Vol. III. No. G-t. 



THE AGKICULTUEAL NEWS. 



313 



i 



I 



Exports of Hayti. 



The AniiiKil Ri'paii on the trade of Hayti has 

 recently been issued. The principal e.xjjorts of the 

 republic are coffee, cacao, logwood, yellow wood (fustic), 

 guiac (lignum vitae), cotton, wax, cocoa-nuts, etc. The 

 principal maiket for these products is at Havre. The 

 e.'cports of coffee and yellow wood show a decrease, 

 while cacao, logwood, and guiac were exported in 

 greater quantities than in the previous year. There 

 was an increase in the cultivation of cotton, and the 

 outi^ut was much augmented. The shipments of 

 cotton are expected to reach 4,000,000 tb. in 1904. 



It is reported that there are no signs of any 

 agricultural progress : the principal articles of export 

 are allowed to grow wild, and it is onl}' at harvest time 

 that any attention is paid to them. 



^^•"♦-•^ — 



Sugar-cane Experiments in British Guiana. 



From the progress i-eport on experiments with 

 varieties of sugar-cane in British Guiana, published in 

 this and the preceding issue of the AgriciUtmvi 

 Nenv, it will be seen that experiments have been 

 conducted on twenty-four plantations, the principal 

 varieties, other than the Bourbon, being the White 

 Transparent, D. 109, and B. 147. 



Very good results have been obtained with D. &25, 

 in respect not only of its yield of sugar but also of its 

 ratooning powers, its milling qualities, and the quality 

 of its megass as fuel. This cane and also D. 109 are 

 therefore rec(3mmende(l to cane farmers for trial. 



The juclds of some varieties — D. 74, the White 

 Transparent, and D. 78 — have fallen off, and the 

 further extension of their cultivation is not recom- 

 mended. 



Cacao in the Dutch East Indies. 



An article in iJcr Ti'<iiH>npjixi.itzer for August 

 gives an account of the position of the cacao industry 

 in Java and other Dutch islands in the East Indies. 



The cultivation is not carried on to a large extent, 

 but trees are found in gardens and in mixed planta- 

 tions. The product is worked up by Chinese labourers. 



The trunks of older trees suffer from the canker 

 disease (? Nedrla sp.), young twigs are killed by the 

 so-called ' djamur upas ' disease, and pods are darkened 

 (? by Pliytoplhthora). Pods are also bored by caterpil- 

 lars of a small moth, and are attacked by several 

 other insects : the plants also suffer much from leaf- 

 eating insects. 



The exports of cacao from Java have increased 

 from about '-5.50 tons in 1890 to about 1,200 tons in 

 1903; in 1902 the yield was only about 800 tons, and 

 in 1901 it was about 1,100 tons. The other islands, 

 Celebes and the Moluccas, export verj^ little. 



The yield is small, working out at less than j If), 

 of marketable product per tree. According to 

 Dr. Zehnter, this is due, in part, to the fact that cacao 

 is only planted in land that cannot be used for coffee, 

 in part to irrational treatment of the plants and the 

 consequent loss by insects and diseases. Most of the 

 ■ cacao is exported to Holland. 



Cotton Cultivation in St. Vincent. 



_We are glad to observe that in St. Vin'.x-nt 

 considerable interest is being taken in cotton cultivation. 



Reference has been made in the Agricultural 

 Nuiv-s (Vol. Ill, p. 261) to the establishment in the 

 island of a Cotton Growers' Association. A meeting 

 of this body was hold on September 5, ^vhen 

 important business was transacted. A letter was read 

 from the Governor in which his Excellency consented 

 to become the President of the Association, and another 

 from the Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture 

 recognizing the Association as a representative 

 agricultural body of the island. It is evident that such 

 a strongly organized body as the St. Vincent Cotton 

 (Growers' A.s.sociation will be of the greatest value in 

 furthering the interests of cotton growers. 



In our last issue we gave a list of fixtures which 

 had been arranged in St. Vincent for the illustrated 

 lectures on cotton growing. From reports received by 

 last mail we learn that several of these lectures had 

 been given and had, on the whole, been well attended. 



West Indian Bulletin. 



The second number of A'olume V of the West 

 Indian Bulletin (issued to-day) contains a number of 

 interesting articles. Notes upon a variety of West 

 Indian fodder plants have been collected and are 

 published. These notes will supfjlement the paper 

 by the Hon. Francis Watts in a previous issue of the 

 We^it Indian Bidletin (Vol. Ill, pp. 3.53-G2). 



The article on 'Cold Storage of Fruit' contains 

 the most recent information on the stibject of the 

 transportation of fruit, which has been obtained from 

 experts connected with the fruit trade. In view of 

 the efforts that are at the present time being made to 

 establish a fruit trade between several of these islands 

 and the United Kingdom, this article is likely to be of 

 particular interest. 



The next article deals fully with the 'Bacterial 

 Rot of Onions,' previously referred to in the Agri- 

 cultural News (Vol. Ill, p. 245). 



Attempts have been made in the West Indies to 

 introduce the cultivation of the Date Palm (Phoenix 

 davtijlifera). Suckers have been obtained from 

 Algeria and planted out in Jamaica and Trinidad. An 

 account of these and other experiments is given, as 

 also a summarized description of the methods of 

 cultivating the date palm in Northern Africa and 

 the Persian Gulf region. 



The next article is devoted to the ' Sisal Hemp 

 Industry.' This article gives a complete account of the 

 establishment of this industry in the Bahamas; 

 references are also made to the successful cultivation 

 of sisal in the Caicos Islands. 



The concluding article is an interesting description, 

 by Mr. L. Lewtoii-Brain, B.A., F.L.S., of the ' West 

 Indian Anthracnose of Cotton.' Mr. Lewton-Brain's 

 paper, which is illustrated by a number of drawings, 

 shows that this disease is caused bj' a variety of the 

 fungus iColletotricJiAini gussypii), which is the cause of 

 the American anthracnose. 



