598 Manufacture of Nitrate of Lime. [Jan., 



becomes covered with the fruit of the fungus. Such fruit 

 furnishes the spores that infect a crop in the first instance. 



When diseased roots are left on the land the same thing- 

 happens. If the disease appears, as indicated by the symptoms 

 described, it is best to lift the crop at once before the fungus 

 passes from the leaves to the root. 



Diseased leaves and roots should be gathered and burned or 

 deeply buried, and not thrown on the manure heap nor left on 

 the land. 



Yellow varieties of mangold are more susceptible to the 

 disease than red ones, as proved by infection experiments. 



The Board have received through the Foreign Office a dis- 

 patch from the British Consul-General at Christiania (Mr. Edward 

 F. Gray), stating that a Norwegian corn- 

 New Process pany has been formed there, under the 



iw„ * name of " Norsk hydro-elektrisk Kraelsto- 



Manufacture of y 

 Nitrate of Lime, faktieselskab," to develop the Norwegian 



patents of Professor Birkeland, of the Uni- 

 versity of Christiania, and Mr. S. Eyde, a Norwegian civil 

 engineer, for the production of nitrogen through the oxydi- 

 sation of air by means of their hydro-electric process, and for 

 the manufacture of nitrate of lime for agricultural and other 

 purposes. 



According to the terms of the company's prospectus, the 

 capital amounts to £388,920, of which £222,240 is in 8 per 

 cent, preference shares, and the rest in ordinary shares. The 

 Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas is understood to be largely 

 interested in the undertaking, as well as Swedish capital. 



The company has secured water-power of about 29,000 

 horse-power at the Svaelgfos waterfall, near Notodden, where 

 the present saltpetre factory is situated, as well as the right 

 to purchase other falls, including the well-known Rjukanfos 

 of about 220,000 horse-power. The inventors claim for their 

 process greater efficiency and economy than can be obtained 

 by the more complicated system of Lovejoy and Bradley at 

 Niagara, and also superiority over other known processes for 

 the fixation of nitrogen from the air, such as that of the 



