696 



Miscellaneous Notes. 



[FEB, 



laburnum tree, Cytisus Laburnum, are poisonous, the seeds being especially so. 

 Cases of such poisoning, however, are probably not of such frequent occurrence in 

 cattle as in children.. The symptoms attendant on laburnum poisoning in cattle are 

 trembling, disinclination to move, partial paralysis of the limbs, tympany, and 

 salivation. 



Two Cruciferous Weeds. — During September the Board received from Wolver- 

 hampton specimens cf two cruciferous weeds resembling white Charlock 

 {Raphanus raphanistrum L.). They were identified as Raphanus microcaipus, 

 Willk, and R. sativus, L., var. oleifer, DC. The former is not very common in 

 this country, while the latter is a rare casual. As they were growing freely amongst 

 corn, the weeds were sprayed early with strong, pure copper sulphate solution, which, 

 however, had no effect on them whatever. They are not likely to prove very 

 troublesome, but where they come up thickly the hoe should be freely used in a 

 root crop, while in corn crops they should be hoed, or " topped" with a scythe when 

 the plants are flowering. Some plants are very bulky, consisting of as many as 

 twenty stems, while they are from 2 ft. to 3 ft. high. The introduction of a potato 

 crop into the rotation two or three years after a root crop often clears land of 

 Charlock, and this plan might be tried with the species under consideration. 

 Seeding should be prevented, even if hand-pulling must be resorted to, while any 

 grain sown should be entirely free from the seeds. • 



The Fruit Fly. — The Kew Bulletin (No. 1, 1908) contains an account of this 

 insect {Ceratilis capitata) in the course of which reference is made to the discovery in 

 Western Australia of the value of pure kerosene as means of destroying these flies. 

 The kerosene is placed in shallow vessels in the orchard and appears to attract the 

 insects; in one instance no less than 1,268 flics were destroyed in this way in 24 

 hours. Since the oil only kills the adult flies, it would still be necessary to collect 

 and destroy fallen infected fruit, so as to kill the maggots, but it is thought that by 

 these two methods of attack the fruit-fly pest may be kept in check. 



Supply of Phosphates. — The imports of phosphate of lime and rock phosphate in 

 1907 exceeded for the first time half-a-million tons, whereas the average receipts in 

 the preceding five years were 408,000 tons, while in the five years 1897-1901 they 

 were only 357,000 tons. The average value seems to have also slightly increased 

 from 30s. per ton in 1897 to 32s. 6d. in 1907. The exports of superphosphate cannot 

 be stated as they are not separately distinguished in the Trade Returns. 



The principal sources of supply are the United States, Tunis, Algeria, France and 

 Belgium. A writer in the fournal d"* Agriculture pratique (17th October, 1907) esti- 

 mates the total production of phosphate in the world as follow : — 



Mr. Consul-General Berkeley in his report to the Foreign Office on Tunis 

 (Annual Series, No. 3883), gives the estimated production in 1906 at 4,500,000 tons, 

 as compared with 3,300,000 tons in 1903, and 2,600,000 tons in 1896. In the con- 

 version of this raw mineral phosphate into superphosphates the weight is increased by 

 wme 85 per cent. , so that the gross production of the latter fertiliser would seem 

 to amount to over 7,000,000 tons. 



Florida, Tennessee and Carolina 

 Algeria and Tunis 

 Christmas' Island, &c. ... 

 France, Belgium, &c. ... 



Tons of 2,204 lb. 

 2,000,000 



1,000,000 

 250,000 

 750,000 



4,000,000 



