1907.] 



Miscellaneous Notes. 



437 



did best of all and yielded a good crop in a very large district. The quality of the 

 grain generally is better than was expected and even the winter crops recovered largely 

 from the unfavourable weather which prevailed in the early part of the year. 



Lights on Vehicles Act, 1907. — The Lights on Vehicles Act, 1907, requires that 

 any vehicle on a public highway between one hour after sunset and one hour before 

 sunrise shall be provided with a lighted lamp or lamps in 

 Miscellaneous Notes, proper working order, so constructed and attached as to 

 display to the front a white light visible for a reasonable 

 distance. If only one lamp is provided, it shall be placed on the off or right side of 

 the vehicle, and, if the lamp or lamps are so constructed as to permit a light to be 

 seen from the rear, that light shall be red. If the vehicle is used for carrying timber 

 or any load projecting more than six feet to the rear, a lighted lamp or lamps shall 

 be carried so as to display to the rear a red light visible for a reasonable distance. 

 Section 4 provides that the council of any county may, by order, exempt from the 

 operation of the Act vehicles carrying in the course of harvesting operations any 

 farm produce to stack or barn during such months or periods in the year as may be 

 specified in the Order, and any such Orders may be made either to take effect 

 throughout the whole county or to take effect in part only of the county. The Act 

 comes into force on 1st January, 1908. 



International Seed-Testing Conference. — The report of the 1st International Con- 

 ference on Seed-Testing, which was held at Hamburg from io-i4th September, 

 1906, has now been published. Reports were made by Dr. Stebler, of the Zurich 

 Seed-Control Station, on the means of ascertaining the origin of seeds ; by Professor 

 Rodewalde, of Kiel, on estimating the purity of seeds ; and by Dr. A. von Degen, 

 of Budapest, on the question of clover dodder, while other speakers addressed the 

 Conference on various subjects of interest in connection with seed control. 



Dr. Stebler quoted a case of a clover sample badly infested with weed seeds, 

 550 grams weight of the sample containing, amongst other weed seeds, no less than 

 4,500 seeds of Plantago lanceolata, 2,240 seeds of Daucus carota, 1,140 seeds of 

 Cichoruim intybns, and 15 1 seeds of Cuscuta trifolii (clover dodder). From its 

 contents it was decided that this sample had been derived from central France. 



Considerable attention was directed to dodder and a resolution was passed to the 

 effect that the representatives of the various stations there assembled should urge their 

 governments to submit proposals for the extermination of dodder, and that the stations 

 should collect and publish the existing enactments on the subject. 



Association in Denmark for the Prevention of Tnberctclosis. — An agricultural 

 association, called the Tuberculin Association, has been started, the aim of which is to 

 increase the interest in the acquisition and maintenance of herds of cattle and swine 

 free of tuberculosis. In September, 1906, the association had 105 members, owning 

 2,300 cows. To be a member it is necessary that the farmer should have his live 

 stock tested with tuberculin, and that this live stock should be found sound, or partly 

 sound. In the latter case, it is required by the association that the sick animals 

 should be effectively isolated from the sound, in the manner prescribed by the society. 

 A member of the association is chosen as president for a year, and it is incumbent upon 

 him to keep an account of sound animals which have been bought or sold, and he 

 gives advice to members who wish to buy or sell their animals. — F.O. Report, 

 Annual Series, No. 3862. 



Extermination of Rats in Denmark. — A law relating to the extermination of rats 

 has been passed, and the Danish Government has allocated the sum of ,£4,276, to be 

 used during three years for this purpose. It is, however, on condition that an organi- 

 zation, which has already been formed for the extermination of rats, shall spend an 

 amount of £1,666 during the three years for the same purpose. This Bill was before 

 the Rigsdag several years ago, and at that time it was proposed that the mone 



