1000 



Home-Grown Sugar. 



[JAN., 



the seed, it is highly probable that bacteria would become held 

 in this substance as it dried round the seed, and on being 

 released during germination would endanger the crop. Seed 

 obtained from fruit grown in an infected area should not, 

 therefore, be used. 



2. The selection of a resistant variety should be aimed at. 



3. Sterilisation of the soil by heat should be practised where 

 an attack has occurred. 



4. Excessive nitrogen and a deficiency of potash in the 

 fertiliser should be avoided. 



5. Special care in pruning should be exercised where the 

 presence of the disease has been observed. While pruning an 

 affected plant, and especially before passing from such a plant 

 to its healthy neighbours, the pruning knife should be sterilised 

 by wiping the blade with a cloth soaked in 2 per cent, lysol or 

 some similar disinfectant. The prunings from an affected 

 plant should be carefully collected and burnt. 



6. In cases where infection has occurred on the upper part of 

 a plant, removal of the attacked stem and the development of 

 a lateral shoot will often lead to complete recovery and to a 

 clean crop of fruit. 



7. When plants in the early stages of growth are badly 

 infected, further extension of the disease can be checked by so 

 altering the conditions of heat and damping as to favour more 

 hardy development. Under such treatment plants have been 

 know to " grow out of " the disease, and to yield a crop of 

 sound fruit. 



The following Note has been commuDicated to the Ministry 

 by Mr. Alfred Wood, Secretary of the British Sugar Beet 



Growers' Society, Ltd. : — 

 ^^S^^'ar*^^ The work which th- British Sugar Beet 



Growers' Society has been conducting at 

 Kelham, near Newark, is now approaching a critical stage in 

 its history. A Company is about to be formed for the purpose 

 of carrying out at that place an experiment in sugar production 

 on commercial lines. The public are now to be asked to take 

 a part in this great work, since, owing to the recent severe re- 

 duction in their sugar allowance, they are thinking and talking 

 a great deal about the position of the country with regard to 



* See articles on cultivation of Sugar Beet in this Journal for January, 

 1 91 1, p. 793, February, 191 5, pp. 969 and 988, June, 191 5, p. 210, November, 

 1915, p. 750, and Marcli, 1916, p. 1210. 



