342 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



October 22, 1904. 



NOTES FROM EAST AFRICA. 

 Mr. Henry Powell, tormerly Curator of the Botauiu 

 Station at St. Vincent, now Assistant in the Agri- 

 cultural Department of British East Africa, has 

 forwarded the following notes which are of interest to 

 agriculturists in the West Indies : — 



Ravenala viaditgrn^cdfiensu. — The fruiting ' Travellei-.-*' 

 palm ' at the Botanic Station, 8t. Vincent, was raised in 1890 

 from seed received from the Royal Garden.s, Kew. Only one 

 other ' Travellers' palm,' established at the station, was 

 raised from seed — the others being either imiiorted from 

 Trinidad, or grown from suckers. 



Puisiflora idulis. — This is very common at Nairobi and 

 in other parts of East Africa. It yields an abundant crop of 

 delicious fruit, and seed can readily be obtained here, for the 

 West Indies, if desired. 



When in London recently the writer took notes at the 

 Natural History Museum on niungoose, agouti, and 

 manacou, these animals having been familiar to him at 

 St. Vincent. 



JIun;/oost. — The mungoose so common in St. Vincent 

 appeared to he closely allied to one labelled East Africa nr 

 dusty mungoose (Herpesles jmlvertdentus). 



Other similar nuingoose were Ceylon mungoose {Htrjjes- 

 Us fulvesctits) and Indian mungoose {Herpestes iimngo). 



The white-tailed Xatal mungoose {Herpestea alhicdwlii) 

 is 3 feet in length and a foot high. 



A label on the case stated that ' all are deadly foes to 

 snakes but succumb if bitten, their agility saving them.' 



In the Nairobi district there are several species "f 

 mungoose including one with a white tail. The ' Putf Adder' 

 {Bitif Gabonic(i) and other deadly snakes are fairly connnon 

 around Nairobi, but as these usually make their homes in 

 holes in the ground, the mungoose has a move difticult task 

 to kill them than in the West Indies. 



Agouti. — The agouti {Dasi/jnocta agoutis, or agutis). — 

 These are labelled ' Rodents ' and there are said to be ten 

 known species, all nocturnal. 



Manacou. — This is classed with the opossums. 

 A specimen labelled Diilelphys Marmpialis from Florida, 

 closely resembled the St. Vincent manacou, but the first- 

 named was somewhat larger and greyer in colour. 



Palm Nut Ci-arl-ing Jfachiiie. — At the Imperial Insti- 

 tute the writer saw one of these machines tested, and was 

 convinced that by means of this machine the nuts of 

 the Gri-Gri palm of St. Vincent could be turned to account. 

 The makers are Adam Knox &, Sons, Engineers, Glasgow. 

 It is known that the fibre obtained from the leaflets of 

 this palm is among the finest and strongest in the world, 

 but is difficult to extract. 



Cotton Industri/. — The writer is very pleased at the 

 success of the cotton industry in St. Vincent and trusts that 

 planters and others there are very largely increasing the area 

 under cotton this year. East Africa with its thousands of 

 acres of cotton land will be in tlie field in a year or two, and 

 it should be the aim of the St. Vincent comnuinity to grow 

 only the best [lossible kind, as reconnnended by the Imperial 

 Department of Agriculture. 



JOB'S TEARS AS A POULTRY FOOD. 



Un p. 275 of this vulunic of the AyrlvidiLiral 

 Neivs we published some information from the Agri- 

 cidturdl Ledijfii' in regard to the use of 'Job's tears' 

 as a famine food. It appears that these seeds are used 

 in Jamaica for feeiiing poultrj-, and the following noto 

 by ]Mr. H. H. Cousins, M.A., F.C.8., appears in the 

 Bulletin of the Departineni of Agricultare, Jamnic-.i. 

 for September : — 



The seeds of Coij: Lacryma-Johi, pojiularly known as 

 Job's tears, are used as food for poultry-, and two samples 

 have been submitted to the laboratory for analysis. 



The outer husk is very hard and the seeds nuist be 

 crushed before being fed to the fowls. The digestible 

 portion is mainly starch, and this food cannot be recom- 

 mended for laying fowls. It should, however, prove a useful 

 material for feeding to poultry in process of fattening for 

 the table. 



The analytical data as deternuned by !Mr. H. S. 

 Hammond, F.C.S., are as follows : — 



Constituents. (1) (2) 



■ Nitrogen 



119 



1-05 



It would appear that the above figures are for 

 iinhusked seeds, and this fact mast be borne in mind 

 in comparing these results w-ith those previously 

 published for Indian seeds, where the analyses of 

 kernels are given. 



SISAL HEMP INDUSTRY IN THE CAICOS 

 ISLANDS. 



In the llV.s-^ LiiHiiii Halldiii (Vol. V, no. 2) an 

 account was given of the progress of the sisal hemp 

 industry in the Bahamas and the Caicos Islands. 

 On ]i. 151 a table was published giving the value 

 of the e.xports from the Caicos Islands since 1894. 

 At the time of preparing that article we were not in 

 jjossession of the necessary information as to the 

 amount of the exports to make the table complete. 

 ^^'e have since received from the Commissioner of the 

 Turks and Caicos Islands figures which enable the 

 table to be completed as follows:— 



