170 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTDEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ FobraaiT 19, 1874. 



sea influence, rendered this little town the health-giving blessing 

 it has been to many. — 11., Mentonc. 



PRIZES FOR DISEASE-PROOF POTATOES. 



The following are the prizes and conditions upon which the 

 Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society recommend the 

 -tlOO oiiered by Lord Cathcart last year for essays on the Potato 

 disease, and which was not awarded by the Committee, to be 

 applied. We give them in full in order that our readers may be 

 supplied with the information requisite for an intending com- 

 petitor : — 



I. The Committee recommend the offer of the following prizes 

 — (1) For an early Potato, which shall be disease-proof during 

 three years' trial, and possess the best cropping, keeping, and 

 cooking qualities, ilOO. (2) For a late Potato, which shall be 

 disease-proof during three years' trial, and possess the best 

 cropping, keeping, and cooking qualities, ±'100. 



II. They also recommend that an additional sum, not exceed- 

 ing .4100, be placed at the disposal of the judges to divide at 

 their discretion in prizes to disease-proof Potatoes in the above 

 classes not obtaining either of the foregoing prizes. 



III. They further recommend that prizes of the same amount 

 as the preceding be offered for disease-proof Potatoes raised from 

 seed to be sent in for competition during the month of February, 

 1879. 



The Committee had drawn up the following conditions, which 

 they recommended should be attached to the offer of the fore- 

 going series of prizes : — 



Each competitor must send 1 ton of each sort of Potato with 

 which he intends to compete, in twenty bags containing 1 cwt. 

 each, so as to be delivered at a warehouse provided by the 

 Society not later than February 21. 



Each bag must have a parchment label attached, giving both 

 the name and address of the competitor and the name of the 

 Potato. These labels will be removed by the Secretary of the 

 Society, who wiU see that each bag is legibly stencilled with the 

 number which will be assigned by him to the competitor. 



One hundredweight of each kind of Potato sent to compete 

 will be forwarded to a Potato-grower in each of the several dis- 

 tricts of the United Kingdom as follows : — North Yorkshh'e, 

 South Yorkshire, Cumberland, Fylde district of Lancashire, 

 Marsh district of Lincolnshire, Essex, Higham district of Kent, 

 Devonshire, Staffordshire, Bedfordshire, South Wales, North 

 Wales, Morayshire, Perthshire, the Lothians, Kenfrewshire, 

 Ulster, Connaught, Leiuster, and Munster. 



Each Potato-gi-ower will be instructed to plant the competing 

 kinds of Potatoes in the same field with his own Potato crop in 

 adjacent plots, carefully keeping each sort distinct, and submit- 

 ting each to precisely the same treatment as his ordinary crop. 

 He will also be instructed to keep a careful and precise record 

 of every event connected with the growth of the experimental 

 Potato crops, including the dates of all agi-icultural operations, 

 the quantities of manure applied, with the time of application, 

 the appearance of the several plots from time to time, notes of 

 the weather, and other information connected with the growth 

 of the crop. Books prepared for this purpose will be furnished 

 to each grower by the Secretary of the Society. 



The crops will be carefully han'ested, and weighed in the 

 presence of a representative of the Society ; e.ach kind will be 

 carefully kept separate, and thoroughly examined for diseased 

 tubers. The proportion of diseased tubers, should any be found, 

 will be carefully noted. The crops yielded by the competing 

 kiuds of Potatoes will be the property, and at the disposal, of 

 the Society ; and the growers will be paid for the use of their 

 land, cost of manure, tillage operations, and all other accommo- 

 dation at a price to be previously agi*eed upon. 



The trials will bo repeated next year with the produce of the 

 competing kinds that may be found to resist disease on all the 

 experimental plots this year; and similarly they will be re- 

 peated in 1876, with the produce of those that have resisted 

 disease in the two previous years. The awards, if any, will be 

 made early in 1877. 



The judges will be instructed not to award any of the prizes 

 except to the owners of competing kinds of Potatoes that are 

 found to resist disease during the whole of the experimental 

 period of three years. 



Every competitor, whose Potatoes shall be attacked by the 

 disease during the experiments, may be required to pay such 

 sum as the Council may determine, not exceeding £20, towards 

 the expenses of the cultivation of each kind of Potato sent by 

 him to compete for the prizes offered. ' 



Inspection of the growing crops by a representative of the 

 Society will be made, once at least, during their growth. 



In addition to the foregoing scheme of prizes and experiments, 

 the Committee also recommend that each member of the Council 

 be requested to furnish to the Secretary of the Society the 

 names and addresses of any gi-owcrs of Potatoes on a large scale 

 within his district. 



That some of the principal local agricultural societies be re- 

 quested to faruisli similar information. 



That a series of questions be prepared to be sent as soon as 

 possible to sucli of those growers as the Committee may select, 

 in order to obtain the results of their experience, and that a 

 report based on such replies be prepared for early publication 

 in the Journal of the Society. 



The Committee further recommended that Messrs. Jabez 

 Turner, W. H. Wakefield, W. Carruthers, G. Hope, and J. 

 Baldwin (Glasnevin), be invited to act as judges of Potatoes; 

 and that a sum of .i50 be placed in the hands of the Secretary 

 to defray current expenses. 



This report was adopted on the motion of Mr. Whitehead, 

 seconded by Mr. Jabez Turner; and it was announced that the 

 Directors of tho Agricultural Hall Company would place a suit- 

 able warehouse for the reception of the competing kiuds of 

 Potatoes, rent free, at the disposal of the Society.— Tiavirf and 

 Water.) 



ENTOMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS. 



Mb. Wonfor has recently communicated to the Brighton 

 Natural History Society the result of some of his investigations 

 regarding the uses of the antennte of insects. He is as yet unable, 

 however, to place before us such definite information as will 

 leave the matter open to no question. In his paper he care- 

 fully considers the three leading hypotheses — namely, that 

 these organs are either tho seat of the sense of touch, of 

 hearing, or of smelling. A variety of observations have been 

 given by the advocates of these different views, each mainly in 

 support of his own. As Mr. Wonfor points out, there is no 

 doubt at all that the antenn.T3 are employed by many insects 

 as organs of touch ; but that still leaves it doubtful whether 

 these are not intended primarily for another purpose in addition. 

 Insects have been repeatedly seen to direct the antenna? towards 

 the quarter whence a loud or sudden noise proceeded ; and in 

 the case of the larger Crustac ea, it may be considered as proved 

 that the organs of hearing are situated at the base of the long 

 external antenna?. The microscopical researches of Newport 

 and Hicks also point to the conclusion that among the insects 

 the antenna? subserve the same purpose. As far back as 1847, 

 however, Erichson's investigations had brought to light the 

 fact that the walls of antenna? are full of small pores, and 

 these pores contain fine hairs, in which he thinks the sense of 

 smell is situate. Coupling this with the cu-cumstance that the 

 moths belonging to the Bombyx family, and which are at- 

 tracted by the females from long distances, have large and 

 deeply-pectinated antennn?, Mr. Wonfor holds to the belief that 

 the antennw are organs of smell. 



An illustration of those occasional singular assemblages of 

 insects in largo swarms is given by Mr. Cole in the " Entomo- 

 logist." He observed last August, near Woodford, in Essex, 

 that a patch of Fern and Broom, about four 4 square, was 

 almost black with hosts of a little fly (Sepsis cynipsea), all 

 slowly moving and vibrating their wings in a peculiar manner, 

 while some object not apparent was engaging their attention. 

 A few sweeps of a net brought together a mass of flies that 

 weighed more than half a pound, and in bulk the flies eslialed 

 a strong odour of Lemon 'Thyme. 



A singular instance of the tenacity of life has recently been 

 noted. An entomologist in capturing a specimen of the Gray- 

 ling Butterfly (Satyrus Semelo), struck off its head. The insect 

 lived in a pill-box for four days afterwards ; and during this 

 time, if occasionally liberated, it would fly a short distance. 



A correspondent of the "Entomologist" snggests that the 

 agency of hydraulic pressure is the means by which many 

 insects escape from the pupa-case. He observed in several 

 hundred individual moths belonging to two species that enter 

 the pupa state in wood or the stem of a succulent plant, that 

 when the insects burst open the case they emitted a fluid which 

 filled the anal segments of the case, and no doubt assisted in 

 their extrusion. 



Writing on the subject of parasitic flies, Mr. Spicer observes 

 that though the least likely place to discover the larva^ of an 

 Anthomyia (or " flower-loving fly "), would be the human 

 stomach, such larva? do sometimes exist there. He explains 

 their occurrence in man's interior by the supposition that they 

 are introduced with vegetables which have been standing 

 some time, and on which the mother fly has, " in the inno- 

 cence of her heart," laid a batch of eggs. These larv.x^ cling, 

 so it is said, to the inner surface of the intestine by means of 

 minute spines with which the back and sides are armed. 

 Troublesome, perhaps, as occasioning some pain and irritation, 

 these undesired visitants can hardly be dangerous. That such 



