3? 



The most certain means of destroying the parasite present in 

 the soil would be the application of gas-lime. This should be 

 spread over the surface and allowed to remain for a month, 

 after which it should be lightly mixed with the soil, but not 

 buried deeply. Diseased potatoes should not be used for planting, 

 and diseased portions that are cutoff should not be thrown away, 

 but should be burned, as the fungus reproduces itself very rapidly 

 on such diseased scraps, and the spores are spread widely by 

 wind, &c. 



It is quite probable that the fungus can attack other root 

 crops — carrots, parsnips, &c. Experiments on this point will be 

 carried out at Kew. 



At the request of the Board of Agriculture, Mr. R. B. Greig, 



of the Aberdeen and North of Scotland College of Agriculture, 



arranged during the past year to carry 



Experiments in G ut experiments with a view of discovering 

 the Prevention ^ , r . . . r , r 



of Turnip Fly a metn °d °f preventing the attack of the 



turnip fly. 



In Aberdeenshire and the North of Scotland generally there 

 was no attack of turnip fly in 1904, but as freedom from attack 

 could not be anticipated, arrangements were made for the 

 following trials of preventive methods: — (1) The seed was 

 steeped in paraffin and dried before sowing ; (2) the seed 

 was steeped in turpentine and dried before sowing ; (3) sand 

 or sawdust damped with paraffin was strewn along the surface 

 of the drills before the turnips were quite through the ground ; 

 and (4) the surface of the drill was sprayed with paraffin when 

 the turnips were coming through the ground. 



Returns were sent in from fifteen farms where these methods 

 were tried. The " fly " did not appear, but some secondary 

 results of the steeping are interesting. 



In several cases steeping the seed in paraffin or turpentine 

 produced an earlier and more vigorous growth, which lasted 

 several weeks. One farmer, on whose turnips the steeping had 

 a marked effect, though no "fly" appeared, stated that he 

 weighed the turnips from the drills sown with seed steeped 



