742 Poisoning of Cattle by "Java" Beans, [march, 



In 1904 the cultivation of lucerne and clover in France was 



much affected by the prevalence of dodder, particularly in a 



number of the Southern Departments. The 



Regulations for Minister for Agriculture addressed a cir- 

 the Prevention of , . ■ ' u A ■ , ~ L , 



Dodder cular letter, dated 14th October, 1904, to 



in France. the Prefets of Departments in which it 

 was mentioned that, although it was not 

 difficult for seed merchants to remove by careful cleaning the 

 native clover dodder from the seeds of clover and lucerne, the 

 fact remained that at least one-half of the clover and lucerne 

 seed sold in France still contained dodder. Moreover, a new 

 danger had arisen from the importation of several species of 

 American dodder with seeds of American origin, particularly 

 the variety known as Cuscuta gronovii, Willd. These American 

 dodders appeared to thrive in France at least as well as the 

 native dodder, while, owing to the size of their seeds, the 

 cleaning was rendered much more difficult, the most perfect 

 machines failing to remove the dodder completely even at the 

 cost of considerable waste. In these circumstances it was con- 

 sidered desirable to take some organised action against the 

 spread of the parasite, and the Prefets were invited to take 

 advantage of a law of 24th December, 1888, under which they 

 are authorised to prescribe measures against insects, fungi, &c, 

 injurious to agriculture. The method suggested was that 

 farmers should be required to undertake the destruction of 

 dodder wherever it appeared on their farms by digging under 

 and burying the crop attacked, and, after thoroughly turning 

 and breaking up the land, sowing some gramineous crop on which 

 dodder is unable to live : for example, after clover, Italian rye- 

 grass or oats. If, however, the dodder had already commenced 

 to form seed, the crop attacked was to be gathered, cutting it as 

 low down as possible, and then burnt. Regulations in this sense 

 have accordingly been made in various Departments of France. 



Several cases of poisoning among cattle occurred in Scotland 

 towards the end of last year, the cause of which was not at 



Poisoning" of first very readily identined > though sus- 

 Cattle by picion rested on the pea or bean meal with 

 "Java" Beans, which the animals had been fed. On the 

 attention of the Board being directed to the matter, the sug- 



