414 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



injury to the eggs of the silk- worm. The remedy consists 

 in first thoroughly washing the wood-work of the chamber 

 where the eggs are laid with a solution of carbolic acid, or 

 by fumigating it with sulphide of carbon, another powerful 

 insecticide, closing the windows, and then placing a screen 

 of fine wire gauze outside the window so as to prevent the 

 entrance of the dermestes. 10 .S, December^ 1872, 926. 



EXHAUSTION OF GRAIN AND HAY BY RAIN. 



According to Kuhne, frequent wetting of hay, etc., should 

 be avoided as much as possible, since in time it may thereby 

 "be rendered almost worthless as fodder. Two and a half 

 pounds of unthreshed oats were sprinkled with an equal 

 weight of water, which was allowed simply to slowly filter 

 through into a vessel beneath, after which the oats were 

 dried at a gentle heat. The filtration occupied one hour, 

 and seven and a half ounces of a brown liquid were found in 

 the vessel. The oats lost one fortieth of their weight, partly 

 by extraction in the liquid, and partly by drying. Similar 

 experiments with dry red clover and meadow-grass hay gave 

 a loss of one tenth its weight by the former, and of one eighth 

 for the latter, the filtration, however, occupying one hour and 

 a half. 9 (7, April, 1873, 56. 



ALLEGED NEW POTATO DISEASE. 



A new potato disease is described as having made its ap- 

 pearance near Jena, difiering from the one commonly known 

 in directly attacking the tubers, and not the leaves. The 

 tuber becomes covered by a purplish felt, which is the myce- 

 lium of a fungus. The skin of the potato is sometimes ap- 

 parently not penetrated by the mycelium, the contrary being 

 the fact in other cases. In the latter event, the tuber becomes 

 completely destroyed by a cancerous disease. The fungus 

 belongs to the genus Sderoticion, and, according to Professor 

 Holliss, the remedy will probably be the same as in the or- 

 dinary potato disease namely, the selecting of early kinds, 

 using only mineral and no animal nor vegetable manures, and 

 with a careful selection of the best adapted soil. The Rev. 

 M. J. Berkely, the eminent fungologist, however, has lately 

 announced that this is the well-known " Copper Web," which 

 some years is very destructive to asparagus, mint, and other 



