956 



Miscellaneous Notes. 



[FEB., 



international commission formed of members chosen by the adhering 

 States. It was suggested in the first place that a report should be 

 prepared drawing the attention of the different Governments to the 

 necessity for the formation of an international commission of vegetable 

 pathology. The committee further recommended that the General 

 Assembly should ask the adhering Governments to invite their stations 

 of vegetable pathology to communicate to the Institute without delay 

 the results of their work and investigations, above all of those dealing 

 with the efficacy of remedies for plant diseases, with a view to their 

 publication in the monthly bulletin of the Institute. 



Visitors to Kew Gardens during 1911. — The number of visitors to 

 the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, during the year 191 1 was 3,704,606. 

 These figures represent an increase of 158,304 persons over the year 

 1910, when there were 3,546,302 visitors, and are the highest yet 

 recorded. 



The steady annual growth in the number of visitors during the past 

 twenty years witnesses to the ever-increasing popularity of Kew 

 Gardens. 



Year. 



Sundays. 



Week-days. 



Total. 



1 893-1 902 (average) 







1,352,425 



I903 



568,726 



783,822 



1,352,548 



I904 



675.225 



904,441 



1,579,666 



I905 



853,631 



970,688 



1,824,319 



1906 



867,148 



1,472,344 



2,339,492 



1907 



1,268,501 



1,694,213 



2,962,714 



1908 



1,321,384 



1,388,836 



2,710,220 



I909 



1,384,369 



1,975,852 



3,360,221 



1910 ... ... 



1,614,085 



1,932,217 



3,546,3C2 



191 1 



1,517,650 



2,186,956 



3,704,606 



The month in which the largest number of persons visited the 

 Gardens was July, when 737,946 visitors were recorded. There were 

 157,425 visitors on June 5th, 191 1. 



Inferiority of Wool owing to Presence of Coloured Hairs. — At the 



annual meeting of the British Association of Wool Buyers in 191 1 a 

 complaint was made that in recent years much wool had to be classed 

 as of inferior quality owing to the presence in the wool of hairs other 

 than white. It was stated that wool buyers had found that farmers 

 had been crossing breeds so much that even in the most unlikely 

 districts grey hairs were present in the wool, and that, in consequence, 

 the wool was unsuitable for the more valuable yarns, and could not 

 be purchased. It was often found, for example, that farmers in the 

 north of England crossed their North or Cheviot ewes with an Oxford 

 ram. Other causes of inferior quality referred to were the use of a 

 dip that discoloured the wool, and the employment of tar for branding 

 sheep. 



World's Production and Consumption of Wool. — The following in- 

 formation regarding the production and consumption of wool is 

 extracted from the report by the President of the French Permanent 

 Customs Values Commission on the foreign trade of France in 19 10 : — 



The number of sheep in Europe is steadily decreasing; the increase 

 in the yield of wool per sheep has up to the present kept the output of 



