24 CLOVER. 



the Eelworm infestation having been on the ground, or manure having 

 been used from infested litter ; but if specimens of the phmts of field 

 No. 1 had been submitted to an expert in fungoid disease, in all 

 probability some one or other of the kinds of fungus, or mould, of 

 which Mr. Carruthers noted the prevalence, would have been found 

 present. 



On February 28th, Dr. Robert Johnson, Director of the Colonial 

 College, Hollesley Bay, Suffolk, when communicating with me on 

 some other subject, added : — 



" While writing (at this moment) the enclosed have been brought 

 to me ; I have not examined them. To the naked eye there would 

 appear to be some fungus. I send them to you just as they are, in 

 case they may be interesting. The message brought to me is — ' There 

 are some acres going off like this.' " — (R. J.) 



In this case (and looking only to the points on which I was qualified 

 to offer an opinion) I found some small brown shoots present similar 

 in form to those in which I have lately found Eelworms in diseased 

 Clover. As mentioned above, I did not trepass on the field of fungoid 

 identification, in which I am not skilled. 



On March 5th, Mr. Henry Howman, Director of Agriculture of the 

 Agricultural Sub-Committee, Gloucestershire County Council, wrote 

 me as follows from Gloucester: — 



"I have had numerous complaints from farmers for some time 

 past that their Clover plants are dying without any apparent reason, 

 and on all kinds of soils — stifi' and light soils. I venture to send you 

 some plants from a stiff land. You will notice the leaves are going 

 rotten, as if they were damping off. . . . The dying plants are 

 not in patches, but here and there." 



The plants of Clover sent in most instances had some very vigorous 

 shoots, but also in some instances one or two, in some approximately 

 six to a dozen, abortive brown shoots, precisely similar in shape to 

 those in which I have lately found presence of Eelworms ; and in this 

 instance also Eelworms were present in some of the abortive shoots. 

 Presumably (from Mr. Howman's observations) this also was a case 

 of coincidence of presence of Nematoid worm and fungoid attack. 



On March 23rd, Mr. John Crisp, writing from the Estate Office, 

 Elton Hall, Peterborough, mentioned having lately found white mag- 

 gots amongst the Cow-grass on the estate, and sent me specimens, 

 which turned out (as in some of the other cases observed) to be maggots 

 of the Clover and Pea-leaf Weevil {Sitones of various species), of which 

 the perfect beetles not unfrequently do widespread damage at the 

 leafage in spring or summer, and the maggots are to be found at the 

 roots in winter, by which they turn to the chrysalis condition in the 

 earth, and from this state the beetles develop towards the beginning 



