Vol. III. No. 48. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



51 



Antigua Central Sugar Factory. 



The following preliminary notice, signed by the 

 Hon. Francis Watts, Chairman of the Central Sugar 

 Factories Board, appeared in the Lecivard /•>.•/« ?!(?•'>• 

 Gazette of January 21, 1904 :— 



Under an agreement recently entered into between the 

 Government of this Presidency and the owner of the 

 Belvidere estates, arrangements have been made wliereby 

 sugarrcanes grown by jieasants, u]) to an aggregate amount 

 of 1,500 tons in a year, will be purchased at Bendal's 

 Works on the following conditions : — 



Payment will be made for canes on a sliding scale, 

 •which will be published shortly. The jirice is never to be 

 less than 7s. 6d. per ton for good canes. 



Canes to be accepted must be clean, sound and ripe. 

 They are to be delivered at Bendal's Works. 



Peasants desiring to sell canes to the Bendal's Factory 

 must give timely notice to the Manager of the Factory 

 of their intention to send canes. 



Detailed particulars, as to the conditions under which 

 canes will be received and paid for, may be obtained on 

 ai>i>lication to tlie Manager of Bendal's Factory or to the 

 Chairman of the Central Sugar Factories Board. 



Cane-farming in British Guiana. 



The West India Committee Cireular o^ Sixnwiwy 5, 

 after referring to the progress of cane-farming in 

 Trinidad, gives the following account of what is being 

 done in this conne.xion in British Guiana : — 



For some time past efforts have been made to start 

 a similar industry in British Guiana, but the conditions 

 regarding drainage, transiiort, etc., in that colony have been 

 such as to retard the development of cane-farming hitherto. 

 It will be noted with satisfaction, however, from the figures 

 given below, for which we are indebted to Mr. F. I. Scard, 

 of British Guiana, that some substantial progress has been 

 made during the past three years. The figures show : — 



1903. 1900. 



Essequibo (including Wakenaam) 580 45 



Demerara 308 26 



Berbice 130 



1,018 



71 



These figures represent the acreage of peasant farmers' 

 Ciues dealt with by fifteen estates. The canes are mostly 

 paid for by the jmnt load, at a price equal to about 8s. per 

 ton, or by the gallon in one or two instances. Three estates 

 adopt a sliding scale of price, according to the value of 

 96 per cent, crystals in Georgetown. Land for the purpose 

 is provided by the estates in eight cases. In the Essequibo 

 district and in one instance in Demerara, the managers speak 

 encouragingly of the industry. The figures given do not 

 include canes supplied in quantity by the eni[)loyers of 

 labour, but merely those grown by the individual exertions 

 of the peasantry. The growth of the industry has been 

 considerable, but it is much to be feared that the present 

 low price of sugar will affect its immediate future very 

 prejudicially. In Demerara the cost of canes, at 8s. per 

 ton, to make a ton of sugar, would be somewhere about £5, 

 leaving a loss to the manufacturer, while a reduction of price, 

 in the present position of the industry, would, it is feared, 

 effectually discourage the farmers. 



BACTERIA AND THE NITROGEN 

 PROBLEM. 



A i)aper on this subject, by Mr. George T. Moore, 

 Physiol ogist-in-Charge of the Laboratory of Plant Physiology, 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, was [lublished in the Yearbook of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture for 1902. 



The author first points out the importance of nitrogen 

 to plants, which often overshadows that of j)otash or of 

 phosjihates, etc. He goes on to de.scribe the ways in which 

 nitrogen is lost, the princijial being the waste due to modern 

 .sewage methods, the action of denitrifying bacteria, the 

 washing out of soluble nitrogenous salts from the soil by 

 rain, etc. 



To supply this waste we have the supplies of nitrate of 

 soda in Chili and Peru, which are, however, rapidly 

 becoming exhausted ; the deposits of guano, which are also 

 nearlj- exhausted, and the suljihate of ammonia obtained in 

 the distillation of coal. There finally remains the nitrogen 

 of the atmosphere. Many attempts have been made to 

 combine this nitrogen with oxygen artificially, and to 

 convert the compounds formed into nitrates, but none of 

 them have yet been successful. Certain soil bacteria are 

 known, which are able, while living independently, to fix 

 atmo.spheric nitrogen. Attemjits have been made to inoculate 

 soils with these bacteria, but the results have not been 

 uniformly successful, and the matter is still in an experi- 

 mental stage. 



There are, again, the bacteria which inhabit the nodules 

 on the roots of leguminous plants. Leguminous plants 

 possessed of these nodules are able to flourish and produce 

 seed in soils, which are absolutely devoid of nitrogen, the 

 necessary supplies of this element being taken from the air. 

 There are, however, certain regions in which the soil does 

 not contain the right kind of bacteria, and in which, 

 therefore, no tubercles are formed on the roots of leguminous 

 crops, and no nitrogen is absorbed from the atmosphere. 



Cultures of these organisms have been prepared for the 

 purpose of introducing them into the soil, the cultures being 

 put ui( in tubes and sold as ' nitragin.' Cultures of 

 special varieties of bacteria were prejiared for each kind of 

 leguminous crop. Here again, however, the results of 

 inoculating the soil were usually disappointing. Investi- 

 gations, made in the laboratory of plant physiology of 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry, have led to better results. 

 By the use of proper media artificial cultures have been 

 made, which have proved quite successful in inoculating 

 soils. The cultures are made on liquid media, which are 

 soaked up in some absorlient material and then allowed 

 to dry. These dry cultures retain their vitality for months. 

 To use them, they are mixed up with a large quantity 

 of water and the bacteria are left for a time to revive 

 and multiply. The water containing the bacteria is then 

 either applied to the soil, or the seeds to be sown are 

 soaked in it before being planted. The trials have been 

 made on a large scale, with very satisfactory results. 



Practical Pollination. Mr. Davidson, of Fanners, 

 Wickam Bishops, Essex, described an ingenious method of 

 artificial fertilization of flowers as follows : — ' I have 

 adopted a method of economizing pollen, the ordinary camel's- 

 hair brush being very wasteful. If a stick of sealing-wax be 

 rubbed briskly on the coat-sleeve, as for electrical experiment, 

 and then presented to the flower, the pollen flies to it and 

 adheres. Every particle can thus be utilized far more easily 

 than with a brush.' (Journal of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, October 1903.) 



