428 Notes, Comnmnications and Reviews. 



and other conditions, enable Messrs. Hall and Russell to publish 

 a very complete scheme of manuring for all the different 

 districts, and for the various crops grown in the counties of 

 Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. This latter information alone makes 

 the work an indispensable adjunct to the libraries of all farmers 

 in the South-Eastern district. The book, which through the 

 enterprise of the Board of Agriculture may be bought for 

 half a crown, is well illustrated, and contains a series of very 

 interesting maps. It is to be hoped that its publication marks 

 an epoch, for if, as Mr. Hall says in the preface, "the authors 

 are two men who were primarily occupied with other work," 

 surely it is time that the agricultural public in other districts 

 should insist that their own particular locality be subjected to 

 a scientific survev. 



K. J. J. M. 



" Blindness " of Barley. — So much of this disease may l)e 

 seen, and so many inquiries concerning the evil results of it 

 are made, that it seems very desirable to draw attention to a 

 simple, inexpensive and apparently most efficacious remedy 

 now brougt to light. 



The disease is treated of in Bulletin No. 5 of the Cambridge 

 University Department of Agriculture by Mr. S. F. Armstrong. 

 It is caused l)y a fungus {Helminthospori um g ramineuvi Eriks), 

 and its symptoms are described in the Bulletin as follows : — 



" Its presence in a barley crop may be readily noticed from 

 " the time the plants are six inches high. At this period the 

 " upper surface of the leaves of infected plants is covered with 

 " long narrow spots of a violet colour. Later these spots l)ecome 

 " dark brown in colour with yellow margins. The ears of 

 " infected plants do not develop, and many of them remain 

 " permanently enclosed within the sheaths." 



"Blindness" is in practice propagated by the untreated 

 " seed " carrying the spores of the fungus from one growing 

 crop which has been infected to another one. This being so, 

 the Cambridge Department tried various " dressings " for 

 " seed " barley, and in two cases with good results as regards 

 blindness. One of the latter di-essings, copper sulphate, 

 though useful in eradica.ting this particular disease, was found 

 harmful in other ways, and so was abandoned. The other one, 

 formalin, was subjected to further tests, and was found so 

 successful that, to summarise, one may say that corn grown 

 from formalin-treated seed showed an increase of yield of 

 25 per cent, (or on an average taken over several years, of 9 

 bushels per acre) over untreated seed. The proportion of 

 " tail " corn grown from untreated seed was 1 in 11, while that 

 from formalin-treated seed was 1 in 27. 



