Two experiments were conducted to study the influence of heat treatment of Vicia faba beans on the productive performance of laying hens fed diets containing large proportions of the beans. In the first experiment, the effects of extruding and pelleting the beans were studied while in the second experiment the effects of autoclaving at 121 °C for 30 min the cotyledons and hulls of the beans were evaluated. Hyline-W36 layers were used in the first experiment while two strains (Shaver-288 and Dekalb) of birds were used in the second experiment. Each experiment lasted 5 months during which data on egg production, egg weight, feed intake, mortality and body-weight gain of birds were collected. The results obtained indicated that heat treatment (extruding, pelleting and autoclaving) of the beans, cotyledons and hulls had no beneficial effect on the productive performance of laying hens fed on diets containing large proportions of the heated beans, cotyledons and hulls. Egg-size reducing factors appeared to be concentrated in the cotyledons rather than the hulls of the beans.

Cabbage accessions were screened for resistance to turnip mosaic (TuMV) and cauliflower mosaic (CaMV) viruses in glasshouse and field tests. None was immune to infection by either virus, but some were highly resistant to one or both viruses. TuMV induced severe necrotic lesions on the outer leaves of susceptible plants at harvest, and this was associated with severe internal necrosis in heads stored for 8 months at 0–1 °C. This correlation was not observed in CaMV infected plants. Pepper-spot necrosis was low in stored heads of some accessions but high in others.

In 1974 three cultivars of barley of different straw lengths, Mazurka, Julia and Midas, were grown alone and with each of four cultivars of red and two of white clover in a split-plot randomized-block experiment of four replications. Although the barley cultivars differed significantly in yield the barley x clover interaction was not significant and yield of grain was not affected by the presence of the clovers.

In the following year the entire experimental area was sown with Mazurka barley. Significantly higher grain yields were obtained on those plots sown with clover in 1974 than in plots where no clover had been sown. In no case was the combined yield of barley from the 2 years on any treatment involving clover lower than that of the mean of the no-clover control plots, although the highest increase in yield, 11% from the S.123 red clover treatment, over the no-clover control was not shown to be significant.

The interactions of breed, season and environmental temperature influencing reproductive activity in Indian sheep breeds have been studied so far in some detail only with respect to the physical characteristics of the semen (Sahni & Roy, 1969; Mittal & Ghosh, 1979). The literature on the influence of these factors in determining the concentration of some of the important chemical constituents of ram semen is scanty, except for two recent reports by Nivsarkar, Dwarkanath & Pant (1977, 1978) in which data on fructose and citric acid concentration in electro-ejaculated semen of Magra rams, obtained during the winter and spring, have been presented. A need was felt for understanding the pattern of concentration of these constituents throughout the year in semen collected from rams under natural conditions. The present investigation was, therefore, undertaken to study the seasonal pattern of concentration of two important chemical constituents (fructose and citric acid) and physical (ejaculate volume and sperm concentration) characteristics of the naturally ejaculated semen of two important Indian desert sheep breeds, the Marwari and the Magra. A similar, though short-term, study on the semen of an exotic breed, the Corriedale, was also undertaken.

Agri-silviculture is the simultaneous husbandry of forest tree crops and food crops. In the first 1–3 years of forest crops such as teak, pine and Gmelina arborea, they are interplanted with food crops such as yam, maize and cassava in plantation. In humid countries such as Nigeria and Burma agrisilviculture evolved out of the needs to boost food production and satisfy labourers who work on afforestation programmes.

In ruminant animals, it is well known that the physical form of feed considerably affects rumination behaviour, which is considered to be an importantfunction related to the utilization of roughage feed (Balch, 1971; Ørskov, Fraser & Gordon, 1974; Morgan & Campling, 1978). It is also clear that the act of chewing during rumination has an important role in the reduction of particle size of ingested food, and this might facilitate microbial degradation in the rumen (Umezu, 1966). Furthermore, it is also obvious that rumination behaviour is considerably influenced by changes of dietary chemical composition. Campling, Freer & Balch (1962) observed a marked reduction in time spent ruminating when urea was added to an oat-straw diet in cows, and they suggested that there are important interactions between the two factors (chewing and bacterial degradation) responsible for reducing particle size in the reticulo-rumen. Similarly, there are several investigations of rumination behaviour in relation to the digestion of roughage diet in sheep and cattle (Welch & Smith, 1969a; Thomas, Kelly & Wait, 1976; Sudweeks et al. 1975).

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is a crop of great antiquity which is widely grown in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, South and North America and to some extent in Russia for edible oil and for animal feed purposes. The average yield in India is only about 235 kg/ha. Even under good management practices the seed yields usually remain poor and, therefore, commercial prospects of sesame production are not good.