DEPARTMENTAL NOTICES. 



Courses al the School of Agriculture. — The Jiew session for the diploma 

 courses commences about the third week in January at all the five schools. 

 Prospectuses of the respective schools and forms of application may be obtained 

 by applying to the — 



Principal, School of Agriculture, Elsenburg, Mulde-s Vlei, Cape Province; 



Principal, School of Agriculture, Grootfontein, Middelburg, Cape Province; 



Principal, School of Agriculture, Ccdara, Natal; 



Principal, School of Agriculture, Potchefstrbom, Transvaal; 



Principal, School of Agriculture, Glen, Orange Free State. 



Applications for the new courses have in most cases been heavy, and 

 students who arc writing foi' exaininittions ai'c ad\isv'd not to await the results 

 of their examinations but to apply immediately, informing the principal in 

 each case of the circumstances, when it may be possible to reserve accommoda- 

 tion. 



IMPORTATION OF ORANGE, LEMON, AND 

 OTHER CITRUS PLANTS. 



ThI', public is hereby notified that under the provisions of the .Agricidtural 

 Pests Act, 1911, and of Government Notice No. ?!>() of 1912. iK>rmits for th<' 

 introduction of citrus plants from oversea must limit such introductions by 

 any person in a calendar year to a m.aximum of ten trees or one hundred scions 

 in any one variety, and will not be issued in respect of a variety procurable 

 from nurserymen in the Union, except under special justifying circumstances, 

 the chief of which is convincing evidence being brought to show the strain of 

 the variety procurable in the Union to be an inferior one or untrue to type. 



The issue of any permit lies in the discretion of Ihe Department of .\gricul- 

 ture. It has been decided that all applications for i)ermits to introduce citrus 

 plants will be considered by a Departmental Committee, consisting of the 

 Chiefs of the Divisions of Entomology, Botnny, and Horticulture, and that the 

 Department will accept the advice of this committee^ when its several members 

 agree. Any rooted plants will only be admitted >()nditionally on any foliage 

 and young growth that comes on them being removed and destroyed, and, in 

 addition to being cyanide fumigated as long as required by regulations, on their 

 being disinfected with copper sulphate solution of one-half per cent, strength 

 (one pound of sulphate in 20 gallons of water). Tlie introduction of scicms is 

 considered to be attended with more risk of bringing disease than the intro- 

 duction of heavily cut-back young trees, in part because they cannot be sub- 

 jected to equally efficient precautionary treatments, and hence api)lications for 

 permission to import scicns are less likely to receive favourable consideration. 

 No permits for trees or for scions will be given unless the apjjlicant makes satis- 

 factory arrangements for growing the plants and any plants propagated from 

 them in quarantine for a period of two years. The Government has no recog- 

 nized (luarantine ground; and, in general, the place of (|narantine will have 

 to be a suitably isolated site under the immediate coiitrol of the applicant, who 

 must pledge himself to see that no growth from tiie plants is removed from 

 the site during the quarantine period, and to consent, in case disea.se becomes 

 manifested, without any claim to compensation, to the destruction, under orders 

 from the Minister of Agriculture, of any and all plants the Department may 

 consider likely to have become infected. No site will be accepted as suitable 

 if less than two hundred yards sejparate the quarantined plants from other 

 citrus plants, and a far greater degree of isolation must be provided when 

 practicable. During the period of quarantine the plants shall be subject to 

 inspection by the Division of Botany, and shall remain in quarantine for two 

 . full years from the date of the arrival of the introduction at the quarantine 

 site, unless a formal release is granted earlier by this Division. The owner 

 of the ijlants shall meanwhile have them kept und(>r close observation, and at 

 once report any unusual development. 



The Department of Agriculture views any introduction of citrus plants to 

 he attended by some risk of establishing new diseases in South Africa, notwith- 

 standing precautions of inspection, cutting back, fumigation, disinfection, and 

 quarantine; and, in the issue of a permit to authorize an introduction of 

 plants, the Government assumes no responsibilitv whatever for any loss from 

 or through a trouble that might incidentally g(>t into the country. 



P. J. DU TOIT.- 



vSecretary for Agriculture 

 Pretoria, 1.5th December, 1920. 



