488 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION K. 



the general principles and practices of agriculture and horticulture, if not also 

 of forestry. It is suggested that such extended knowledge could be best 

 obtained by having diploma courses of four or five years in economic mycology 

 and in economic zoology. Further, a central pathological laboratory and experi- 

 mental station should be founded in this country and the beet economic botanists 

 appointed to it. (Similar stations are also requisite in the tropics.) Here men who 

 are to receive f4overnment appointments could take their final year's study, having 

 special facilities in the way of specimens, literature, apparatus, &c., and the 

 moet recent methods of attacking economic problems could be studied. Every 

 branch of the subject should be treated at this institution from its practical 

 side. From this station would go out the advice to farmers in the form of 

 simple directions and explanations, while the full discussions of results could 

 be published in the form of bulletins. 



A definite policy should be adopted in the training and appointment of 

 economic mycologists in place of the present haphazard system. 



(d) Some Problems connected with the Treatment of Fungoxis Diseases 

 bij Spraying. By E. S. Salmon and Dr. J. Vargas Eyre. 



It may be taken a« a sign of the recent agricultural progress that spraying 

 against fungous diseases has been adopted permanently, as being both necessary 

 and profitable, by the English farmer, more particularly by the fruit-grower. 



A close acquaintance with the practical side of the subject, however, soon 

 convinces one that a great deal remains to be done to make the work thoroughly 

 efficient. The farmer, protected against fraudulent artificial manures by the 

 operations of the Fertilisers and Feedingstuffs Act, is still unprotected by any 

 legislation forbidding the sale of spurious fungicides, the use of which too often 

 nullifies spraying operations involving a considerable expenditure in labour and 

 materials. The remedy for this waste lies for the most part, undoubtedly, in 

 the dissemination of scientific information, but valuable assistance would be 

 given by legislation — such as that now in force in the United States — requiring 

 that a certain standard is maintained. 



It is cle^r that there is now among farmers in the best fruit-growing districts 

 a strong tendency to make use of that technical advice which is brought to 

 them as the result of research. The method of using the recently introduced 

 lime-sulphur wash is one evidence of this. The sight of the farmer and his 

 fruit foreman using the hydrometer in the process of diluting down the con- 

 centrated wash is now not uncommon in Kent. 



While on the one hand we have the stimulating fact that in. this branch of 

 agriculture the farmer welcomes scientific guidance, we find on the other hand 

 that research has proceeded — at any rate in this country — but a little way. 

 The absence of scientic information on many points vital to efficient and 

 economic spraying is due probably to the fact that, for the elucidation of the 

 problems concerned, co-ordinated work is required of the mycologist, the 

 botanist, and the chemist. If we consider the field of work, we find that its 

 problems must be approached from three sides, concerning as they do (1) the 

 fungus, (2) the host-plant, (3) the chemical substances of the fungicide. 



The problem for the mycologist is to ascertain whether different fungi, 

 showing approximately the same structure and mode of living on or in the 

 tissues of the host-plant, show the same susceptibility to the same class- of 

 fungicide. For this purpose parasitic fungi may be divided into (i) those with 

 a superficial mycelium w'hich can be dealt with by the class of active (or direct) 

 fungicides; {ii) those with a deep-seated mycelium, some of which can be dealt 

 with by the class of potential (or preventive) fungicides; and a third division, 

 of those fungi which expose the mycelium to attack by rupturing the cuticle 

 of the leaf and which can be dealt with by the active fungicide, or the potential 

 fungicide, according to the amount of vulnerable surface exposed. 



The problem for the botanist is the investigation of the nature of the 

 susceptibility to injury from fungicides shown by many cultivated varieties 

 of plants. This susceptibility, which varies in degree and may be very marked, 

 is evident when a fungicide containing either copper or sulphur is used. Thus, 

 to mention instances, the two varieties of apple known as Cox's Orange Pippin 

 and Duchess's Favourite are so susceptible to the effects of copper that when 



