396 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



Chronicle for July 10, 1875. He finds the female organs, the 

 "resting -spores," or unfertilized "oospores," and the male 

 organs, or "antheridia," in the interior of the tissue of the 

 tuber, stem, and leaf when in a very advanced stage of de- 

 cay; and he has actually observed the contact between the 

 two organs in which the process of fecundation exists. In 

 some remarks made at the meeting of the British Association 

 last year, by one of our high authorities, it was suggested 

 that we have in the Peronospora an instance of the phenom- 

 enon not infrequent among fungi, known as " alternation of 

 generations ;" and that the germination of the true spores 

 of the potato-blight must be looked for on some other plant 

 than the potato. Mr. Worthington Smith has, however, look- 

 ed nearer home, and has proved at all events that the sug- 

 gestion is not verified in every case. 



CONTINUOUS CORN-GEOWING. 



Some agricultural authors insist that corn-2Towin can 

 not pay in England, and that the increasing expense of cul- 

 tivation must shortly consign large tracts of arable land to 

 grass. Two spirited agriculturists, Messrs. Prout and Mid- 

 dleditch, of England, have helped materially to solve some 

 of the difficulties of clay farming. They have demonstrated 

 the agricultural capabilities of stubborn clays, for their prac- 

 tice shows how successfully they may be cultivated ; have 

 profitably grown cereals on the same heavy land for several 

 consecutive years, and continue annually to dispose of the 

 whole of the increased products. Mr. Prout's farm com- 

 prises 450 acres, and was in such poor condition that it was 

 with difficulty rented at twenty shillings per acre. The 

 land was wet, and was overrun with w T eeds and overshad- 

 owed with crooked fences. The best portions of it produced 

 twelve bushels of wheat and twenty bushels of oats per acre 

 per year. Since 1861 Mr. Prout has built commodious dwell- 

 ings for his laborers, dug new wells, ditched and drained the 

 whole farm, altered the fences and hedge-rows, and reclaimed 

 the waste land to such an extent that eighteen acres have 

 been added to the productive area of the farm. From the 

 beginning Mr. Prout has employed steam-power, and at ev- 

 ery practical step the steam-plow so effectually disintegrated 

 the formerly sour, stiff clay, admitting frost, air, and sun, that 



