^P7j.] Notes. 183 



remained plump and healthy. Released one evening at eight 

 o'clock, it had by midnight spun a web and raised a dead 

 bamboo leaf three feet from the ground, but owing to a slight 

 unusual convexity it would not curl, so the spider bent it 

 double. Evidently this was unsuitable as a shelter, for I 

 found in the morning the leaf removed to where, three feet away, 

 a new web had been spun and the leaf suspended under the 

 sheltering green leaf of a Cape goosebery bush. In only one 

 case did I note the use of a living leaf attached to the plant, 

 and used as a shelter attached to the web centre at the same 

 lime. — A. D. Hardy. Kew, 12th March. 



The Bitter Pit in Apples. — Mr. D. M'Alpine has recently 

 issued his fifth report on this question. For five years he has 

 been patiently in vestigating the subject, and, theory after theory 

 having been experimented upon and abandoned, he has now 

 pretty well satisfied himself that the cause of the disease, if it 

 can be so called, is over-pressure of water in the tissues, leading 

 to local rupture and death of the parts. He thinks that greater 

 attention to pruning will tend to reduce the losses of fruit from 

 this cause. 



The Prickly Pear. — Victorians have little idea of the vast 

 extent of the Prickly Pear pest in Queensland. Mr. J. F. 

 Bailey, who for some years has had the opportunity of seeing 

 its extension, recently stated that at least 30,000,000 acres — an 

 area larger than that of Scotland — has now been rendered useless 

 by it. Various remedies have been tried without much success. 

 The only one which seems to have any effect on it is spraying 

 with an arsenical solution. Just consider what this means in 

 expense to the country. Fortunately for Victoria, the Prickly 

 Pear has not assumed so serious a position here, more by good 

 luck than good management, for it has been allowed to get out 

 of control in many of the older-settled districts round Mel- 

 bourne. 



The Mice Plague.— For the last month or two wheat-buyers 

 have been at their wits' end to protect the immense wheat stacks 

 at country stations, especially in the Wimmera district, from 

 mice, which have increased to an incredible extent. Most of the 

 stacks have now been enclosed by sheets of galvanized iron, in 

 which openings are left to correspond with kerosene tins sunk in 

 the ground and partly filled with water. It is no uncommon 

 occurrence to capture lo,ooo mice in this way in a single night. 

 At Minyip recently the catch for two nights weighed rather more 

 than a ton. Of course, in this case the mice were probably wet 

 when weighed, but even so the number required to make up a 

 ton must be considerable. 



