Wohurn  Experimental  Station. 
219 
of  the  various  agricultural  colleges.  It  served  a useful  purpose 
by  enabling  visitors  to  procure  at  once  all  the  college  literature 
available  upon  any  of  the  subjects  illustrated  in  the  Exhibition. 
X.  Royal  Agricultural  Society  of  England. — There  remains 
for  description  the  share  in  this  Exhibition  taken  by  the  Society 
itself.  The  Society’s  various  publications  were  on  view,  and  its 
Botanical  and  Zoological  Departments  sent  useful  exhibits. 
Mr.  William  Carruthers,  F.R.S.,  the  Society’s  Consulting 
Botanist,  had  collected  a set  of  the  weed  seeds  generally  found 
in  grass  and  clover  seeds.  These  were  arranged  in  eleven 
cases,  the  first  eight  of  which  comprised  the  weed  seeds  which 
occur  in  British  specimens  of  grasses  and  clovers,  the  ninth  and 
tenth  were  American  weeds,  and  the  eleventh  Continental 
weeds. 
Mr.  Cecil  Warburton,  M.A.,  the  Society’s  Zoologist, 
exhibited  three  cases  showing  specimens  of  injurious  insects, 
and  exam})les  of  the  injuries  done  by  each. 
From  the  Wol)urn  Experimental  Station,  which  is  under 
the  direction  of  the  Society’s  Consulting  Chemist  (Dr. 
J.  Augustus  Voelcker,  M.A.,  F.I.C.),  came  plans  of  the 
experimental  fields,  setting  out  the  present  cropping,  and 
diagrams  showing  the  average  yields  of  the  principal  experi- 
mental crops  over  a period  of  twenty  years.  The  main 
])ortion  of  the  exhibit  consisted,  however,  of  contributions  from 
the  Pot-culture  Station,  which  formed  a continual  source  of 
interest  throughout  the  Show.  The  point  of  chief  interest  was 
the  demonstration  of  the  exhaustion  of  land,  naturally  poor  in 
lime,  by  the  continued  use  of  nitrogenous  top-dressings,  which 
produced  a state  of  acidity  and  unhealthiness  in  the  soil,  and 
caused  removal  of  lime,  &c.,  in  the  drainage  water  ; also  the 
remarkable  restoration  of  the  cropping  power  of  the  soil  by  the 
single  a])plication  of  2 tons  of  lime  to  the  acre,  the  effects  of 
which  have  not  been  exhausted  though  seven  years  have  since 
elapsed.  The  growth  of  barley  on  this  soil,  with  and  without 
lime,  at  the  present  time,  was  illustrated  by  specimens  in  pots, 
the  crop,  where  lime  was  absent,  consisting  of  a few  starved 
stalks  of  barley  with  a luxuriant  mass  of  s])urry — a weed 
that  thrives  on  sour  land — whereas  where  lime  was  applied 
this  weed  was  absent,  and  the  barley  was  doing  well.  The 
effect  on  the  roots  of  the  barley  and  wheat  j)lants  was  also 
illustrated. 
Of  greatest  interest,  perha})s,  as  being  the  outcome  of  most 
recent  inquiry,  was  the  exhibit  of  the  mechanical  effect  produced 
