clxxx Monthly Council, November 1, 1893. 
the Editor as to the contents of the 
next number. 
Inspection of Farms. 
Earl Cathcakt said they were 
very much indebted to Mr. Bowen- 
Jones for having acted as the Society’s 
Commissioner in the inspection of 
the farms in Cheshire and North 
Wales, and for his admirable report 
thereon in the Journal. This was 
the first of the new series of Farm 
Reports, and it was a great thing to 
have had that series inaugurated by 
so able a man as Mr. Bowen-Jones. 
Books for the Library. 
Earl Cathcart added that it was 
very much to be hoped that if mem- 
bers, in going through their libraries, 
should find old books bearing upon 
agricultural history and practice, they 
would be so good as to remember the 
new house, where the Society would 
have room for them on its shelves. 
Chemical. 
Mr. Warren reported that the 
Committee, having considered the 
provisions of the Fertilisers and 
Feeding Stuffs Act, passed in the 
present Session of Parliament, con- 
sidered it very desirable that the 
work of the Chemical Committee and 
of Dr. Voelcker’s position as Consult- 
ing Chemist should be reconsidered, 
and the Committee proposed to re- 
port more fully on the whole subject 
to the December or February Council. 
In the meantime the Committee 
were of opinion that Dr. Voelcker 
should be free to accept such duties 
under the new Act as might seem 
convenient to him. In the Woburn 
Sub-Committee, the feeding experi- 
ments with bullocks and sheep, as 
proposed to be carried out, had been 
approved, the chief point being to 
test how straw chaff could best be 
used with different mixtures. It was 
decided that the experiments in green 
manuring should be repeated. 
Seeds and Plant Diseases. 
Mr. Whitehead (Chairman) re- 
ported that the Committee had con- 
sidered the question of prizes for 
grain and mustard seed at the Cam- 
bridge Meeting of 1894, which was 
referred to them by the Council at 
their last meeting, and the Commit- 
tee had drawn up a schedule of 
such prizes for consideration. Dr. 
Voelcker had submitted the following 
preliminary report upon the replies 
received to the Society’s circular 
letter of inquiry into the disease of 
anbury, or “ finger-and-toe,’’ in tur- 
nips, and upon the investigations 
which he had made in regard there- 
to : — 
PRELIMINARY REPORT tJPOX INQUIRY INTO 
ANBURY, OR “ FINGER-AND-TOE,” IN TURNIPS. 
In all 194 replies liave been received from 
forty-one different counties, the largest 
numbers being twenty-six from Yorkshire, 
fifteen from Northamptonshire, and thirteen 
from Shropshire. A number of the replies give 
information of no definite character, and it 
is in a comparatively few cases that the 
simultaneous occurrence on the same farm 
of a field affected always by anbury, and one 
not liable to the disease, has been recorded. 
The general opinion is in favour of the 
disease being most prevalent in dry seasons, 
though some hold the reverse opinion, and 
others maintain that season has nothing to 
do with it. Of all the cures which have 
been tried the best results are attributed 
to lime, chalk, marl, or gas-lime. But while 
some regard these as positive cures, a not 
inconsiderable number report that they have 
tried them all without any success ; others 
that lime at best alleviates, but does not cure 
the disease. While in Lincolnshire generally 
lime is regarded as a cure, there are parts of 
Northamptonshire where the universal reply 
is that it is often of no use, but that much 
depends on the kind of soil, and that -where 
the lias comes, “ finger-and-toe ” never 
appears, while where there is no lias even 
lime will not effect a cure. Of other 
remedies, the only other one in at all general 
use is salt. Apart from special applications, 
the best way of preventing the recurrence 
of disease is stated very generally to be to 
avoid the growing of turnip crops at too 
short intervals between one another. Other 
suggestions are— to avoid tailing the crop 
on the ground, and to avoid the use of acid 
superphosphates, while in some cases the 
application of strong nitrogenous top-dress- 
ings to push the crop on has been found 
useful. Throughout Cheshire the disease 
seems hardly known, and in Northumber- 
land it is considered that a dressing of six 
to seven tons of lime per acre will keep off 
“finger-and-toe” absolutely for from fifteen 
to twenty years or more, according to the 
nature of the land. 
(Signed) J. Augustus Voelcker. 
The inquiry was still proceeding, and 
the results, when completed, would 
be published in the Society’s Jour- 
nal. Mr. Carruthers had obtained 
a quantity of spores of the plasmo- 
diophora with which to carry out 
