TULIP-BOOT. 
41 
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condition of the Oat crops at the Highland and Agricultural Society’s 
Experimental Station at Pumpherston, reported on the occasion of the 
annual visit by members of the Society, as it is of great interest 
regarding the use of phosphates in connection with “Tulip-root” 
disease. I am obliged to the Editors of the ‘ North Brit. Agriculturist ’ 
for a copy of these notes which a^^peared in the above Journal:— 
“ The crop this year is Oats after Beans. Owing to the excessive 
drought this season the Station, in common with many fields under 
Oats, has suffered considerably, so that what is called by farmers 
‘ Tulip-root ’ is somewhat prevalent. The observations drawn from 
this disease on the Station show that where the most liberal applica¬ 
tion of manures was made the disease was at its lowest, while those 
parts of the Station from which manures of a certain kind had been 
withheld, or only sparsely laid on, were most affected by the disease. 
The best plots on the Station were those to which soluble phosphate 
had been applied. Amongst undissolved phosphates bone-meal was, 
upon the whole, most effective ; but there was little difference between 
dissolved phosphates from any source. Muriate of potash has this 
year produced a better result than sulphate. Amongst other manures, 
fish-guano, which hitherto has not been prominent, has produced one 
of the best crops on the Station, and nearly free from disease. Dr. 
Aitken suggested that this was probably due to the residue which had 
been left in the ground from the manuring of former years, this plot 
having been noticed to be improving year after year. The plots 
manured with superphosphates show, as in former years, that it is not 
advantageous to use phosphates whether too little or too highly 
dissolved.” 
The following notes, with the illustrative sketch-map accompanying, 
show attack occurring in two fields (in two different years), on areas 
so perfectly regular in form that the two strips might have been 
separated by a ruled line from the rest of the fields. Mr. Dundas, 
after noting that he had heard of four fields in the neighbourhood 
affected by “ Tulip-root,” remarked :— 
“ I enclose a tracing of part of my farm on which the disease has 
appeared, this year and also last year. On the plan the places marked 
in brown are those affected. You will see its course last year in the 
field marked 1885. This year the three adjoining fields marked 1886 
have been under Oats, but only one of the three has been affected, the 
crop being Oats after Turnip. I have made every enquiry about the 
dunging, especially asking if the.disease had been noticed, on however 
small a scale, in the years before 1885-86, but I am assured it had 
not been noticed ; because in that case the infection might have been 
given to the land through diseased straw in the dung. Further, my 
steward has marked in the affected field 1886 the direction of the 
