488 



Rot in Turnips. 



[NOV., 



the load from the collector, and so save the pitching into 

 the elevator. But even the hay-prong requires a strong lad or 

 a man to work it, and when the load is dropped on to the rick it 

 still has to be pulled to pieces in order to build the rick up 

 properly. When the collector was worked in a grass field it 

 cleared more ground, a higher load collecting on the teeth, and 

 the grass did not coil up so much as the clover. 



The collector is heavy pulling for the horses when loaded, and 

 requires as much or more horse-power than a mowing machine. 

 When it arrives at the rick the collector is backed by the horses 

 and the teeth slide out under the load. 



The arrangement for backing was not found very satisfactory 

 in the English machine. In the illustration of the American 

 machine (Fig. 2) it will be seen that breeching is used on the 

 horses, and that a strap passes from the breeching under the 

 horse to the head of the pole, and the pole chain is only used 

 to keep the horse in its place. Another objection which might, 

 however, be overcome by a mechanical alteration, is that it 

 requires two men to pack it up when moved from field to field. 



On the whole, however, it was considered that in fields of 

 ten acres or over which were fairly level the collector did its 

 work well. With a boy on the collector, a man on the ground 

 at the rick, and a man and boy on the rick, more hay was got 

 together in the same time than by two men and two boys with 

 waggons. The writer suggests, however, that by a combination 

 of the American raiser and English elevator, the services of the 

 man at the foot of the stack might be dispensed with, as at hay- 

 making time it is not merely a question of wages but of being 

 able to get the hay rapidly together when it is made before rain 

 comes to spoil it. 



Some diseased turnips were recently forwarded to the Board 



for examination from Roxburgh, and they were found to be 



_ v . _ . attacked by a minute fungus, Sphaerella 

 Rot m Turnips. . / . ' * / , 



tabifica, otherwise known as Beetroot and 



Mangold Rot. The disease is described as follows in Massee's 



" Text-Book of Plant Diseases " : — About the month of August 



the largest leaves droop to the ground, as is frequently the case 



