from a Cu deficiency and respond to Cu medication.It is shown that ewes with a low blood Cu in Derbyshire on being transferred to Cambridge rapidly attained a normal blood Cu.Analyses of grass from widely separated swayback-affected areas showed that in no case was the Cu content low.A short discussion is given of the possibility of lead being implicated in the causation of the disease, but it is concluded that lead plays only a secondary role.In the discussion it is pointed out that there is much fluorspar in the affected area of Derbyshire.

Description: The deformation of fossils in slates has been studied by many investigators, generally with a view to obtaining data on the strain to which the enclosing rock has been subjected. In the examples previously dealt with it has been necessary to assume an arbitrary length for one of the three principal axes of strain, since the absolute dimensions of the fossils before deformation were unknown. With graptolites, however, the spacing of thecae is a specific characteristic, and, since under favourable circumstances the species of a deformed specimen may be determined by a palaeontologist familiar with the graptolite faunas of a district, comparison of the thecal spacing with that normally characteristic of the species can give a measure of the deformation in absolute units. In some instances generic determination may be sufficient for the purpose. Furthermore, since graptolite rhabdosomes are delicate structures it is reasonable to assume that the amount of deformation they indicate closely approximates to that for the rock matrix as a whole, whereas it is doubtful if such an assumption can be made with more massive fossils. Unfortunately, however, graptolites are so thin that they afford practically only a two-dimensional picture, although it is possible to obtain some data from cross-sections.

Description: During field work in 1938 and 1939 some new facts were discovered about the extent of the Hessle Boulder Clay in Northern Norfolk;also a flint core was found in this deposit in the coast section near Happisburgh. As this boulder clay has not been generally recognized so far south-east as Happisburgh, its main characteristics and known geographical extent in the district will be described.