i9i i.] Summary of Agricultural Experiments. 245 



very successful at Woburn in 1908, 99 per cent, of the Psylla being 

 killed in the case of ten dwarf apple trees sprayed on May 17th, when 

 the blossom buds were just open. The wash does not appear to be 

 injurious to bees. 



The lime-and-salt wash should be applied in the middle of March 

 or even later. Theobald* recommends its application between the time 

 of the opening of the buds and about two weeks beforehand. The action 

 of the wash is described as forming a coating over the egg- and so 

 preventing the breaking of the shell and the escape of the young insect. 

 Trees that have not borne fruit for several years have yielded after the 

 use of this wash. 



Sclerotica Disease of the Mangold. — The Board have received an 

 interesting note on the Sclerotinia disease of the mangold from Mr. 

 Milburn, Ph.D., Secretary of Agriculture for the Education Department 

 of the Lancashire County Council. This disease was referred to in this 

 Journal, April, 191 1, p. 45, as having been identified by Mr. Salmon, at 

 the South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye. 



Mr. Milburn states that he first noticed the disease at Normanton 

 Grange, Loughborough, in 1906. Several loads of mangolds lay in 

 the farmyard, and almost every bulb had the black, button-like sclero- 

 tia on it ; in fact, so numerous were they that the whole heap had a 

 blackened appearance. Some were in the last stages of decay, but 

 the bulk of them had one or two sclerotia in little "pits," or hollows, 

 caused by the pecking of pheasants or the biting of slugs, while grow- 

 ing, round the bulb at the soil level. There was in these cases a 

 blackening of the tissues in the immediate neighbourhood of the "pit." 

 The matter was recorded in two occasions in the annual report of the 

 Midland Agricultural College, and a specimen piece of mangold with 

 the sclerotia in the "pits" is preserved at the College in spirit. 



Mr. Milburn is of opinion that the disease is far more prevalent 

 than is generally thought. In the mangolds of the Midland Agricul- 

 tural College it has been observed annually ; in fact, on close examina- 

 tion, few clamps are found entirely free. In view of the damage done 

 by the above fungus, the practice of loading mangolds into carts by 

 means of a fork, which breaks the skin and gives easy access to the 

 fungus, is strongly to be deprecated. 



Swedes, too, suffer from this disease, but not to the same extent as 

 mangolds. 



Use of Carbon Bisulphide as a Remedy for Eelworm (Bulletin of 

 Miscellaneous Information, Kew, No. 3, 191 1).— With a view to testing 

 the accuracy of the statement that eelworm is killed by carbon bisulphide,^ 

 as well as to ascertain the action of this substance on plants, some 

 experiments have been carried out at Kew on plants in pots. In every 

 experiment the carbon bisulphide was introduced into the soil through 

 the drainage hole at the bottom of the pot by pouring it on the " crocks " 

 so that it did not come in contact with the root of the plant in liquid 

 lorm. 



A Begonia, the roots of which were infested with a parasitic worm, 

 Fridericia bisetosa, Levinson, was so treated with one dram of carbon 



* Report on Economic Zoology, 1907. See also Journa/, vol. xviii, April, 191 1, 

 p. 48. 



