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606

The Chemical Composition of Sharps and Bran. TANGL, F. and WEISER, S. Aus der Kgl. ungar. thierphys. Versuchsstation in Budapest. Die Landwirtschaft

lichen Versuchs-Stationen, Vols. LXXIX and LXXX, pp. 323-328. Berlin, 1913. Analysis of Hungarian bran and sharps.

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The higher fat content of sharps is characteristic and due to the presence of portions of the embryo. The pure protein and starch contents are discussed.

607 Researches on the Digestibility of Bread.- NEUMANN, M. P. Mitteilung aus der Versuchsanstalt für Getreideverarbeitung, Berlin: in Die Landwirtschaftliche VersuchsStationen, Vols. LXXIX and LXXX, pp. 449-463. Berlin, 1913.

As the organoleptic properties of the Prussian soldiers' black bread («< Kommissbrot ») entirely compensate for its slightly inferior digestibility, the continued making of this bread is considered justifiable.

Experiments with a bread and beer diet are discussed, as also the method of determining the fatty matter in bread; for this purpose Polensk's method is recommended; or that by the writer and Kalring.

PLANT DISEASES

LEGISLATIVE

AND ADMINI-
STRATIVE
MEASURES
FOR THE
PROTECTION

OF PLANTS.

608

GENERAL INFORMATION.

The Establishment of a Danish Phytopathological Station for the Inspection of Plants Destined for Export to the United States. Communication of the Danish Office of Correspondence with the International Institute of Agriculture.

In accordance with a suggestion advanced by the Society of Danish Nurserymen, the Ministry of Agriculture of Denmark has approved the establishment of an official Inspection Station for living plants, in order to comply with the regulations of the "Plant Quarantine Act of 20th August 1912", which was passed by the United States for the control of the importation of living plants to that country (1).

The following are the regulations for this Inspection Station :

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§ I. - The Control Station is entitled: "The Station of the Ministry of Agriculture for the Inspection of Nursery Gardens and Nursery Garden Produce.

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§ 2. The inspection Station is under the direction of the Ministerial Adviser in Agricultural and Forest Zoology (at present Prof. Boas, Ph. D.), and the Ministerial Adviser in Plant Pathology (at present Kölpin Ravn, Ph. D.); the latter acts as Manager of the Inspection Station. No special remuneration is received by the Advisers for the discharge of these duties.

§ 3. For the performance of the actual control work, the Directors of the Inspection Station appoint one or more Assistants, experts in plant pathology, whose appointment must, however, be sanctioned by the Ministry of Agriculture. The Assistants are required to keep a register of all the work done at the Inspection Station, and to furnish the Director, at the close of each financial year, with a report of the inspections made in the course of the year.

The Assistants receive 20 kronen (22s 6d) in payment of their services, which sum according to § 7, is paid by the requirer of the certificate. In addition. they receive 10 kronen a day for their expenses during official journeys, their travelling expenses also being paid, according to § 7.

(1) See No. 182, B. Feb. 1913.

(Ed.)

§ 4.

Nursery gardeners who desire the inspection of their produce, must address to the Manager of the Inspection Station at least a fortnight before the time of the required inspection, stating when and where the latter is to take place, and the number of plants to be examined.

§ 5. Only plants raised in Danish nurseries are inspected. The inspection takes place immediately before the packing of the consignment in question.

After August 1, 1913, only such consignments of plants can be inspected as come from nurseries which have been under supervision during the development of the plants and have been found free from injurious insects and such plant diseases as may be regarded as communicable.

Requests for inspection must be made every year to the Director of the Inspection Station, by July 1 at latest.

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§ 6. If the consignment is found to be free from injurious insects and plant diseases, a certificate to this effect is given. The certificate is signed by the Assistant who has made the examination and ratified by the Director of the Inspection Station. Two copies are made, one of which is given to the applicant, while the other is kept in the archives of the Inspection Station. The certificate is written upon a prescribed form, the text being in both Danish and English. The form is sent free of expense by the Manager of the Inspection Station.

§ 7. The drawing up of the above-mentioned certificate costs the recipient 20 kronen. He has, in addition, to defray the expenses of any journeys undertaken by the Directors or Assistants, for the purpose of the inspection, i. e. 10 kronen per day for their expenses and the second class railway fare, or first class steamer fare; he is also required to convey the officials to and from the nearest railway station or steamer landing-place.

§ 8. The payments mentioned in § 7, are to be made to the Manager of the Inspection Station on his presenting the account. All correspondence regarding this, or other matters regarding the Inspection Station, should be directed to the Manager of the same.

§ 9. The cost of printing the forms mentioned in § 6 is defrayed by the Association of Danish Nurserymen, which is regarded as the representative of the nursery gardens in the matter of the inspection by the Station.

§ 10. - An account of the receipts and expenditure of the Inspection Station for every financial year, as well as a report of the work during the same period, is sent by the Manager to the Ministry of Agriculture. The cost of keeping the register mentioned in § 3, as well as the postal expenses of the Manager and his assistants, are paid by the State and included in the statement of accounts furnished by the Manager.

GENERALITIES

609

BACTERIAL AND FUNGOID DISEASES.

Plant Diseases in Grenada 1911-1912.- AUCHINLECK, GILBERT: in Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies, General Administration, Report on the Agricultural Department, Grenada 1911-1912, pp. 6-7. Barbados, 1913.

Scale Insects and Black Blight. Scale insect attacks have not so far been of serious commercial importance in Grenada, as cacao, almost the sole crop of the island, is practically free from the insects; but owing to the accompanying black blight, and in view of the likelihood of future development of citrus cultivation, their control is a matter of considerable importance.

The controls known in Grenada at present are: shield scale fungus (Cephalosporium Lecanii), red-headed furgus (Sphaerostilbe coccophila), black fungus (Myriangium Duriaei), scarlet ladybird (Cycloneda sanguinea), small black ladybird (probably Scymnus sp.), spotted ladybird (Megilla maculata), and a hymenopterous parasite (Coccophagus?). Of these, the first named is at presert of great importance and the red-headed furgus is likely to be of much use.

Bud rot of Coco-nuts. This has been noted on the west coast, and in districts of the northern and southern parishes; the spread of the disease has been very slow and, so far, the felling and burning of the trees has been fourd the safest means of control. At present, importation of coco-nuts from countries known to be infected is prohibited by law.

Root Disease. This is due to a fungus (Rosellinia sp.), which attacks cacao, nutmegs, castilloa, avocados, immortels (Erythrina spp.), and camphor, and possibly banaras, in Grerada. Of these, castilloa and nutmegs appear the most seriously attacked. Cacao suffers only in very damp localities. The fungus has been found in every district. of the island, and since castilloa is attacked immediately after plar ting in the forests, it is probable that the disease is naturalized in, o indigenous to, Grenada. This point, however, requires further working out.

Boll Disease of Cotton. This is probably of bacterial origin. A continuous record of its ravages has been found from 1903 or wards. It is at present a serious obstacle to cotton-plantirg on the heavy lands of Grenada. The bolls are attacked just before opening, with the result that the carpels shrivel and the lint cannot arrive at maturity. Selection of disease-resistant types is probably the most satisfactory line of future work.

Thrips. These insects (Physopus rubrocinctus) commit considerable ravages annually in the dry season, or cacao, causing discoloration of the pods and defoliation of the trees. The continuous defoliation sometimes leads to the death of the latter. This insect is usually associated with defective methods of tillage and draining, but it is possible that its attacks are sometimes intimately connected with exposure and lack of shade.

Thread blight and horse hair blight are two fungi occurring on nutmegs and cacao: the former is not thoroughly known, while Marasmius equicrinis is at present of mere botanical interest in Grenada, having only affected two or three trees.

The shield-back bug (Nezara viridula) is a nuisance on pigeon pear, tobacco and cowpeas in the southern drier districts of the island. A small hard-back beetle attacked cotton in 1911. The insect appeared in large numbers in October and November and fed on the bases of the petals and stamers of the flowers.

610

The Germination of the Winter Spores of Plasmopora viticola (1) – RAVAZ, L. and VERGE, G.: in Comptes rendus hebdomaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences, 1913, 1st Half-year, Vol. 156, No. 10 (March 10, 1913), pp. 800-802. Paris, 1913. Le Progrès agricole et viticole, Year 30, No. 11, pp. 327-331, figs. Montpellier, March 16, 1913.

The writers record having observed, since 1911, in the case of thousands of zoospores, that when these are placed in suitable conditions of moisture and temperature, no rigid ramified coir diophore is formed, but a fine, sinuous, flexible mycelial thread of very variable length, which easily makes its way between the cells of the leaves of the host vine and reaches the exterior, by means of either the stomata or some slit in the leaf-tissue. The free end of the mycelium at once swells at its extremity, giving rise to a single conidium, similar in form to the summer conidium, but much larger. As soon as it is mature, the conidium separates from its stalk like the summer form, the contents divide up, and an aperture appears at the apex; through this the zoospores escape in one or two batches. The writers have counted up to 40 zoospores per conidium, but consider this is below the actual number. As soon as the zoospores have escaped from the conidium, they separate and swim rapidly in the water. These winter forms much resemble the summer zoospores in shape and structure, but are often larger and their cilia are occasionally swollen at the tips.

On placing the zoospores in a drop of water on the lower surfaces of the leaves of Vitis vinifera, the writers have observed, at the end of February and the beginning of March, both conidiophores and lesions due to the fungus.

They finally describe an easy method of technique to be adopted in searching for germinating zoospores; such a search might furnish useful indications for forecasting the first outbreak of mildew.

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611 - Peronospora Cephalariae sp. nov. - VINCENS, F. Étude d'une espèce nouvelle de Peronospora: Peronospora Cephalariae nov. sp. Bulletin trimestriel de la Société Mycologique de France, Vol. XXIX, Part 1, pp. 174-180, plate VI. Paris, March 1, 1913.

A description of the new species of Peronospora discovered in May 1909 or Cephalaria leucantha Schrad., and afterwards observed on

(1) See also No. 427, B. April 1913.

(Ed.)

FUNGI

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