FINGER- AND^TOE. 155 



" infestable " crop, and prevent manure full of Fungus spores in 

 rotted matter from Turnips being brought back to it. Also a rotation 

 of crop, and a freedom from weeds liable to infestation, so as to give 

 time for the Fungus to perish for want of food after germination, are 

 very important matters. 



With ref/ard to 7iature of soil. — In the paper on ' Anbury, and the 

 analysis of Diseased Turnips,' by the late Dr. Augustus Voelcker, 

 Chemist to our Eoyal Agricultural Society,* he observes as follows : — 

 " It is well known that Turnips grown upon light sandy soils are much 

 more frequently affected by "Anbury," or " Fingers-and-Toes," tlian 

 roots grown on stiffer land, containing a fair proportion of the four 

 chief components of all soils — clay, lime, sand, and vegetable matter." 

 Dr. Voelcker, after further remarking on presence of this attack 

 being influenced by " absence or insufficiency of lime in light sandy 

 soils — hence the manifest benefit with which lime, chalk, marl, shell- 

 sand, and other calcareous manures are used as preventives of this and 

 similar diseases in Turnips " — further notes : — " But at the same time 

 it must not be supposed that the absence or deficiency of lime in land 

 is ahcaijs the cause of Fingers-and-Toes in Turnips, and that liming is 

 a universal preventive of this disease." — (A. V.) 



In the year 1859, when Dr. Voelcker 's paper was published, the 

 clue was still wanting to the reasons why a state of soil which some- 

 times was highly beneficial, sometimes also was no preservative. It 

 was not until the year 1876 that the true nature of the fungoid disease 

 which causes Anbury was known ; and the following observations, with 

 which, at my request, I was kindly favoured by Mr. Gilbert Murray, 

 from the Estate Office, Elvaston, gives a very good sketch of how the 

 matter stood: — 



" Anhuri/, or Finger-and-Toe.— This is a troublesome disease, which 

 affects the Brassica tribe ; it has long been imperfectly understood, and 

 its origin attributed to various causes. I have known farms where 

 roots could not be successfully cultivated owing to the certainty of 

 the appearance of the disease ; it is more common in wet than in dry 

 seasons in soils rich in humus. There is little doubt a too frequent 

 repetition of the root crop on the same land is a coutributive cause by 

 the abstraction of a large quantity of potash and lime from the soil. 

 Kecent researches have traced the source of the disease to living 

 organisms in the soil, the germs of which may, under favourable con- 

 ditions, remain dormant in the soil. For several years I have known 

 cases in which lime has been successfully used. Lime is not a manure, 

 and hence its use is not desirable on tillage land, as it liberates the 



* See Journal of the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England, 1st series, vol. xx., 

 p. 101. 



