116 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



April 9, 1^04. 



WEST 



INDIAN 



FRUIT. 



FRUIT GROWING IN MEXICO. 



The following notes on the fruit-growing industry 

 are taken from the Consular Beport un Mexico for 

 1902 :— 



The cultivation of fruits and vegetaLle.s, either for 

 home consumption or even for export, has so far received 

 very little attention from foreigners except jierhaps in the 

 State of Nuevo Leon, near Motemorelos, where large tracts 

 are given up to the cultivation of oranges, which are readily 

 exported across the border to the United States, where they 

 find a ready market and are in as great favour as the oranges 

 from Florida and California. 



In the State of Vera Cruz there are a few foreigners 

 who have tried the growing of fruits for preserving and for 

 drying, with very fair results; and also in the State of .Jalisco 

 a factory has been established for the same oTject, and 

 since the establishment of a large meat-packing house in the 

 town of Urua}iam, in the State of Michoacan, several new 

 industries have been inaugurated in that State. 



THE CULTIVATION OF PINE-APPLES IN 

 THE MALAY STATES. 



The A(jrk-aUaral Bi'Ilcflu <>/ the Straitx and 

 Federated Malay Slates for January contains an 

 article on pine-apple cultivation. Much of theinfoinia- 

 tion is taken from various West Indian publications, 

 but the following extracts are of special interest as 

 indicating the practice of pine-apple growers in the 

 east : — 



The soil used for pine-apple culture in Singapore is the 

 ordinary stiff clay soil of the small hills which cover the 

 island. ^lost of these hills have been jireviously used for 

 pepper and gambler, and then abandoned, and often arc 

 covered with low secondary scrub which is burnt and the 

 grouml dug over before planting. The soil is usually very 

 poor, especially in potash, phosphates and lime, liiclier soil 

 does not seem to suit the iiine-apple lietter; but the plant 

 does not appear to be very (larticular as to its habit so long 

 as the soil is free and open, and not danq) or low-lying. 



The best plan is to plant [lines in rows, 2 J feet apart, 

 with a .5-foot path between every three or four rows. In any 

 case the plants .should not be more than 2i to 3 feet apart. 



The fields require careful weeding, but are not gener- 

 ally manured here. The first jiines are produced from the 

 suckers in from twelve to eighteen months. After the 

 ripe fruit is removed, the suckers should be cut out leaving 



only two or three of the strongest. If all the suckers are 

 left, they will pro<luce fruits next croj), perhaps as many as 

 a dozen, but the fruits will be small. If only one or two are 

 left, the fruits will be much larger. 



There are three crops in the year, Novendjcr to Decem- 

 ber, February and March and the biggest in .June and Jul}-, 

 but the crops depend very nuich on the rainfall. When 

 there is a spell of dry weather of long duration the pines do 

 not fruit. 



A iiroperly cared-for estate, as cultivated in the Straits 

 Settlements, lasts five or si.x years, but the junes gradually 

 get smaller. If neglected it lasts but two or three 3'ears. 



Manure is not commonly used in the Malay I'eninsula 

 on the large estates, but the Chinese occasionally a[iiply 

 a small (piantity of cow dung, burnt earth, etc. For tinning 

 jiines, wliich require to be cheap, it would not be worth 

 while to go to the expense of manuring. 



THE WEST INDIES AND NATURAL 

 HISTORY. 



The St. Thomas Tid>'ii(/< <A' ]\larcli Id reviews 

 a pam])hlet by Dr. Mortensen and ^Ir F. BJirgensen 

 entitled : ' The Im):)ortance of the West Indies for Danish 

 researches in Natural History.' The following extracts 

 are of interest : — 



The authors state : ' -V beginning can, however, lie 

 made now, and that without any great expense; and it is 

 just Denmark, which, through her famous naturalist. Otto 

 Fr. Muller, has had the honour of making the first investiga- 

 tions into the animal life of the ocean bed, that ought also 

 to have the honour of being the pioneer in the sphere of 

 research in the deep ocean. For we have in our West Indian 

 Colonies a place which is prejiared by Nature herself for this 

 tmrpose.' Final!}', the authors conclude that Dciunark, 

 which has alreadj' an important biological station connectetl 

 with her fisheries, needs a laboratory for the study of the 

 animal and plant life of the ocean, and that the best place 

 for such a station would be on the north side of St. Croix, 

 near Christiausted. 



Rainfall at Antigua. Tlie returns of rainfall in 

 Antigua for I'JOo have been published liy the Hon. Francis 

 Watts in the Lcewurd Idands Gazette of ^March 10. The 

 average monthly rainfall for 1903 (mean of 68 stations) wa-s 

 4368 inches. The average rainfall at Antigua for thirty 

 years, from 1874 to 1903 (inclusive), was 46'33 inches, so 

 that the rainfall for 1903 was 2Go below the average. 



