446 



Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



Table II. — Length of life of conidia in dry, moist and water-logged loam. 



(hi the case of the numbers expressed as fractions, the denominator represents 

 the member of inoculations and the numerator the number of infections secured.) 



U^ect of temperature and moisture on the vitality of conidia in soil. — A 

 further experiment was carried out with similarly contaminated loam which 

 was kept in small glass sample-tubes tightly stopped with cotton-wool. These 

 tubes were placed three together in larger tubes, also stopped with cotton- 

 wool, and put standing mouths downwards. This procedure was intended to 

 arrest drying ivp without unduly cutting off the air supply. The tubes were 

 stored under various conditions, as shown in Table III. The soil was dry and 

 friable to begin with. It was left in this condition in some cases, and in 

 others was made moist without being saturated. At intervals of a few days 

 inoculations were made on potato slices, with the following results : — 



