Barnyard millet, African millet and Rhodesgrass were sown in mixture of each two species or three species under diflerent cutting frequencies. The results are summarized as follows ; In regard to total yield ; 1. Under four times cutting, yields of mixed culture were consistently higher than monoculture. 2. Under three times cutting, yields of mixed culture were intermediate between yields of each component species grown under monoculture. 3. Yields under three times cutting were higher than those of four times cutting. From these results, it was considered that the yield of mixed culture did not exceed that of monoculture when it was cut in adequate time, but mixed culture had some advantages compared with monoculture under frequent cutting. In regard to the yield of each component species ; 1. Early growth and plant height of barnyard millet exceeded African millet and Rhodesgrass. So barnyard millet suppressed other forage crops at the first cut, but after the second cut, decreased its yield compared with other forage crops because of its poor regrowth. 2. Rhodesgrass exceeded African millet as to plant height and regrowth, but the latter exceeded the former as to early growth. So the yield of African millet exceeded Rhodesgrass at the first cut and after the second cut the yield of Rhodesgrass increased gradually compared with African millet.

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Barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crusgalli var. caudata) is a native grass which has a natural and wide distribution. Recently, an attempt has been made to utilize this grass as a useful forage crop, especially to recover summer reduction of pasture production by means of mixture sowing of ryegrass and this grass. The var. caudata barnyardgrass seeds exhibit apparently deep and variable dormancy which might be light-insensitive. The germination of light-insensitive seeds, such as the seeds of Echinochloa oryzicola Vasing. and indica type rice, were known to be stimulated by scarification and low O_2 tension treatments, and various oxidase inhibitors. The present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the effect of some artificial treatments, such as scarification, dipping treatment and application of various chemicals as oxidase inhibitors and others on breaking seed dormancy in Echinochloa crusgalli var. caudata. The results obtained were as follows: 1) The dormancy breaking behavior under cold storage in dry air obviously varied among the seed lots which were harvested on the different spots. 2) Scarification treatment was found to stimulate the germination in dormant seeds, but full germination did not occur in scarification with any dormancy stage of the seeds. 3) Dipping treatment did not result in an additional germination of the seeds in any dormancy stage. 4) A marked stimulation of the germination in shallow dormant seeds was obtained by applying potasium cyanide and sodium azide which are well-known inhibitors of various oxidase, and cupferron and oxine which might react to copper and iorn of oxidizing metalloenzymes. 5) The inhibitors of polyphenol oxidase-thiourea, salicylaldoxime, p-nitrophenol and phenylthiourea all showed a stimulative effect on the germination of the dormant seed, but DIECA as copper reagent failed to show the effect within the condition employed in this experiment. 6) In the combinations of cold moist treatment with copper-precipitating reagents α-benzoinoxime, 2-mercaptobenzothiazole, quinaldinic acid and ο-aminobenzoic acid, the germination percentage of deep dormant seeds was significantly higher than that obtained with cold moist treatment alone, even though any one of the above-mentioned reagents alone had slight effect on the germination of those seeds. On the other hand, m- and p-aminobenzoic acid which could not react to copper had no effect. It is therefore apparent that the copper-precipitating reagents has also stimulative effect on the germination of the shallow dormancy seeds. 7) Stimulative effect was also observed by applying hydroxylamine-HCI (carbonyl reagent), 2, 4-dinitrophenol (uncoupler of oxidative phosphorylation), ο-cresol, guaiacol and p-benzoquinone. 8) The appearance of stimulative chemical effect as described above was related to the dormancy stage of the seeds and the combinations of concentration and the duration of treatment. In deep dormancy stage, none of chemicals showed the stimulation of germination. 9) When the dormant seeds were stored at the temperature from 5℃ to 30℃ in dry air for 2 months immediately after harvest, the dormancy breaking was stimulated as the temperature increased, but the dormancy remained at the storage temperature more than 40℃ or less than 20℃. On the contrary, the seed dormancy was apparently broken by cold moist treatment, and moreover at a 30℃/20℃ daily alternation of temperatures during germination test, germination was markedly stimulated.

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The preliminary study was carried out for analyzing a population structure of Kudzu vine. The thickening growth of internodes of stems and main roots, the formation of vascular bandle rings, the relationship of the number of vascular bandle rings to the diameter of internodes and main roots were examined. The plant samples were collected from a natural population of kudzu vine developed in the central part of a south facing slope 160-220m asl. at Kitabata, Kobe-shi, during the period from late December 1971 to late April 1972. This experimental site is situated on the southernmost part of Rokko mountains. From the results obtained, it is considered that the number of vascular bandle rings is a kind of growth character closely related to thickening growth. Therefore, it is possible to classify the stages of thickening growth by the count of the number of vascular bandle rings in the internodes of stems and main roots.

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Data reported here were obtained from 57 digestibility experiments with fresh grasses and orchardgrass hays. Forages and faeces were fractionated into cell contents (CC) and cell wall (CW) with the neutral detergent solution. The digestibility of CW and CC, and their digestible amout were determined. The results are as follows; 1. Crude ash and crude protein in the CW were proved to be almost indigestible. 2. Significant correlation was found between the amount of CC and its digestibility, and between the digestible amount of CC and digestible dry matter (DDM), whereas, CW had little correlation between them. 3. The changing amount of DDM in grass was related to the amount of digestible CC and indigestible CW, however, digestible CW was observed to have little relation.

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The occurrence of caffeic, 3-caffeoylquinic (chlorogenic acid), isochlorogenic, 4-caffeoylquinic (Band 510) and 5-caffeoylquinic (neochlorogenic acid) acids in the leaves of timothy was demonstrated with the technics of silicic acid column chromatography, paper chromatography and ultraviolet spectroscopy.

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The quantitative and qualitative variation of reserve carbohydrates in the leaf-sheath and root of orchard grass in 1- and 3-year-old grassland was estimated during winter and early spring. 1. The variation-pattern of concentration and chain length of fructosan in early spring was very similar to that induced by cutting Autumn (previous paper). 2. The concentration of soluble carbohydrate (fructosan) extracted between 85% ethanol and water in the root and leaf sheath came down with a run in April when the growth of new shoots was initiated, and this reserve carbohydrate of orchard grass in 1-year-old grassland decreased more rapidly than that in 3-year-old grassland during early spring. 3. The composition of fructosan in leaf sheath and root little varied until late March when quantitative variation of reserve carbohydrates was not found, but the proportion of long chain fructosans decreased slightly in April. This variation of chain length of fructosan arose earlier in orchard grass of 1-year-old as compared with 3-year-old grassland, and earlier in leaf-sheath as compared with in root.

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The research was carried out to obtain the information on the dynamics of vegetation among pastures of different ages and methods of establishment at Ohzasa (Imaichi, Tochigi-ken). 1. Among the older pastures established with different methods, there were no difference in vegetation and their vegetation was constricted to the type of the composition with dominant species such as redtop and Kentucky bluegrass. 2. The proportion of dormancy type Ph and radicoid type R1-3 was higher in the surface-sown pastures compared with the pastures established with ploughing. Ph decreased with the lapse of year but R1-3 did not decrease so distinctly as expected because Kentucky bluegrass and redtop became dominant. 3. The dominance-rank relation shows that groups of sown pasture species are dominant and groups of weed species are inferior to the older pastures as the result of interspecific competition. 4. Similarity in the relationships among composition of species in pastures was observed between orchardgrass and redtop, perennial ryegrass and white clover, respectively. Kentucky bluegrass was aggressive against the other species which was contrary to redtop.

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Using four growth chambers under natural day-light (air temperature of the chambers was kept constant at 9°, 17°, 23°and 28℃, respectively), vegetatively propagated clones of alfalfa and red clover were grown to measure the growth pattern and chemical composition as affected by several combinations of air and soil-temperature. 1) Plant height and dry weight of both legumes increased with increase of airtemperature, although being a little depressed at 28°. At lower such as 9°and 17°or at higher as 28°air-temperatures, increasing or decreasing several degrees of the respective soil-temperatures enhanced the growth in terms of plant height and dry weight. At 23°air-temperature, lowering of soil-temperature had no effect in red clover, but decreased the dry weight of alfalfa. The greatest dry weight was obtained at 23°-23°and 17°-23℃ air-soil temperatures in alfalfa and red clover, respectively. 2) At 9°and 17°air-temperatures, not only the 1st order tillers from crown buds but also short axillary branches increased in number with increase of soil-temperatures. At 23°and 28°, however, they tended to decrease with decrease of soil-temperatures. 3) In general, TAC concentrations in both legumes increased with decrease of soil-temperatures, being highest at 23°air-17°soil temperature. Total nitrogen concentrations increased with decrease of air-temperature, but were not clearly affected by soil-temperature, although the differences among treatments were small. Therefore, accumulation of crude protein paralleled to that of dry matter, being highest at 23°-23°in alfalfa and at 17°-23°in red clover. In alfalfa, TAC accumulation was almost similar at 17°and 23°air-temperatures irrespective of their soil-temperatures, but in red clover, it was highest at 17°-23°and 17°-17°. In this experiment the optimum temperature for growth seemed to be a little lower in red clover than in alfalfa.

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1. Several experiments were carried out to establish the practical method of application of coated seed of Italian rygrass by utilizing dairy poultry excreta for the improvement of mountain range. 2. The applicable mixing rate of coating seeds was proved to be 7kg or less of dried excreta and 50g of seeds. And 7l by water was added together with these materials and made into seed-pellets of chopping machine. 3. Sowing test of these pellets on newly reclimed slope land resulted good performance of hay yield and quality especially when much higher rate of poultry excreta pellets were used. 4. Since the dried pellets are much easier to handle than the raw materials, the carrying and sowing labour was proved to be much saved by using pellet seed in the practice of mountain range improvement including its manuring.

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