'22 insecticidp:s, fungicides, and weed killers. 



cantons, bureaux of gratuitous information opened, enabling interested 

 parties to know the disease which i-avages their fields, and how to 

 prevent it, or combat it, in the most economical conditions. These 

 syndicates are cantonal or communal ; their bye-laws must have pre- 

 fectoral sanction ; their budget consists of the subscription of adher- 

 ents, individual subscriptions, communal, and Government grants. 

 The Council of Administration places the instruments, the insecticides, 

 and the anticryptogamic products at the disposal of those interested ; it 

 publishes the right times to use preventive or curative processes, and 

 gives the detail of the methods to follow ; it directs itself at propitious 

 seasons all the operations tending to the destruction of parasites, 

 and to restore the fertility of the fields through the intermediary of an 

 executive committee which has the direction and the responsibility of 

 operations. Societies have been formed against the " Apple-blossom 

 Weevil," against the may-bug (cockchafer, Hanneton). The annual 

 results obtained by some may-bug societies in a year are as follows : — 



Seine et Marne . destroved 282,500 kilogrammes.' 



. Brie Comte Eobert „ ^ 101,000 



Aisne ... „ 13 thousand million cockchafers. 



Bernay dans Eure ,, 148,500 kilogrammes. 



These figures are eloquent. However, if they show the useful inter- 

 vention of the syndicates established for the destruction of injurious 

 insects, they enable us to foresee the results that these syndicates would 

 be capable of obtaining if their programme was a broader one, and 

 comprised all which concerns vegetable pathogenesis, prophylaxy, and 

 therapeutics. Common action organized in this way under wise 

 direction will be a perfect method to combat agricultural pests and 

 blights so long as no medical specialists for cultivated plants, with the 

 same rank as veterinary surgeons, exist. But there is much ground 

 to be traversed before getting so far as that ; the science which should 

 guide these medical specialists is only in its infancy, and the most 

 important problems are still to be solved. It is, however, necessary to 

 reach this goal so that this younger sister of medicine applied by 

 special practitioners may render inestimable services to cultivation 

 and increase the prosperity of the country. 



' Note by Tra^islator. — From the peculiar style of numeration of French 

 writers it is impossible to say whether 282,500 means 282^ kg. or 282,500 kg., that 

 is 282^ metric tons, which seems impossible. Yet even in this country so great 

 were the ravages of Bomhijx chrijfiorrhea in 1782 that pi'ayers were offered up 

 in some churches for deliverance from the scourge and Is. per bushel was offered 

 for the webs, and so abundant were they in Clapham parish that 80 bushels were 

 collected in one day in that parish alone ! 



* Note by Translator (p. 17). — The tendency of present-day authorities is as 

 regards evolution of rust of wheat to discard the theory of an intermediate host 

 (barberry) in favour of Eriksson's theory of hereditary infection. 



