The growth-promoting properties of maize, when fed to pigs in conjunction with the proper supplements, have long been recognised. Unfortunately, on account of its detrimental influence on the fat of the pork or bacon, the liberal use of maize in the rations, particularly the finishing rations, of porkers and baconers is to be deprecated. This impairment of the quality of the fat is attributed to the influence of the oil constituent, of which maize contains usually from per cent., compared with but per cent. in barley.

The determination of sodium by Barber and Kolthoff's and Kahane's methods has been investigated with special reference to their suitability for the determination of exchangeable sodium in soils. Bray's modification of Barber and Kolthoff's method, involving 48 hours’ standing, was found to give a poor separation from even small amounts of potassium salts, leading to high results for sodium. Kahane's method was more convenient and gave very satisfactory results, precipitation being complete in 30 min. It is a great improvement on the older classical methods which involve the separation and weighing of sodium and potassium chlorides.