OTAGO AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL SOCIETY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1851, 17 August 1893, Page 8

OTAGO AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL SOCIETY.

The first monthly meeting of the new com* mitfcee of the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Society, held in the secretary's office on Saturday, wss attended by Messrs Patrick (president, in the chair), Pattullo (vice-president), W. H. Taggart, R. Campbell, W. D. Stewart, J. B. Reid, Mark Sinclair, R. Charters, J. W. Wright, K. B. Ferguson, Robert Gawn,' J, Duthie, W. D Sutherland, and W. C. Smith.

After disposing of correspondence, which included a strong protest against the Noxious Weeds Bill now before Parliament and confirming the lease of Tahuna Park to the Tahuna Recreation Company, the horse parade was fixed to be held at Tahuna Park on Tuesday, the 26th September, and the usual Parade Committee was appointed to carry out details. A Programme Committee was appointed, with,' instructions to prepare a draft programme for approval of next monthly meeting. Finance and Grounds Committees were appointed, also canvassers for getting in subscriptions from town and country districts.

The question of holding an autumn show some time in March for butter, cheese, grain, roots, &c, at which Messrs M 'Nairn's Challenge Cup for cheese might be competed for, was remitted to a sub-committee to report to next meeting. It was suggested that this show might be held' in one of the halls in town, and that it might be arranged in conjunction with the Horticultural Society's Autumn Show. •

The Vice-pbesident (Mr Pattullo) suggested that the society should undertake a series of experiments in connection with the growth of. turnips by the aid of artificial manures' on the same lines as the Highland and Agricultural Society's annual tests. The suggestion was cordially received, and a sub-committee appointed to arrange for experimental plots being established in different farming centres throughout Obago, the results ,to be published in the autumn of 1894.

Disease Germs wr Plants. — According to Dr Charrin, of the Academic dcs Sciences, pathogenic microbes (or disease germs) which are injurious to animals may also prove so to plants, being equally pathogenic for the vegetable and animal kingdoms. It is true that the envelopes of plant leaves offer greater resietanco to the entrance of microbes into the circulatory system or cells than does the epidermis of animals. Still, the poisoning micro-organisms may set up morbid physiological phenomena in both plants and animals, the physiological action apparently being similar in both kingdoms. This somewhat uncomfortable theory opens up a wide field for speculation in the study of epidemology.