Wednesday,  December  8,  1909. 
317 
22.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  year,  249  enquiries  from 
Members  of  the  Society  have- been  dealt  with  by  the  Consulting 
Botanist.  The  seeds  were  of  high  quality  both  as  regards 
purity  and  germination.  A remarkable  sample  of  “ hay 
seeds  ” was  composed  of  74  per  cent,  butter  cups,  17  per  cent, 
hard  fescue  and  9 per  cent.  Yorkshire  Fog.  The  year  having 
been  exceptionally  wet  has  been  very  favourable  to  the  growth 
of  parasitic  fungi — several  cases  in  wheat  and  oats  were 
investigated,  a grass  field  was  very  badly  attacked  by  Puccinia 
Graminis,  clover  suffered  from  the  so-called  “ clover  sickness  ” 
caused  by  the  parasitic  fungus  Sclerotinia.  Apples,  plums, 
and  peaches  were  investigated  for  injury  by  different  fungi. 
Potatoes  were  badly  attacked  by  various  'species  of  fungi 
in  addition  to  the  extensive  prevalence  of  the  Phytophthora 
infestans. 
23.  The  wet  summer  greatly  favoured  certain  insect  pests, 
and  some  crops,  notably  oats,  suffered  to  an  unusual  extent. 
The  most  frequent  cause  was  frit-fly,  though  in  some  cases 
failure  was  due  to  “tulip-root.”  Various  species  of  aphis 
were  unusually  troublesome  during  the  season,  and  another 
conspicuous  pest  was“  leather-jacket.”  The  inquiries  received 
covered  a very  wide  range.  Those  relating  to  forest-tree 
pests  showed  an  increase  in  number,  due,  no  doubt,  to  the 
greater  attention  recently  directed  towards  forestry.  Many 
applications  had  reference  to  animal  parasites.  The  insects 
complained  of  as  attacking  farm  and  garden  crops  included 
some  new  pests  and  several  which  are  not  usually  regarded 
as  seriously  injurious. 
24.  The  Board  of  Agriculture  returns  show  that  an  un- 
usually large  number,  of  outbreaks  of  anthrax  have  been 
reported  since  the  beginning  of  the  year,  and  it  is  already 
certain  that  the  total  outbreaks  for  1909  will  exceed  those  of 
any  previous  year  since  the  passing  of  the  Anthrax  Order  in 
1886.  On  the  other  hand,  the  outbreaks  of  sheep  scab  and 
swine  fever  indicate  an  appreciable  decline  in  the  prevalence 
of  these  diseases.  There  has  also  been  a notable  falling  off  in 
the  outbreaks  of  glanders,  apparently  as  the  result  of  the 
operation  of  the  Glanders  and  Farcy  Order  which  came  into 
force  at  the  beginning  of  last  year. 
25.  On  the  recommendation  of  the  Veterinary  Committee, 
the  Council  passed  a resolution  in  the  following  terms  at  their 
meeting  held  on  March  3 last : “ That  the  Council  of  the 
Royal  Agricultural  Society  strongly  approve  of  the  proposal 
that  a Testing  Station  should,  with  the  approval  of  the 
Argentine  Government,  be  established  on  this  side  of  the 
water,  and  that  animals  passing  a test  at  this  station  should 
have  free  access  to  Argentina. 
