704 



Miscellaneous Notes. 



[dec, 



rseveral districts it was more than met by the supply. Employment was generally 

 regular for all classes of labour in Dorset. Raising roots, threshing, and trimming 

 hedges provided a fair amount of employment in Somerset. Employment was 

 generally regular in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, and the supply of labour about 

 equal to the demand ; some shortage, however, of men for permanent situations was 

 reported in certain districts. 



Employment was fairly plentiful and regular in Devon and Cornwall, but day 

 labourers were somewhat affected towards the end of the month, as work on the 

 potato and mangel crops come to an end. A scarcity of men for permanent situations 

 •was reported from several districts. 



Hedgehogs. — The hedgehog is in general regarded as an insectivorous mammal, 

 .although besides beetles and their larvae, snails, worms, &c, it takes snakes, mice, 

 lizards, voles and frogs. Its liking for insects is well 

 MiSCellanSOUS known, and it is frequently kept in houses for the 



jn-Q^gg purpose of clearing off cockroaches or " black beetles." 



Hedgehogs occasionally take the eggs of both game 

 and poultry, and have been known to eat young 

 -chickens. Hens in coops are, it is stated, sometimes liable to be worried by them. 



The statement that the hedgehog takes the milk of cows that are lying down is 

 unfounded in fact. It is an old fallacy which was exposed in " The New Catalogue 

 of Vulgar Errors," published 120 years ago by Stephen Fovargue, M.A. 



Gilbert White wrote that at Selborne, hedgehogs were good at destroying plantains, 

 but this has been contradicted by " Rusticus," who stated, on the authority of 

 Harting, that the destruction of plantains was the work of a night-feeding caterpillar, 

 which ate the root but left the leaves. 



Wart Disease or Black Scab of Potatoes in Germany. — The Plant Cultivation 

 Institute of the Bonn-Poppelsdorf Agricultural College has drawn attention 

 (Deutsche Land. Presse, 30th September, 1908) to the occurrence of Warty Disease in 

 potatoes, a disease which had previously very rarely been observed in Germany. It 

 is reported that whole fields of potatoes in the neighbourhood of Cronenberg, near 

 Dusseldorf, are attacked to such an extent that the crop has been completely 

 destroyed. The grounds chiefly attacked are those belonging to small cultivators, 

 on which potatoes are repeatedly cultivated and to which ashes, dust and night soil 

 are applied as manure. Early potatoes are said to be especially liable. Further 

 information is supplied by Herr Josting, Director of the Winter School at Vohwinkel, 

 from which it appears that the disease also exists at Hahnerberg, Elberfeid, but only 

 on soils where potatoes have been regularly grown, year in and year out. The disease 

 ^appears to have existed at one place for about five years and gradually to have spread. 

 It has not appeared on farms and gardens where there is a rotation of crops. 



Basic Slag. — The Irish Department of Agriculture has issued a Circular to 

 farmers as to the purchase of basic slag in which it is observed that there is nothing 

 in the appearance of basic slag which will give the slightest indication of its 

 value. That depends on three things and three only. These are (1) the total 

 percentage of phosphate of lime ; (2) the percentage of that phosphate of lime 

 which is soluble in a 2 per cent, solution of citric acid; and (3) the fineness of 

 grinding. When asking for quotations, farmers should see that they are supplied with 

 figures referring to each of these points, and when giving their orders thev should 

 insist on getting an invoice on v. hich these figures are clearly stated as a guarantee. 

 No slag should be used in which less than 80 per cent, of the phosphates are soluble, 

 or which shows less than 80 per cent, of fineness. Farmers are warned not to be 

 misled by plausible statements as to other constituents in slag, and not to accept low- 

 grade slag or slags of low solubility, which, although they may be offered at a lower 

 price, are, nevertheless, considerably dearer than high-grade slags and slags of high 

 solubility. 



