188 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



June 4, 1904. 





GLEANINGS. 



The Hon. C. Avtluir Sliand ^vrites fniin Nevis: 'Tlie 

 fiivst shipment of cotton 1ms turned out reniarkaljly well and 

 the prices realized vary from Is. 3(7. to Is. id. per U).' 



Agricultural Day Scliolarslups at the Antigua Grammar 

 School of the value of £10 each a j-ear have been awarded 

 to Hugh Henry and Norman L. Yearwood. 



Mr. T. J. Harris, Agricultural Instructor and A.ssistant 

 Superintendent at Hope Gardens, .Jamaica, has been selected 

 for the post of Superintendent of Tublic Gardens in Bermuda. 



The value of cotton and cotton seed exported from 

 Egypt in 1903 amounted to £17,178,'200, which rei>resents 

 about 89 per cent, of the total exports. {Board of Trade 

 Journal.) 



In Sicily small or damaged lemons are utilized for the 

 manufacture of essence from the peel and concentrated juice 

 from the jmlp. After the juice is expressed, the residue is 

 fed to scats. 



The plot of land at the Mico Training College, Jamaica, 

 that was dug by the teachers attending the agricultural 

 course of training held in January last, is to be utilized by 

 the students of that institution for cotton cultivation. 



Unquestionably the most important industry in the 

 Bahamas is that of the sponge fishery. During last year 

 1,292,037 lb. of sponges, valued at £94,821, were e.xported, 

 over .50 per cent, going to the United States. {Board of 

 Trade Journal.) 



As showing the method of arranging the price to lie 

 paid for canes at central factories, we (piote the following 

 from the St. Croix Avis : — ' The factory sugar price was 

 fixed on Monday at $1-48 per 100 It), of sugar, which, at 

 5J, H). per 100, is equal ti^ 8-14c. jier 100 lb. of canes.' 



At the last meeting of the Nevis Agricultural Society 

 it was decided to hold an agricultural show under the 

 auspices of the Society at the end of the jn-esent year or the 

 beginning of the next. It was also decided to celebrate 

 Arbor Day on the King's birthday. 



According to the report on British Guiana for the year 

 1903, the balata indu.stry was particularly successful, the 

 amount of the gum obtained for the year being .540,800 Iti., 

 or .50,3.57 Iti. in excess of the highest return ever reached in 

 any f>ne year. 



The importation of kapok again shows a marked 

 increase, the total for the Netherlands amounting to .51,918 

 bales in 1903, as against 45,551 in the previous year. The 

 prices range at present thus : e.xtra cleaned East India, 5|(/. 

 to 5ld. per lb. ; first quality East India, 5d. to o|rf.; 

 uncleaned East Indiei, 15rf. to 14(7. {Considar Bejwrf on trade 

 of Amsterdam.) 



Official statistics show that the orange and lemon 

 harvest of Italy for the year 1903-4 was a most abundant 

 one, about 5,250,000,000 fruits having been gathered, 

 compared with 4,900,000,000 in 1902-3. {Chamher of 

 Coiiinierce Journal, May 1904.) 



The Jamaica Leader of May 13 contains an interesting 

 little article on the ground dove. It is stated that before the 

 introduction of the mungoose this bird used to make its 

 nest on the ground : now it builds jirincipally upon low 

 shrubs. This adaptation to new conditions has probably- 

 saved the ground dove from extinction. 



According to the I'harmaceuticul Journal of April 30, 

 a i>aper has recentlj' been pidilished in which it is shown 

 that the seeds of Stropkaiithus f/ratus are probably the best 

 •source of the drug strojihanthin. The official seeds are 

 those of S. /u'sjiitlu.'i {' Kombe ') ; but, it is pointed out, these 

 are not easily obtained pure in commerce. iS'.r/?'rt'?(.s occurs 

 commonly in the English, French and German territories of 

 tropical Africa. 



Prof. K. Dwight Sanderson, State Entomologist for 

 Texas, writes in the Entoniokxjical Neivs : ' The work of the 

 Division of Entomology of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture and of the State Entomologist has resulted in 

 demonstrating practicable methods of fighting the cotton boll 

 weevil and the boll worm, and it is now largely a question 

 of getting the cotton planters to adopt the improved methods 

 of culture fiutlined.' 



According to the Consular Hejwrt on the trade of Iquitos 

 (Brazil) for 1903, the total exports of rubber from Iquitos 

 including Caballo Cocha and Leticia were 803,953 R). Owing 

 to the great rise in price of rubber, the diflference in value is 

 far greater, showing an increase on last year of £238,000, 

 the total value being £650,000 as compared with £412,000 

 last year. Over 60 per cent, of the export were shipped to 

 Liverpool, the remainder going to Havre. 



During the last ten years the importation into Balti- 

 more from Jamaica of oranges, limes, bananas and other 

 fruits has reached large proi)ortions. During a single week 

 of the past year nine steamers arrived bringing the enormous 

 number of 199,010 bunches of bananas, besides other fruits. 

 Owing to the hurricane in Jamaica of last August, however, 

 the trade is at present [March 7, 1904] almost completely 

 stopjied, and it will be some months before it is resumed. 

 {Consular Report on trade ff Marj/land, etc.) 



We extract the following from the annual rejiort of the 

 Headmaster of the Lodge School, Barbados : 'The new 

 science class room and physical ajiiiaratus have, I feel 

 confident, proved of great benefit to the school in providing 

 more scope both for teaching and for learning. And the 

 substitution in the junior .school of classes in elementary 

 physics for the former weekly lectures on chemistry (a change 

 which I have introduced in higher forms this year) is already 

 showing good results in developing habits of observation and 

 some degree of manual cleverness.' 



