206 Agricultural Education qnd Forestry Exhibition , 1906. 
the gold tail moth ( Porthesia auriflua ), &c. From the 
Veterinary Department of the College were sent exhibits 
illustrating the parasites of sheep, including round worms 
{Strong glided), and types of horse shoes and preparations 
connected with the foot of the horse in health and disease. 
Midland Agricultural and Dairy College, Kingston, Derby. — 
The College sent a series of pots showing the results of experi- 
ments to test the effects of superphosphate and salt upon the 
germination of seed. The experiments show that salt, if 
applied at the time of sowing, has an injurious effect upon 
. germination, and that, if so applied, considerable risk is run 
of losing the plant in the event of a troublesome germinating 
period. Salt or saline manures should therefore be applied 
a month or two before sowing the seed. Other experiments 
with barley indicated the desirability of sowing artificial 
manures broadcast rather than with the seed in the drill, in 
which case it was liable to affect injuriously the germination. 
Specimens were shown of lucerne seeds, containing diseased 
seeds of a dark colour affected by some fungus. Considerable 
risk was incurred in sowing these seeds, as they could not 
be relied upon to germinate satisfactorily. Experiments are 
being carried on at the College in the raising of new varieties 
of potatoes of which one- and two-year-old seedlings Avere 
shown in pots. Of some of the varieties tested, good saleable 
tubers have been obtained Avithin four years of the sowing of 
the potato seed. 
The problem of nitrogen-assimilation, continues to receive 
a great deal of attention at the College, and the new inoculation 
cultures from the United States and Germany have been the 
subject of careful investigation. Tares, peas, alsike, lucerne, 
and red clover were shown growing in pots containing boiled, 
sterilised quartz sand. The effect of inoculating the soil in 
these pots with pure cultures of nitrifying bacteria, obtained 
from Dr. Hiltner, of Munich, was shown to be greatly 
beneficial. A new system of inoculation by mixing dried 
sterilised soil with crushed healthy nodules containing nitrify- 
ing bacteria, as found on the roots of leguminous plants, is 
being tried at the College. 
A series of cultures Avas shown consisting of dairy bacteria 
and moulds, some being essential to the production of good 
cheese, others having injurious properties. It is now usual 
to inoculate the milk Avith the organism that gives a cheese its 
distinctive flavours and to impregnate artificially the cheese- 
room Avith the mould without which, for instance, the success- 
ful manufacture of Camembert cheese is impossible. Another 
collection of exhibits illustrated the investigation of abnormal 
dairy produce, cases of animal poisoning, &c., as undertaken 
