December 30, 1920] 



NATURE 



581 



cruatinfj an adequate supply ; and he urged the Board 

 to further action by providing- more generously to- 

 wards the preliminary education and training of 

 teachers by exacting severe financial penalties on the 

 defaulting L.E.A., and by amending the Teachers 

 (Superannuation) Act so as to allow teachers to accept 

 imfKJrtant educational administrative posts without 

 loss of pensionable service. He suggested that recruits 

 are more likely to come forward when the L.E.A. is 

 prepared to regard existing teachers less as paid em- 

 ployees and more as colleagues in carrying on the 

 educational service, and to give teachers a place in con- 

 sultative and administrative work through the medium 

 of advison,' or Whitley committees, or through mem- 



bership of education committees. He finally pleaded 

 that teachers should abandon their unsympathetic 

 attitude, and that the profession should unite in en- 

 deavours for its own expansion and improvement in 

 the interests of education generally. 



An afternoon was occupied in hearing a paper by 

 Dr. Vincent Naser and discussing the organisation 

 of international intellectual relations. A committee 

 was formed to deal with the proposals brought for- 

 ward. The report of the committee upon the educa- 

 tional value of museums was taken on the third 

 afternoon, , and the last one was spent in a very 

 interesting and enjoyable visit to the summer school 

 at Barrv. 



Agriculture at the British Association. 



'PHE papers read at the Agricultural Section 

 •^ covered a wide field, and included several 

 of special horticultural interest. The section 

 was well supported by the workers attached to the 

 agricultural departments at Bangor and Aberystwyth, 

 who contributed a considerable proportion of the 

 papers. The attendance from other parts of the 

 country was, unfortunately, rather smaller than usual. 



Following the presidential address, Mr. H. V. 

 Taylor (Ministry of Agriculture) read an important 

 paper on " The Distribution of Wart Disease in 

 f'ljtatoes." This disease appears to have been recog- 

 nised by NewsteJid so far back as 1878, but the present 



rious outbreak dates from about 1S98, when speci- 

 mens of infected tubers were brought to the notice 

 of Sutton's by Kerr, of Dumfries. For a considerable 

 number of years the areas infected by the disease 

 were comparatively small in extent, and limited prac- 

 tically to Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, and the 

 soutii of Scotland. Since then the disease has spread 

 with great rapidity, and is now found in all areas 

 north and west of a line from Newcastle to Bristol. 

 The north-east of Scotland, however, is still quite 

 clear. The disease is most prevalent in industrial 

 areas, where potatoes are repeatedly grown on the 

 same ground and where there is a less frequent 

 change of seed. The use of infected seed is the most 

 probable cause of the spread of the disease, an<l the 

 difiirulties of transport in the last two or three years 

 have led to less frequent changes of seed and to the 

 use of seed from infected areas. The fact that certain 

 of the newer varieties of potatoes are very susceptible 

 to the disease has doubtless not been without 

 influence. 



Bv iqio it was known that certain varieties were 

 immune to the disease, and in 1914 experiments were 

 begun at Ormskirk to ascertain definitely which 

 varieties were immune. In i<)i8 the trade was 

 invited to send in varieties to be tested, and the 

 numlMT under inspection greatly increased. The 

 r-sults of these investigations have been to show that 



■rtain varieties, such as Great Scott. King George V., 

 Majestic. Kerr's Pink, Tinwald Perfection, .Arran 

 f'omrnde. Golden Wonder, I.nnfworth, etc., were 

 immune to the disease. The distribution of seed from 

 infected areas is now controlled hv the .Agricultural 

 Departments of England nn<I Scotland, and the plant- 

 ing in infected areas confined to immune varieties. 

 Serious problems were involved in the administration 

 necessary to secure adequate control, but by the 

 J energetic action of the D'-'^ru'tments of .floriculture the 

 diflfirultles are heinj? largely overcome. The magnitude 

 of the task involved will he realised when it is stated 

 that some .l7.S<io acres of potatoes in .Scotland and 

 about 10,000 acres In Rnglnnd were inspected this 

 .Tutumn to ascertain their trueness of type. 

 NO, 2670, VOL. 106] 



■.Mr. F. J. Chittenden contributed a paper on "The 

 Experimental F>ror in Potato Trials," describing a 

 series of experiments which had been carried out at 

 the Experimental Gardens of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society at Wisley in Surrey. The paper dealt lirst 

 with the various factors which influenced the yield 

 so far as they arc known at present, special attention 

 being directed to the conditions under which the seed 

 is grown and kept and to the treatment which it 

 receives previous to planting. It was shown that in 

 carefully conducted experiments when forty plants 

 were taken the experimental error was not more than 

 ±5 per cent. 



Two very suggestive ' papers were contributed 

 respectively by Messrs. T. Whitehead and C. L. 

 Walton, of University College, Bangor, on "A Pre- 

 liminary Report on the Parasitic Fungi of North 

 VV'ales " and "The .Agricultural Zoology of North 

 Wales." Mr. Whitehead has made a survey of the 

 chief fungoid diseases attacking the cereal and root 

 crops of the four northern counties, while Mr. Walton 

 has commenced an investigation into the entomo- 

 logical and parasitological troubles of the farmer 

 and stockbreeder, and in particular into certain 

 diseases .effecting sheep. The work in both cases 

 has scarcelv got beyond its initial stages, but promises 

 1 to yield us<"ful results. 



Capt. R. Wellington, of the Ministry of ARrirul- 

 ture, gave the results of " .An Orchard Survey of the 

 West of England," while Mr. R. G. Hafton described 

 the investigations which had been carried out on 

 fruit-tree stocks at the Experimental Station, East 

 Mailing, since i()i2. Mr. Hatton pointed out that 

 the trade had long since discarded even the obvious 

 dividing lines of vigour and growth characters, let 

 alone the precise distinctions of speries. The first 

 work, therefore, was th.nt of classification, ami jitivks 

 of far greater uniformity than was available in the 

 past are now at the disposal of future investigators. 



Mr. S. P. Wiltshire described the methods of infec- 

 tion of apple-frees by Nectria diti.^sinta, Tul.. and the 

 various preventive metho<ls of treatment which had 

 been tried. 



Prof. T. Wibherlev gave an account of his experi- 

 ments on " Intensive Corn-Growing " in Ireland 

 which he has been carrying on for the past ten 

 years. He advocated the sowing of oats verv early, 

 immediately after the ground was cleared of the first 

 crop; at the emi of Senlember the crop was rut 

 several times or grazed, and then manured in the 

 < spring. In this way if was claimed that heavier 

 crons could be grown without danger of their being 

 laid. 

 I An imnorfant t»ar>er on "The Artificial Production 

 ' of Vigorous Trees hv Hybridisation " was rend by 

 j Prof. A. Henry; the full paper has since been pul)- 



