666 
Facts and Observations, 
Appointment of a Botanist and Entomologist to 
the Royal Agricultural Society. — The Royal Agri- 
cultural Society has just appointed Mr. Carruthers, F.R.S., 
the Superintendent of the Botanical Department of the 
British Museum, 66 Consulting Botanist to the Society/'’ It 
is also reported that the Society has in contemplation the 
appointment of an entomologist, whose duties will essentially 
consist in inquiring into the diseases of plants due to, or 
associated with, the development of insects. 
These are important appointments, and calculated to lead 
to good results in practical farming. 
Remarkable Mushrooms, and the Potato Disease. 
— The somewhat unusually wet month of July unfortunately 
laid the foundation for the further spread of the potato 
disease, and it is much to be feared that very serious losses 
of this indispensable esculent will consequently follow, both 
in Great Britain and Ireland. 
The same stormy month produced a remarkable growth of 
mushrooms, many of which attained a size very rarely seen. 
One of these fungi is said to have been gathered at Fenton- 
by-Newark, Lincolnshire, which measured fifty-four inches 
in circumference, and weighed no less than four and a half 
pounds. The Chamber of Agriculture Journal also reports that 
another was gathered on Mr. T. Percivall’s farm at Dud- 
dington, which measured forty-six inches round, sixteen inches 
across, and weighed two and three quarter pounds. 
Cattle Population of Holland. — Holland is said to 
comprise an area of at least 12,000 square miles, and to pos- 
sess, according to recent agricultural returns, 1,400,000 cattle. 
— Correspondent to the North British Agriculturist. 
Number of Licensed Dogs in Great Britain. — 
We learn from official sources that during the first half of 
1871 the number of licences issued for keeping dogs amounts 
in England to 951,501, and in Scotland to 119,671, making 
a total of 1,071,172. This number exceeds, but only very 
slightly, the licences for the year 1870. 
A Novel Use for Asphalte Pavement. — It appears 
that during the siege of Paris the asphalte pavement was 
