The results obtained in this study indicate that both optical extinction of alkaline extracts and cation-exchange capacity are suitable for measuring the extent of humification of rotted materials ; the latter method appears to be somewhat better since it differentiates between composts prepared from different starting materials. Both methods are equally suitable for indicating differences between fresh straw, straw composts, well-rotted farmyard manure and peat.The taste and odour of fresh chicken meat were significantly improved when the birds were fed diets containing 6 or 15% of an experimentally produced herring meal containing highly unsaturated fat (not favourable for the production of good-quality meat) or of normal herring meal, provided a supplement of 36.7 mg. of d-a-tocopheryl acetate per kg. of diet is given. Likewise such addition tended to improve the flavour of birds reared on a diet with 6% of normal herring diet or on an all-vegetable diet. High levels of d-c-tocopheryl acetate fed to chicks only in their first week of life, or only on the last 5 days before slaughter, also improved the taste of the fresh meat to some extent. The 36.7 mg. of d-a-tocopheryl acetate also apparently enhanced both growth rate and feed efficiency in normal diets : in a diet with 36% wheat offals, feed efficiency appeared to be only very slightly improved.Colloidal silica will peptise F e 2 0 3 in alkaline media containing Na ions, but Ca ions It is concluded that cause flocculation of the silica and no peptisation of Fe,O, occurs. the theory of Reifenberg on the formation of terra vossa on limestone is untenable.

Whole, moist barley treated with ammonia (A), whole, untreated barley (WU) and ground barley (G) were fed with hay and a little high protein, mixed concentrate. Digestibilities of dry matter, organic matter and crude fibre, assessed with young adult female sheep, were highest in diet A and lowest in diet G. The digestibilities of dry matter and crude fibre were also higher in diet WU than in diet G. Digestibility coefficients for dry matter and organic matter in barley, calculated by difference, appeared higher in A and in WU than in G. Young female sheep fed on the above diets from the age of 7 to 11 months ate more hay and gained more weight on A than on G; again diet WU was intermediate. Differences also occurred between the three groups as regards volatile fatty acids in the rumen fluid. Sheep on A or WU had a higher pH in the rumen fluid than those on G. Finally, sheep on A gave birth to more offspring than those on WU or G. All these differences were significant.

Whole, dry barley treated with ammonia (A), whole, untreated barley (WU) or ground barley (G) were fed with hay and a little high protein concentrate to 7 to 11-month-old lambs. Most apparent digestibility coefficients were found to be 3 to 5 units higher in the diet with barley A than in diets with barley WU or G, the differences being significant. Calculation of the digestibility of barley by difference showed that the coefficients were 8 to 10 units higher in barley A than in barley WU or G as regards dry matter and organic matter. Digestion of crude fibre was better in both A and WU than in G. These differences were also significant. 0rskov, Fraser and McHattie (1974) found that early-weaned lambs digested barley, oats and maize slightly better in whole than ground form, while the reverse was observed with wheat.

In a five year experiment, 195 lambs and their dam were kept on four plots of wet moorland rich in the plant Narthecium ossifragum. The plots were top-dressed with calcium and, or, phosphorus, or given no treatment. After three years, the plant disappeared from the plots to which phosphorus had been applied, but remained where calcium only had been used. The saponin content of the plant appeared to be uninfluenced by the type of top-dressing or time of year. Photosensitisation (alveld) occurred on all plots during the first three years. During the fourth year the disease occurred only where the plant persisted. In the fifth year the disease did not occur on any plot. Alveld was produced in two lambs by the repeated administration of large quantities of saponin preparations from N ossifragum. Lambs of haemoglobin type AA were significantly more resistant to the disease than lambs with type BB. In nearly half the cases, the bromsulphthalein liver function test indicated a susceptibility to alveld up to seven days before the appearance of clinical signs. Increased bromsulphthalein retention was more common amongst AA lambs than BB lambs, but nearly all the BB lambs developed alveld, and only a few of the AA lambs. The differences were significant.

It seems generally accepted that the proteins in condensed fish solubles are less useful to the chick and pig than the proteins of fish meal. Using herring products, the inferiority of the solubles has been demonstrated at this Institute by a feeding test in which chicks gained only about half as much on solubles as they did on herring meal; the test products contributing 6-3 % of protein in a 13-5 % total protein diet of natural feedingstuffs (Anonymous, 1951). From a chick test with 3 % herring protein, 11 % total protein level and a standard natural diet, Carpenter (1954) reports a gross protein value of 95 for herring meal and 65 for condensed herring solubles.The amino-acid analyses that the U.S. National Research Council (1954) quotes for fish solubles and meal, respectively, are in agreement with such biological tests. The figures listed for solubles protein show only about 50 % of lysine and of 'methionine plus cystine', and about 60 % of tryptophan and arginine, of the corresponding figures for meal protein. Microbiological assays of herring products at this Institute essentially confirm the ratio between meal and solubles for lysine and arginine, but for tryptophan and 'methionine plus cystine' the solubles have been found to be even more inferior.