i56 TURNIP AND CABBAGE-ROOT ATTACliS. 



fixed nitrogen in the soil, which then takes the form of ammonia, one 

 of the most volatile gases known to chemists. A mixture of gas-lime 

 and salt has been tried with varying success." . . . "A mixture 

 of superphosphate and kainit, and an extended system of cropping, 

 will in general prove effective." — (G. M.) 



Some further very serviceable suggestions of Mr. Gilbert Murray's 

 are given further on. 



But returning now to the observations of Dr. Voelcker, at pp. 102 

 — 104, in the paper previously quoted, some notes will be found of the 

 excellent effect of gas-lime as a preventive of the disease, which are 

 well worth consideration. Dr. Voelcker notices that in a field of 

 considerable extent at Ashton Keynes, near Cirencester, the Turnips 

 were affected by Anbury to an extent such as he had never seen 

 before. " There was hardly a sound root to be seen, except on two 

 isolated patches." The rest were all more or less attacked, exhibiting 

 " the characters of Anbury in its most malignant form." 



On examination of one of the two isolated spots, not many yards 

 square, it was found that the Turnips, though not large, were nearly all 

 sound, and on investigation as to the nature of a whitish looking sub- 

 stance resembling gas-lime which Dr. Voelcker found on examination 

 of the soil, he learned that on this spot a cart-load of gas-lime had been 

 unloaded the year before. 



In my own experiments as to effect of this application as a remedy 

 for presence of Club in Cabbage on badly infested ground, I have found 

 it to act perfectly, clearing the disease absolutely out, so that where the 

 roots had been perfect masses of malformation and rottenness, the 

 succeeding crops were free. This was whilst I was for some years 

 resident near Isleworth, and it may perhaps bear practically on the 

 subject, and be of interest to notice, that from the attention drawn 

 during those years in that great Cabbage growing district to the ser- 

 viceableness of gas-lime as an application, that the price rose from 

 being procurable for cost of carting, to 7/- or 7/6 a load. On speaking 

 of the matter to Mr. Wilmot, one of the chief growers of the neigh- 

 bourhood, he simply remarked, " We could not do without it." 



In the analysis taken by Dr. Voelcker of soil in different parts of 

 the field near Cirencester, he found that on the Anburied parts the 

 amount of lime was very trifling, and in the surface soil especially 

 " totally inadequate to meet the requirements of a crop of Turnips, 

 whilst in the case of the two patches which almost entirely escaped 

 attack, in one instance there was much lime in the shape of gas-lime, 

 and in the other much more lime than in the parts of the field where 

 the root crop had failed through Anbury." 



JFrom what we have learnt of late years of the cause of the Anbury 

 disease there appears every reason to suppose that lime or gas-lime, if 



