16 



FIFTH WINTER MEETING.— JANUARY 22nd, 1907. 



"FUNGI AND PLANT DISEASES, —By PROFESSOR SALMON. 



The fiftli winter iiioi.'tiii'^- was licUl in the 

 Reference Library of the B<'aney Institute, Can- 

 terbury, on Tuesday, January 22nd. Mr. Harvey 

 presiding over a fairly satisfactory attendance. 



THE LATE MR. W. H. NETHEKCLIFT. 



Before commencing; the ordinary proceedings, 

 the President said he wished to alhide to the death 

 of one of their valued members — the late Mr. 

 Netherclift — who died very suddenly, when they 

 were hoping that they would see his gonial face 

 amongst them again, and hear his eloquent 

 tongue, and enjoy his presence ; but it was not to 

 be. They would miss him greatly. Though not 

 a very regular attendant at their uicetings, he 

 came when his professional duties allowed him, 

 and was a very useful member of the Society. 



The President alluded to a somewhat startling 

 paragraph which he said appeared in that day's 

 Daily Chronicle, which pointed to the possibility 

 of the greatly increased production of the wheat 

 crop. Mr. Harvey explained that it was impossi- 

 ble to have prodxictivc wheat crops withoxit 

 suitable nianiires, and the chiff constituent of 

 those manures must be nitrogen. He alluded to 

 the fact that the principal source of supply of 

 nitrogen had been ol>t;nned from South America, 

 but for many yeai's past attempts had been made 

 to utilise the nitrogen oi tin- atmosphere, which 

 was practically an illimitable siipply. This, how- 

 ever, had proved an expensive process. Every 

 square yard of the earth's sxu-face contained some- 

 thing like seven tons of nitrogen, but the question 

 was how it could be fixed at a reasonable expense. 

 Now there seemed a possibility of the utilisation 

 of the nitrogen of the atmosphere at a reasonable 

 price, and if this proved to be so, there was no 

 reason why the production of wlieat should not be 

 increased at least ten-fold. He thought there was 

 something in it, because of the quiet way in which 

 Sir William Crookes had made it known in the 

 Daily Chronicle. 



PROFESSOR SALMOn'.S LECTCEE. 



Mr. Harvey next briefly' introduced Professor 

 E. S. Sahnon, F.L.S. (Mycologist to the South- 

 Eastern Agricultural College, Wye). 



The title of the leetiue was " Some fungi 

 which cause diseases of plants," and Professor 

 Salmon dealt especially in his remarks with 

 the parasitic fungi. The leetiu-e was illus- 

 trated with limelight views (the lantern being 

 manipulated by Mr. Lander), and proved 

 of a highly interesting ehanveter. Professor 

 Salmon, dealing first with the general species of 

 fimgi, pointed out that tln-re were two distinct 

 stages — the siunmer stage and the winter stage. 

 He then proceeded tc* dilate upon the rose 

 mildew, and showed how the fungi obtained its 

 food from the plant by nu-aus of suckers. He 

 next traced the growth <>f mildew through it.s 

 varifnis stages, and explained that its progress 

 dependc'd entirely upon whether a particxilar 



plant was jiroof against, or susceptible to, tlie 

 fungi. Dealing at length with the question, 

 of the American gooseberry mildew, the lectiu'er 

 explained how the fungus attacked the fruit, leaf^ 

 and the wood of the gooseberry trees. A photo- 

 graph of specimens of gooseberries aifected l>y tlie 

 miWew was shown, and Mr. Salmon paid a tribute 

 to the great skill of Mr. W. H. Hammond in 

 bringing oixt the details so clearly. The lectiu'er 

 said that the effect produced by the American 

 gooseberry mildew was very similar to that of tho 

 aphis l>light, and in consequence of this when it 

 had been pointed out to gooseberry growers they 

 said that they had frequently had it, and 

 that it always went away. That was because 

 they had confused the mildew with the 

 blight. They had in England a powdery 

 mildew called the European mildew, and the 

 difference between the two kinds of mildew wjvs 

 that the Eurojiean only attacked the leaves 

 and did not touch the wood and ben-ies 

 like the Anu-rican gooseberry mildew did. It 

 was jiointed out that in the United States 

 the disease did not attack the native gooselierry 

 trees, which are of a hardier variety than 

 those in this country, but it was foxind that 

 when imported ti-ees from this country were 

 planted, the Idight immediately attacked them. 

 Although the disease had been unknown in Exu'ope 

 imtil 19O0, it had been known in the United States 

 since 18:^."». In 19*_)0 the mildew first broke out in 

 the North of Ireland, but nothing w;is done to stop 

 it. The result was that now a great part of thn 

 North-east ern portion of Ireland was full of inf ecteil 

 districts. Professor Salmon alluded to places in 

 this country where the mildew had been now 

 discovered, and said there was no doul)t that En- 

 glish growers were face to face with a most serious 

 danger, unless it was stopped energetically by 

 legislation. In liis further remarks the lecturer 

 dealt with other varieties of mildew, principally 

 with those which attack fruit trees. 



Mj". Hammond said he hoped the Governmt-nt 

 would show u little more energy in trying to stop 

 that disease from entering the country than they 

 had done u]) to the present. Professor Salmon 

 had been trying to stir them up in the matter, but. 

 so far as they could read by the papers, he had got 

 very little help in that direction. He supposed 

 that wlien it had got a good hold in the <-ountry 

 there would bo a tremendous effort to stop it 

 (laughter). 



The President thanked the lecturer for his dis- 

 coiu-.se, and also Mr. Hammond for the photographs 

 which he had taken of some of the subjects thruwn 

 upon the screen. 



"Cesar's invasion r»F kbnt." 



A discussion also took place upon the Mayor's 

 paper upon "Ctesar's Invasion of Kent," which 

 will be found printed at the end of the report of 

 the last meeting. 



