NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



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NOTES AND ABSTEACTS. 



Alkali Lands, The Reclamation of Seeped and. By 0. F. 



Brown and E. A. Hart (U.S. A, Exp. Stn., Utah, Bull. Ill; Bee. 

 1910; 5 figs., 2 plates). — Large tracts of land in Utah and Western 

 Colorado which at one time yielded good crops are now worthless so 

 far as production is concerned, the surface being often covered with 

 deposits of alkali and so soft in places that men and animals cannot 

 cross it, and it is easy to push a two-inch auger fifteen feet into the 

 ground (p. 80). This state of things has been mainly brought about 

 by the loss of water from the supply canals constructed for irrigation 

 purposes, the soil becoming first water-logged and then incrusted 

 with the alkali as the result of evaporation. This bulletin describes 

 the carrying out of an experiment between 1906 and 1910 in the recla- 

 mation of a farm of forty acres which was in such a bad state that it 

 was generally regarded as irreclaimable. The method adopted was 

 drainage followed by liberal irrigation and vigorous cultivation, and 

 during this period it was estimated that three thousand tons of harmful 

 salts were removed. As a result, three-fourths of the area was pro- 

 ductive by the end of the period dealt with, and much of the remainder 

 was also giving returns (p. 86). — A. P. 



Amara avida (Say) as a Strawberry Pest. Bv J. B. Smith, 

 Sc.D. (Jour. Econ. Entom., vol. iii., pt. i. ; pp. 97-99; Feb. 1910; figs.). 

 — This ground beetle has not previously been recorded as a pest of straw- 

 berries, but in 1909 it proved very destructive in New Jersey, eating the 

 fruits (" seeds ") of the strawberries, and in doing so damaging the 

 flesh so as to render them unsaleable. Several allied species are well 

 known strawberry pests, but in the present case the author considers 

 the trouble was due, in the main, to the destruction of the normal food 

 of the insect bv ploughing-in rough grass land just before the ripening 

 of the fruit.— ii". J. C. 



Androcymbium melanthioides. By W. I. (Gard., Jan. 28, 

 1911, p. 41; fig.). — This rare member of the Lily family, which 

 is native through central Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and 

 Ehodesia to Nyasaland, was in cultivation in 1823, but has since 

 been lost, until its recent introduction by Mr. W. E. Gumbleton. 

 Large bracts form the attractive feature of the plant ; the bulb is 

 like that of a very small tulip, from which a slender stem is developed. 

 The lower leaves are long and narrow, the upper decreasing in length. 

 At the top of the stem are several broad bracts, the upper ones quite 

 white, with green veins, sometimes 3^ inches long by 2 inches wide. 

 These form an involucre for the bunches of small flowers which 



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