341 



Joiisen h;!--. however, shown that bunt in wheat and smnt in oats or 

 barley or rye can be ahnost wholly prevented by washing the seed 

 ))ef()re sowing, in water whose tenij)erature is not lower than 130° F. 

 nor higher than 135° F. The sacks to receive the seeds should also 

 be disinfected. Professor Kellernian shows that if the seeds are 

 Ijreviously soaked in cold w^ater for eight hours the hot-water wash 

 may have a temperature of 12J:° to 128°. I infer that the spores of 

 the smut, having been by the winds blown over the field in the ripen- 

 ing period, have stuck to the grains from that time on to the next 

 sowing season. (Agr. Sci.J Vol. IV, p. 100.) 



THUNDERSTORMS AND OZONE. 



A. L. Treadwell seems to have shown that the souring of milk 

 during thunderstorms can not be attributed to any formation of 

 ozone, and is more likely to be due to the fact that the bacteria caus- 

 ing this souring multiply with unusual rapidity during the warm 

 sultry Aveather that precedes and accompanies thunderstorms. 

 (Agr. Sci., Vol. V, p. 108.) 



PRUNING VERSUS CLIMATE. 



Kraus (188G) in some experiments on pruning hop vines shows first 

 that those that w^ere not pruned had lui advantage in the early 

 growth, especially in the cold and wet of June, 1886, in Germany, but 

 in consequence of this precocity the early ones suffered from frost. 

 Those that were early pruned surpassed them in the harvest. 



Those that were pruned late gave the smallest harvest, but of 

 the highest quality, the leaA^es remaining a beautiful green up to the 

 harvest time, while those that were not pruned or those that were late 

 pruned turned dark and soon yellowed. 



This explains why for a long time it has been impossible to define 

 exactly the climate that is best for the cultivation of hops, since it is 

 now evident that changes in the pruning, harmonizing with pecu- 

 liarities of weather or locality, have so great an influence upon the 

 successful cultivation. (See WoUny, X, p. 230.) 



WHEAT, TEMPERATURE, AND RAIN IN ENGLAND. 



The wheat harvest of England has been studied by an anonymous 

 writer. (Nature, 1891, vol. 43, p. 569.) I do not know the authori- 

 ties for his statements as to the character of the harvests from year 

 to year, but reproduce in the following tables the figures given by him 

 as to the general character of tlu; wheat harvests for each year and the 

 corresponding mean temperatures and total rainfall for the months 

 of June, July, and August as observed at the Royal Observatory, at 

 Greenwich. Certain deductions are given by him as to the connection 

 between the harvests and these items of the weather, but a more care- 

 ful study of the figures convinces me that taken as they stand no infer- 



