520 



Finger and Toe Disease. 



The fruit is ripe in September, and when gathered requires to 

 be seasoned by ventilation and exposure to the sun's rays. 

 An excellent crop was secured in the past year, and shipped 

 in time to reach England before the Christmas holidays, when 

 the demand is greatest. The principal seat of export is from 

 the little roadstead of Piano di Sorrento. 



[Foreign Office Report, Annual Series. No. 2,204. Price 2d.] 



From an account of results obtained upon the experimental 

 plots arranged by the Congested Dis- 



^rT^^mse^L. tri<=t« Board, Ireland, to test the 



efficacy of lime as a preventive of 

 "finger and toe" in turnips, it appears that although the 

 plots failed in some cases to afford reliable information, yet 

 on the majority of the plots the application of lime to the 

 land during the winter proved distinctly efficacious in miti- 

 gating this disease, which is so bad in several parts of the 

 congested districts that many of the occupiers have given up 

 the culture of turnips, believing that the prospects of obtain- 

 ing a paying crop are too precarious. The " finger and toe " 

 trials have been continued on other holdings during the 

 present year, and it is believed that the lesson which they 

 will convey will induce many of the more enlightened farmers 

 residing in the districts in which the plots are situated to 

 adopt the practice of liming. It is regretted that the cost of 

 obtaining lime is usually so great in the districts in which 

 " finger and toe " prevails that it deters farmers from apply- 

 ing it to the land. 



A report issued by the Labour Department of the Board of 



Trade on Trade Unions [c. — 9013] 

 Unions of Agricul- ^. , ^ • 



tural Labourers. §"1^^^ ^^^^ particulars as to the unions 



of agricultural labourers in existence in 

 the years 1892-1897. During these six years there have been 



