Abstract
THE British Council made a very happy choice in selecting Dr. J. Needham for its scientific mission in China. He has been indefatigable in promoting scientific work in that part of the country which remains in Chinese hands and in his efforts to keep British scientific workers informed about Chinese work. Since the outbreak of the War, most of the scientific journals in China have been discontinued, and in consequence those keen spirits that still go on with their scientific studies have their difficulties increased by the lack of any means of publication. A new journal has now been started, by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry at Chungking, and the first issue is to hand. Among other papers are two on inheritance in wheat. One on dwarfness deals with the complex ratios obtained in counts of the F2 progenies of the varietal crosses made in 1939; seven factors are assigned, of which three are complementary, three are duplicates of these and one is an ínhibitor; the combinations necessary for dwarfness are discussed. The other paper is a mathematical discussion of Japanese data on the pentaploid hybrids of wheat. Trials are recorded of the Winogradksy Azotobacter plaque method for estimating potash and phosphate deficiencies in soils: this was found to be rapid and easily worked and seems likely to prove very valuable if its indications are borne out in practice. Other papers deal with the extraction of nicotine from tobacco leaves; the orange maggot (Tetradacus sp.); and a possible vermicidal plant, Tripterygium wilfordii. The papers are in Chinese, but with summaries in English. We wish the new journal all success.
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Chinese Journal of Agricultural Science . Nature 154, 206 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154206c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154206c0